ADUs

BACKSTORY

Erin’s mom died. 

That was in the winter of 2019, after her residing in assisted living, memory care, and nursing  facilities. With her end of life, my Dad, in his 80s and Erin, their only child, grappled with many things:  their now too big house, distance between us, financial uncertainty, future care and the hole mom left. 

This story gets better from this point - promise.  

A year later while deep in pandemic mode, Erin proposed an adventure to her life partner, Colin, to her Dad and and to her teenage son: do we pool our resources and live together as a multi generational family?

So - the answer was ultimately yes, and we began to scout out the various paths to collocate and cohabitate. 

Path we explored:

• Rent or buy 2 townhouses side by side (hard to do) 

• Rent or buy a larger house with more bedrooms and space to share (independence, and private sanctuary space had us veer off this path)

• Buy a property with a existing modest house and ADD an ADU

Our family ultimately landed on the 3rd option for our purposes, for many reasons we are happy to share! 

THEN there was the question:  HOW to navigate the ADU process efficiently and land with a cool design. 

Again we explored multiple paths

• Prefabricated unit from a model catalog delivered to the site by crane or truck 

• Design-Build with a Semi- prefabricated kit of parts, assembled on site with some custom design elements

• Custom designed ADU built with conventional construction methods. 

Erin's Dad’s house ended up being mostly the 2nd path. Here are some fun (and not so fun) facts:

- We co-designed the the unit with a design builder

- We  sourced new and many pre-owned finishes, plumbing fixtures and cabinetry

• The permit was a snap- meaning it was approved in 2 months- that’s fast.  

• The first general contractor went bankrupt…

• The site soil initially reported was inaccurate - it was shale aka rock!  

• We excavated 4’ down and lowered the bedroom roof to preserve neighbor views

• We shared visualizations and renderings  we modeled with neighbors on all sides early on with mostly positive responses…mostly.

This is how the ADU in the backyard came to be and catapulted our desire and ability to guide others through the worthwhile yet intricate and, at times challenging, journey        

Erin and Colin are NCARB Accredited/Registered Architects in the States of California, Arizona and Idaho. 

We love design, especially efficient home design that is efficient, adaptable, creative and cool. We are fueled by an understanding of the deep housing challenges of and state legislature that supports ADUs for California and beyond the state.  We have tons of sustainable practices under our belt (LEED and passive house). This has spurred us to come together and want to guide you to forage and fulfill your need to grow livable space. 

Erin and Colin want to be your trusted guides, with a lot of hard won badges on our vests, on your adventure to design, build and own an accessory dwelling unit. 

Our services include listening to your needs, learning about the future dwellers, and scouting out ADU types ideal for your situation. We can guide site planning, budgeting, lead permitting submissions and match you with suppliers and contractors. We love reuse and salvage and consider ourselves experts in finding treasures from Craigslist, FB Marketplace and Nextdoor for a fraction of the cost!

Finally, we have an initial dwelling unit prototype design that is easy on the earth by delivering amazing thermal comfort to the resident (and lower electric bills). We would customize the template unit plans to become a tiny home, office or rental unit just for you.