Early 2026 was the paperwork chapter. The architect work came together over a few months, and on May 1, 2026, Swain County issued the building permit. After the bond and the temporary power pole, it was finally official: I can build.
Along the way, I had hired someone on Fiverr to put together a sketch of what I thought my plans could look like, and it's pretty close to where we ended up. At first I was going to put the living room and kitchen along the west side of the house and the bedrooms along the east side. Then I stayed somewhere with split bedrooms and realized that was the better option, with the kitchen and living room in the middle.
The part that kept getting me was the garage. I really wanted a 26-by-26-foot garage. It started out smaller, and with the garage and living space both downstairs, I had to figure out where a stairway would go.
Over months and months, I kept sketching on graph paper until I finally landed on a layout I thought would work. Then I was talking to a builder in New Smyrna and realized he must have an architect. Sure enough, I found a local architect in New Smyrna who did an outstanding job turning my vision into workable plans for the county.
Odds are, I could have gotten my permit with my hand-drawn plans, but I really wanted to make sure I had thought of everything. That's why I used an architect. The plans were approved, and the permit was issued in May.
It does not look like much — a stamped set of plans and a permit on the wall — but everything before this was preparation. The next entries in this journal will have concrete in them.