Once I got past the mental shift from “I’m building my dream home” to “I’m building my first home,” I got to work.
I started by deep-diving into floor plans for narrow lots (trust me—there are so many online). We were incredibly lucky to have a builder who gave us a ton of flexibility. A lot of residential builders offer just 1–4 base layouts and then charge for every single tweak. Ours basically said: “Find something you like, I’ll send it to my architect for final drawings, and then the engineer will make sure it actually works.” A dream.
Pretty quickly, I realized the elevation was just as important as the floor plan—especially with a narrow lot, where the front view can be… tricky. Once I found this cute little Craftsman elevation that I loved, everything clicked. I was drawn to it because the board-and-batten exterior is both timeless and budget-friendly (a rare combo).
The layout was solid, but not perfect—which is where my Adobe Illustrator experience really came in handy. I was able to start editing, moving walls, adjusting flow, and slowly bringing my version of the dream floor plan to life.
And just like that, it started feeling real.
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