"Oh no, the rooms look so small"

[Selfbuildsarah]

My lovely husband has just spent some time marking out our house design on the plot where we are hoping to build. I can't visualise easily - is it a woman thing?! First thing I said was "oh no, the rooms look so small"! My husband said that most people say that when they see the foundations. Is he right? I'm feeling a bit alarmed even though I know some of the rooms are bigger than our current home by the measurements.

[Thorfun]

yeah. he's right. in fact the apparent room sizing changes as the build progresses and change from 'too small' to 'bloody hell that's massive' back to 'it looks a bit small' to 'I think the architect got it about right'. 😉 

[ProDave]

Yes been there, done that got the tee shirt.

 

I have even hears rumours of some builders who enlarge the building having seen it is "too small" then it becomes massive when built.

[Conor]

All I'll say is our house ended far bigger than we thought/needed.

[JohnMo]

Our house

Tradesmen, seeing our slab, that house is huge.

 

Wife, it's tiny

 

Walls up, it tiny, internal walls up it's tiny, plasterboard up it's tiny.  First coat of whit paint, it's huge, did we need room that big!

[Selfbuildsarah]

So relieved folks!! Made me smile.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Selfbuildsarah
Added comment

[Bonner]

Perspective changes as the rooms grow from an outline on the ground to fully built. Even then, an empty room can look smaller than a furnished one! Make decisions on the measurements and comparison to rooms in other houses.

[markc]

If possible, try to find a room in another building a similar size and then walk around in it. As all above, the perception of size changes as the build progresses and as said, it’s not linear. Rooms feel small and much larger and smaller again etc until completion.

[Simplysimon]

a friend who worked for BT many years ago asked why they were putting a cable into a garage and was told it was a house foundation. it was for a 'box company' so understandable.