I just reopened one of my games that I had earlier set all the villagers to restoring the second hut, so as to increase the population beyond 17.
To my surprise, there was instantly a message that the hut had been restored and the village could now enjoy a larger population. Everyone began to celebrate! The only problem is that the hut had NOT been totally restored, and had only reached 10% completion! So of course, I put them all back to work on it.
This was SO WEIRD! Why on earth would I receive a false message such as this?