But, if at one point in the distant past, before the big bang, everything was condensed into a tiny area, how far out into space will I have to look to see the time when everything was not actually farther out in space, but was condensed into a tiny area?
You can't, you run out of time before you run out of space, at last estimation.
So, you are saying either that space started before time started, which doesn't sound possible, or that there was an empty 'buffer space' surrounding the condensed matter before the big bang? If the latter is true, how will we ever have any idea how old the universe is, because there will be no reference for how long the 'buffer space' existed before the big bang happened? Also, why would that empty 'buffer space' have expanded outward and retained its emptiness after the big bang? Wouldn't it have been filled with matter from the big bang, and then started expanding?
By extension of the theory, I should be able to view a section of the sky that is a total void.
If not, why not?
The theory is only valid if we are located in the exact center of the Universe.
Inflationary theory. In a nutshell, while it is impossible to move through space at greater than the speed of light, space itself has no such limitation. The idea is that the early universe did just that.