Hi ellied
I posted my house on the smaller house forum. Its for houses under 2000 sq ft. Im sure you are welcome wherever you post.
cindy

Size matters??? NOT! I've see 7500 sq ft homes that won't hold a candle to 2000 sq ft ones. It's all about sharing thoughts, opinions and experiences (and the occasional dig LOL).

I ditto what breezy says. We have people on here with all sizes of homes. You can still get a lot out of this website no matter what size home you are building.

My custom house is an autonomous addition to an old family house, and is smaller than some of the garages people are building on this forum.

However, I faced the same issues of flooring, windows, tile, bathroom fixtures, kitchen appliances, doors, roofing, builder, financing, subcontractors, painting, etc., etc. etc., as the big houses. Just not in the same quantities.

You belong here too.

Claire

Okay, I'll stay. Thanks for making feel welcomed.
I am glad there are so many people here to talk with about questions I will have along the way as we build.

Yeah but I bet your yard is bigger than mine! ;c)

Seriously, claire is right...we all have to pick out things and make similar decisions. We all need a new toilet, don'cha know?

Aw, don't worry Ellie! As the others have said, we ALL face the same issues and questions regardless of the size of our house. As a city dweller myself, mine is limited to the size of our lot, which is a standard 50'x 110'.

And while small by standards on this thread, I went from this:

To the biggest house in my neighborhood:

But still very small compared to many here (1872 on main & 2nd, but full basement is also utilized as media room, pool area, bar, full bath & mechanical room, so a total of around 2800).

Be proud of your accomplishments and post pics often. I love looking at what others are doing and have done!

I'll chime in and say you are welcome too! I went through a bit of the same at 2200 sf. But we all have some common concerns like "the slab looks to small", "the rooms look too big", "I think I may have picked the wrong paint" to more complicated things like designs of porches, questions about installing roofs and flashing on the windows. You will find people who will commiserate and sympathize with you when they don't know the answer and we have a few who really do know the answers.

So it doesn't matter what size your house is or if you have granite counters or laminate or if your yard is big or small. You can hang out here and learn a lot.

...and after your build is finished...after almost two years....you'll still be here! ;)

Welcome.

oh ellie, i'm sure you know by now. size doesn't matter!

but dont be afraid to post on smaller home forum too. sometimes with a smaller house you have issues you dont have in a bigger house. I post on both.
welcome

LOL! Kateskouros

I've built homes from 600-9000+ sq ft and the problems are similar though not exaclty the same. Some folks will be worried about matching paint colors to their custom imported granite while others are wondering which color of formica will match their existing paint. Building is building, though. For me, I live in a 2000 sq ft home that I would not trade for any of the scores of larger ones I have worked on.
Enjoy what you have and where you are in life. If you have questions along the way, send them along.... there are a lot of very knowledgeable folks here who can help.
Best of luck with your build and I hope to hear progress reports in the future. (pictures are great too)!!

ellied,
I too, have been a little frustrated by the size homes on this site.Yes, I will admit envious.

Our house if 3600 finished and we are finishing a 1500 sq. foot basement. We did a lot DIY during construction to save money. I see these beautiful homes with many "extras". Do not let it get to you.

I wish I had lots of mouldings and trim.I see homes on this ste with extensive wainscoting and arched entries and lots of woodwork.
I wish my kitchen had been more"gourmet" with lots of tile and the super fancy appliances- even though gardening is my thing not cooking.

We have acreage and are on the 10 year landscaping plan ..LOL. I plan on over time adding the things we could not do in the beginning.Someday we will get the unfinished areas finished.
One good sign is that my husband and I took a drive through some neighborhoods that I used to envy. It was strange, I no longer envied them. I was very happy with our build (now) even though we had a bad experience with our builder.

Our yard is taking shape and I am pleased with the landscaping we have done.
Someday, I will redo our kitchen.

ellied,
I cannot believe all that I have learned from this forum! There are really knowledgeable people here and everyone helps each other which is the best part :) Welcome, and Dh and I will be building a "small" home also (since we live in a 1000 sq.ft. home now, 1650 will be HUGE)!
Dh and I are mid 50's with no kids at home too!

don't worry, ellied. I was thinking that at first too. I'm so grateful that there have been many kind people to share their experiences and ideas. This is a learning phase for me and I'm not experienced in the home-building at all.

ellied

DW and I do not post on those "show me yours " threads and don't care to read em either. Also don't care about the "how much square footage is yours" posts either. If someone asks a specific question on a problem dealing with an elevation that requies a picture of the house - that is OK with us. It's the keep up with the Jones's posts that we ignore.

The GW is a great place to learn. We have saved thousands of dollars and avoided many issues by reading how others have solved problems and asking for advise. The process of building a home, and many of the challenges, are similar no matter what the size of the house is. There are some professional experts on the various forums that provide advise that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. We post our lessons learned when others are looking for answers as they are going through their build.

The exchange of information helps others build bettter houses and get through a very challenging adventure. That is the beauty of this site.

By all means - post away.

I just posted on the "McMansion" thread that I don't care if people think my home is considered "small" at 1900sf. It's a mansion to me! LOL Everyone is welcome here as far as I'm concerned. I don't think there should be seperate forums for different size homes, that's nuts. From what I've read we all suffer through the building or moving process the same way. Haven't found anyone yet to get on any of these boards and say "my house was built in 5 months with absolutely not problems, I've decorated it in 3 weeks and my world is perfect.LOL

Hi Brutus
I think that sometimes a small house has issues and concerns a bigger house doesnt have like lack of room for storage space or trying to make something fit. THere is definetaly a difference etc.
The house we are building is only 1650 which is actually bigger then the current house Im in so to me, its big.

I think the "show me yours" threads are fun -- I LOVE to look at houses!

Ellied, to me, anyone that is building a home or is thinking about it, belongs here! It doesn't matter how large, small, fancy or plain -- it's all home building!

Our experience is similar to Lsst: we'd love to have all the niceties, but we're on a tight budget. So we put the money into the structure and left out or went "economy" with anything that could be easily upgraded later. Lsst, we're also on the ten-year landscaping plan! But seriously, a lot of the fun is the anticipation, so in a way that's not a bad thing! It'll be fun to see it evolve into my vision!

Welcome, Ellied; don't be shy! (And post lots of pics -- I love them!)

Ellied, I second all of the above. I honestly don't think I could have gotten through our build in one psychological piece if I hadn't found this board. I was so confused and worried when we started. The folks on these forums are so generous with helpful ideas, and we all do have the same types of issues, you'll be amazed at how much help you'll get. DH and I are building 1378 feet in a ranch with the same size basement; 900 feet of the basement are finished. We're empty nesters in Colorado.

cyn, yes I think the storage issue is about the only difference as far as I'm concerned. I know in my current house 1100sf I have a terrible time trying to keep things neat and tidy because of lack of storage. Moving to 1900sf and having a master closet the size of my present bathroom will be like dying and going to heaven!! Other than that I think everyone who is buying, selling or building are all in the same stress filled boat!!