I thought the house seemed way too small with the foundation in. However, framing made the house seem really big to me (especially as you can see through walls).

We just went through the same thing! They dug the hole poured the footings and I kept saying to my other half that either we messed up when drawing up the plans or they misread everything and shrunk it down! Then they starting framing and it felt a bit better. Now the framing is done and the roof is almost complete and it feels and looks right. Guess that means I can put away my measuring tape and relax a little!

Good luck with your build and enjoy the process.

Our GC told us several times before and during construction that size will seem very elastic at different stages. He was right!
Bare foundation seemed huge.
During framing, everything felt small.
When sheathed (OSB out, drywall in), seemed huge again.
It's an odd phenomenon.

A builder came to our site, and put down 4 corners for a rough 36x48 rectangle (salt box) home. He stepped back, and said to me "looks huge, doesn't it?". I thought the exact opposite!! Looked perfect/small honestly. DF also thought it looked huge.

Oh my gosh YES! When our foundation was poured it looked SO small to me. Then I heard this story... my husband's parents were building their home (my father in law was the builder). They had a 2yo, a 1yo and my mother in law was pregnant with twins.. he brought her to look at the site after they had poured the foundation, and she sobbed. It looked so small. The house is almost 10,000 sq feet! They lived there for 40 years with plenty of room. But yes, I think it can look very small with just the concrete pad. :)

Yes! Absolutely agree with you. When footings and foundation were put up, I kept on telling my husband the house really looks tiny. We now have walls (no sheetrock yet) and the measurements seem to be ok.

We thought for sure they'd made a mistake, so we actually measured the slab. :0. It was correct. I thought it looked tiny until drywall was up, then walking through individual rooms made it feel normal sized again. :-) Ours is 2700 sf living.

Our excavation seemed enormous!

It wasn't until the foundation was poured that it started to come back within scale.

But once that was done, I never did feel that it got smaller. I had the house so set in my mind that it was like seeing my mental picture come to life, just as I had imagined it. It was fabulous.

good to read these replies. it helps set my mind at ease. it's funny how we look at an area (like the breakfast nook), and say: "That doesn't look like 15 feet!" We haven't had our measuring tape out yet, but I'm sure we will, lol.

Never hurts to check...we did find some errors along the way that we were able to fix...not so much in wall layouts but in the height of the wall around our shower, the location of our prep sink come to mind....

I remember the build of our current home - the first time from scratch. After the foundation was poured and the walls poured and we were walking inside we were SURE that our house was going to be way too small (especially some rooms). we were pretty panicked at that point.

Ended up fine - not sure why it looks like that but trust your blueprints and design, it will look bigger once it's finished.

I had this same post last winter, LOL. Don't worry, it will seem small(foundation), then huge(framing), then small again(drywall), then just right in the end(cabinets, everything done)

:)