I’m watching it on DVD and haven’t had much opportunity to burn through them, so I’m behind a ways most things have been spot on to what I envisioned. Just watched the one where they come home to Lallybrook. Way bigger than I envisioned! I was expecting a humble 2-story home, maybe similar in style to a NE saltbox (obviously not the right era or geography). the fancy arched “gate” was also a surprise.
I think in one of the later books it has a more vivid description.(I don't want to spoil anything by accident so I won't say when and who) I do remember when I got to that point it was warring with my thoughts like yours did! I thought it was smaller than it was, but in retrospect it makes sense for it to be large.
Yeah I imagined it in my head as just a moderately sized two story house. But I am terrible at visualizing things in my head based on book descriptions LOL. I haven't seen that many episodes of the show, I should try to catch up. I just don't know if I can handle some of the more graphically violent parts of this series on the tv screen though.