That night, unable to sleep, he walked to his old drafting table. He pulled out a roll of yellowed paper—a design he had once made for a young couple who had backed out at the last minute. It was a compact, single-story house with a central courtyard, designed to catch cross-breezes and reduce heating costs. He had called it “The Hearth.”
Mihailo scoffed. “Pre-fabricated dreams? Boxes for people with no imagination?”
The next morning, he showed it to Jovana.
One autumn afternoon, his daughter, Jovana, visited him. She was a practical woman, a manager at a construction supply company. She found him brooding over a half-finished sketch.
Mihailo smiled, blew out the candle, and went back to his drawing table. He had ten new gotovi projekti in his head. And this time, he wouldn’t keep them to himself.
“Tata,” she said gently, pushing a cup of herbal tea toward him. “The world has changed. No one waits two years for a custom project anymore. They want gotovi projekti kuca —ready-made house projects. Instant. Affordable. Proven.”