My kitchen seemed so tiny the entire time we were building and then when the cabinets and floors went in, wow, it then looked much bigger. It will be OK, I promise. LOL

Actually the entire house appeared smaller while being framed, but the minute the walls went up things starting taking on a new look. It's so exciting experiencing each stage of the build.

Thanks for the reassurance... That helps :)

Too funny!! I was JUST saying this to my husband today. Our house is just the foundation and radiant heat as of today. Slab won't be poured until Thursday. I swear, it looks like you can't even fit a fridge in the kitchen, a nightstand in the bedroom, or a lamp in the great room. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but you catch my drift. :-)

Our house is 2800 square feet, so not too big, not too small. I certainly hope it looks bigger when we're done!

I made my hubby stand and "pretend" to do dishes at the spot where the sink will be... just so I could see if there was enough room behind him to walk by. And there was... plenty!

Whew! I needed to hear this...I did not want a large house (boys are grown 16 & 18) but wanted a house I could fit our things and the things we kept from our parents homes. The walls went up yesterday and I really thought I messed up. The house is 2400+...again, not large, not small. But, having my first wic, I thought 6X8 would be enough...probably should have doubled that!

There was a thread about this a while back. It's an optical illusion that almost every one of us have experienced. It'll look big again once you get the drywall up! Then, after the finishing touches, it magically transforms! Saw your pictures on the other thread! Looks GREAT!!

Timely thread...
We have the exterior framed, sheeted and roof trusses up, and it looks so darn small! I've actually been worrying since the footings were poured, but have not said anything, because I don't want to stress out my poor hardworking DH.
I did measure the foundation after the builders left one day, because I was sure there was a mistake, but it's all good :)

Dawn
(who's anxiously awaiting the interior framing and an illusion of huge rooms, lol)

Because I've always loved looking at homes that were in the process of being built and following their progress, I already knew about this optical illusion and was prepared for it. Knowing DH was not, I warned him before we ever broke ground that, even though our new home will be nearly 60% bigger than the one we currently own, at the slab and framing stages it would look really small.

The warning didn't help tho. After the framing was up, he insisted that we measure every single room and compare it to the plans... a couple of times each actually! Did that calm him? Nope. A few days later - in the middle of the night - I caught him out of bed measuring the various rooms in our current house and comparing them to the sizes of the corresponding rooms in the new house. LOL!

Poor dear, I think he is still not totally convinced that the new house really is much bigger and that the GC and I aren't in cahoots with some kind of "trick measuring tape."

Thank heavens the sheet-rock is supposed to go up in about two weeks.

Thank you all for your post! I have laughed and laughed! This morning at 5:00am, 30 minutes before my alarm went off, I sat straight up and declared..." I think the plumbing was set 6 inches short." And without knowing if my DH was awake or not, HE SAT RIGHT UP and we had a 30 minute discussion about the placement of plumbing and studs. HAHA! My contractor told me yesterday, "DO not go out there everyday." I can see why!

Our house is about 3400 sq ft. and the bottom floor alone is 2300. We have lived in our 1578 sq ft house for 15 years and now we are worried if it is big enough!!! LOL

This summer before I signed on the dotted line... I went out and bought graph paper and measured all my furniture and placed everything is the rooms. I had more room than furniture.

:) Thanks for the laughs!

Ok, so we are in trouble because our house is in the framing stage and it looks BIG to us...the hole looked big, the foundation, the decking... LOL! :) Our last house was about 2200sf and our main level is about that big in this house but we are excited because the spaces feel really good. Now you guys have me a little scared that it will feel TOO big once it has been drywalled! Oh no, something else to stress over! :)

When the hole for our foundation was dug, I could not believe that my house would actually fit. When the first floor was framed it looked big to me. When the walls were framed it looked small to me. When the siding went on it looked huge to me. Now that the walls are up and painted, floors are installed, and lighting is in, everything looks just right.

Early on in the process of getting ready to build a home I read somewhere, written by an architect, that when the foundation when in and the framing went up for the first house he designed the homeowners called him frantic, having stopped the builder. They were sure soemthing was terribly wrong as the house was way too small. He learned from that experience and warns customers of it. The way he explained it makes sense: At such an early stage there's nothing human-sized to relate space to. That's why it worked for Whidbey to have her husband pretent to wash dishes. It gets better all along as windows go in at heights you can see out of etc. and especially when things like cabinets go in.
We're about to sign the construction loan for our collosal 5,200 sq ft house. I KNOW we'll freak out when we see how LARGE it looks. We designed it, scrapping two plans along the way because we were shocked at how large it needed to be to fit what we needed. The third plan proved we do need that much room. And so it goes--up soon!

Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! When our basement was dug & the block was layed, I stood in front of the house & looked at my husband & said, "that's it?" He thought I was nuts & still does. But then once they started framing it got better. THEN when they started putting the rafters up for the roof, I got this sick feeling like oh my, what have I done? It's too big!! But now, I'm perfectly happy w/ the size although I'm still scared that my spare BR's aren't big enough. Drywall isn't up yet so I hope that changes! Oh & the basement that once looked small is outrageously HUGE! My husband says he just smiles to himself everytime he goes down there (since this will be "his" area :)

Well, my dining room looks huge! HAHA

I just posted on this subject today. I didn't realize that you all had discussed this so recently. Sorry for being redundant. I am having the same reaction, though. I came home and measured our rooms here to see how big they were in comparison to our new house, etc. I am so glad this is a phenomenon b/c I would be panicked if I didn't know about it!

Our house is just now in framing, and so I am sooo glad others feel that their house looks small at this point. I've been having fits, taking the measuring tape over, measuring our bed and nightstands (and measuring the wall of the master, wondering how the heck it's going to all fit in there!). I guess it fits, but it is some BIG illusion, that's for sure.

One thing I am really not sure on is the outdoor living area. That's not framed in (unless you count the back wall of the house) and it still looks small. Sigh. Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, since there's nothing I can do about it now!

We our house was staked off, after the guys left, I remeasured. Surely it was too small... but it wasn't.

Now the foundation is mostly in, it looks small but my neighbor across the field asked, what are you building over there, a mansion? I told him it looks small to me, he said to come and look at it from his place, which I should have done but didn't.

My daughter went out with me today, and she is afraid it is too small....

So I will try to be patient and wait for the magical transformation :-)

Just wait til you get furniture in - then it'll look really small LOL! Don't buy any new furniture until it's done and you can measure, lay out traffic flow and even then, buy smaller/less furniture than what you think you can fit.

I'm so happy I read this! I'm still in the early stags of building my house, pilings were drove today... Well, the formation looks small! 1st level living is 2684, 1st level total is 3778, bonus area 470.. total project is 4248...I hope everything comes together, because right now , I just don't see it!. I'm ready to go back to the drawing board and expand rooms!

In anticipation of our build getting started, DH and I were just discussing this and reminding each other that the rooms will look much smaller when framed. It is a puzzling phenomenon, as it would seem logical that once the drywall goes up and the rooms are closed in they will appear smaller. But not true! As others have observed, a framed house looks MUCH smaller than it actually is.

It is crazy how small things look when you just have a floor (as in plywood, OSB, whatever you use) then again how small it still looks when framing. The whole time I was second guessing dimensions then at the end I'm going, "There is more than enough space in this living room." "Holy crap my bedroom is big!" "Look at how huge my kitchen is!" Haha. (In reality, my house would be a shoebox compared to the ones listed on this thread but it's a very standard size for homes in my area. 1416sq ft main floor. 2832sq ft total)

It definitely looked bigger when the drywall went on and then again with the primer but it wasn't until the flooring was in and the finished paint colours were on that it really hit for me. It will get better! Haha!

Thank goodness for this thread! We have just reached the framing stage for the main level master suite that we are adding to our vintage home, and I was having a bit of a panic about how small everything looks. I was trying to keep it to myself so as to not stress out my husband, but today, he came clean about being nervous about the size himself.

We are building this so that we can age in place in a home we love, but whose current master is up a set of steep narrow stairs - so it's an important project for us. I've been laying awake at night with anxiety about how small everything seems. Intellectually, I knew it didn't make sense since it's a 1000 square foot bedroom/bathroom/closet, but all I could think about was 'What have we done?'

Fortunately, I had a vague recollection of hearing about the optical illusion of smallness during framing, so did a quick search, and here you are!

Thank you, everyone, for putting my mind at ease!

Seriously, 1000 sq foot master suite is huge. Try having your SO stand in the same space at the far boundaries and then re assess the space. Your mind will use their size to give you more spatial cues about the actual size of the room(s).

Well...your house and rooms should be exactly the dimensioned sizes shown on the construction drawings.

Who approved those sizes?

I just came back from our construction site and I am having a panic attack. We are building a house in a very pricey area and it is slightly over 4000 sq ft. About 4600 with the garage. I am now thinking I don't want to sell out old house because the new one looks tiny even though it's about 600 sq ft larger than the old one. I am flipping out! This thread is helping me come down from the ledge!!!

Good gravy.

Omg thanks for this thread cos I'm freaking out. Building a 3000 sq ft home but everything looks so small especially the yard :( somebody pls tell me it's going to be OK.

Even though this is an old post, it is a reoccurring phenomena, so I will quote myself:

“When there is an empty site it looks perfect.

When the hole is dug it looks big.

When the foundation goes in it looks small.

When the first floor sheathing is put on it looks big.

When the stud walls go up it looks small.

When the gypsum board is installed it looks big.

When the furniture goes in it looks small.

When you write the final check it looks huge.”