If your intent is to live in it and pull permits to fix it up, the state of Alabama “legally” requires 1 year after the final inspection before renting it out.

There is a LOT of work that is required to make these online plans ready for permit.

If permitted, I'd imagine I would need to work with USPS to create a "dummy" apartment number that would be recognized as my business mailing address for the property. 

Was able to find a Home Depot approved contractor, and get the whole thing done for $1400 including permits. 

Plus whatever the local jurisdictions cost for utilties, public benefits, permits, etc.

The law permits any person to assume possession of an "abandoned" property. 

After living here for about 1 year, we built a tiny house in the back yard (all to code and permitted).

You can ask around to see what your county requires to get the proper permits for a construction project like that, but oftentimes they require an architect's draft of the additions and multi-stage reviews by the county of the additions in the various stages of being built, among many other things.

I recently consulted on the construction of 250k sqft of office/retail that has been fully permitted for 7 months now with no outlook of being built due to leasing difficulty.

I would either close it in or do a small fixed glass block or  opaque window up high.