Honestly I don't remember all the stages and when it felt too big and too small, but now with it almost finished, it feels just right.

“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.” - me

Interesting.....they put the first floor sheathing on ours today and it seems HUGE! Love the last part. :) LOL

Our footing looked small when they poured it and started to stack the ICF forms. Turns out it was too small and they had to extend the footing and reset the ICF. Luckily I caught it before they poured the concrete. After that, it looked smaller than I expected up until drywall was hung. When the walls aren't up, you only have the world to establish scale. When the studs are up, you can see through the whole house, so the rooms feel small. When the drywall is up, you can start to appreciate the size of the room.

@lshack17

Your comment gave me a bit of a laugh as this is what I predict will happen for us. We are building a modified model plan from a builder and our lot requires driveway/garage on left side (when facing lot from street). The original model we planned to build on the lot, the model showhome we toured had the layout with driveway/garage on left and we loved it and specifically wanted that layout as when we looked at the reverse model, the flow did not feel right. Well, we changed the whole model home we are building on lot (I have the change order to prove it, ha) and have only been able to tour 2-3 models that are all the “reverse” from what we are building. I think it will still work out as the front door is on right, which we prefer, but everything else is “flipped”. I think it will be a little disconcerting at first! Fortunately a competitor builder has a reasonably similar floor plan, just smaller, in one of their show homes we toured so it won’t feel totally foreign! Maybe if I visit that enough times during the build mine will feel far more spacious?!

My lot is small (0.14 acres) compared to many building on here, though almost 2x size of many lots around me but it already seems kinda of small when I go look at it. Maybe as the only other house so far in that new phase is right next door and a big house for a new model build around here (3,000sq ft on first and second floors, plus full basement ) and their house takes up much of their 0.20 acre pie lot: it makes ours look smaller! Stake out is this week, and dig not long after, so I’ll have to see as I go if rest of @Mark Bischak ‘s mantra holds true!

Homes under construction appear small because you don't have familiar reference points. It helps if there are two of you, standing at opposite ends of a room, to give you familiar visual reference points. Try laying down in your new bedroom and looking at the distance from your feet to the far wall!

Mark nailed it.

@lshack17 - thank you, and very wise advice I need to keep in mind! Still looking around led us to “revise” our deal once, with a minor cost in the scope of things (builder let us change just for the cost of first permit applications, etc), but this time we are definitely past that point of no return!

First floor framing went in today - it’s amazing how different it feels! Yesterday was just the floor in place. So exciting!!

Don't even talk about it, I had reverse fear especially since my DW, DD and DS all felt I was crazy building this large home. When the site was excavated it looked big, when foundation was poured it looked bigger, when framing was done it looked even bigger and when exterior siding was done it looked crazy big; help came along following drywall then DW and DD both felt it was OK, thank the lord.

Pinebaron - that's my issue....house seems *huge* right now. Even with the walls framed now. I am sure, like was mentioned above, that when the furniture gets moved in eventually that it will seem much smaller. We are building a house that is more than double the size of our current house (2,200 sq. ft. to about 4,800 with finished walk-out basement) so it is bound to feel big to me.) :o)

It will feel somewhat smaller when walls are done. In your case you may need a home twice the size of your current one and that is fine. Just be prepared to clean it.

I just poured the foundation and to me it looks huge.

I have to admit, building a large house needs additional care and supervision while building, I should know. One can get away with minor flaws in a smaller house like in foundation, framing, walls, ceilings, especially flat ones, etc.; larger homes with several smaller rooms or multi story large homes are fine too however when you have few rooms, larger rooms and larger spaces, you are likely to have longer wall sections, longer and wider ceilings which the best framers and drywallers have trouble getting it true and right. Having said that, depending on interior decor, most flaws can be hidden behind paintings, coffered ceilings, exposed beams, cabinets and a million other things; remove those million other things and it gets much harder, yep, that's our home.

This is SO true! I was just writing a blog post that included this fact in it. Your house will feel very small at the framing stage. Once the drywall goes up, your rooms will feel bigger. Caroline on Design

We are done with framing and our house is close to the road and looks huge to me! I was always worried when I was designing it that, that would be an issue. I am hopeful that when there is landscaping and siding it will push everything back in space- fingers crossed.

Tenisha B - just curious if the sheetrock changed the appearance of the size? We have ours going up in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to see what it looks like then!! :o)

Too small when I saw the foundation. When the exterior logs started going up with nothing inside, way too large. It goes back and forth, back and forth, and hopefully ends up just right...

Tenisha - no....it got pushed back and is now scheduled to start next Monday! Hopefully once you get some color on the walls and furniture moved in, it will be just right! :)