Don’t need an architect to inspect it but having someone knowledgeable about building come by once a week isn’t a bad idea .trusting the builder carries its own sets of problems, and is why I was thinking to have an architect do periodic spot checks during the build make sure builder’s not taking any unsafe shortcuts. Seems to be a darned if you do, darned if you don’t situation.. maybe?
Maybe the good thing is that Elberton is a relatively small community so a local builder may be more concerned about his reputation than some of the “booming Gwinnett’ builder’s.
And take lots and lots of detailed pictures of everything
especially where the pipes and wires are going . So years later you’ll know what goes where and what’s behind each wall.