Garage Conversion ADU in Chino, CA

Hi friends, it's Danny with ADU Resource Center, and today we are in Chino with Lovette. Lovette, thank you for inviting us out to your ADU today. We're gonna do an open house, and a lot of people are gonna be seeing it. With us we have Steve Gomez, who was your project manager, and then behind you we've got Danix Construction, Elmer, who did all the build work. So let's start at the very, very beginning. Whose idea was this? Was this yours? Yes. And the inspiration behind it, is it for family? Most start off as family, then sometimes turn into rentals. What's the motivation for this ADU? Um, the main motivation is family. Your daughter. Yes. Your daughter. She's gonna live in this? Yes. Great. Great. Um, and she saw it last night for the first time finished? She did. What did, what did she think? Um, blown away. It's hard to believe that this was our garage at one time. Amazing. So the coolest thing about it is if anybody saw, we have before pictures probably, Steve, of the garage. Absolutely. Right? And it's just amazing what we can do. Guys who don't know what they're doing, they can turn a garage into a full-blown apartment with vaulted ceilings, st- uh, stone countertops and so forth. So let's start it back at the beginning. Your daughter decided, or you decided, that you wanted to build something on the property. You have a half acre property, so it's a big, big lot, so you have all the room in the world. Was it your idea that you wanted her to live here, or hers? Um, that was more of her desire. The main idea was for me to come home, to be with mom and dad, have my own space. And so she was like, "What about me? I wanna come, too." So- Yeah ... collaborated with my father, and we made a plan on how to make that happen. Yeah. Yeah. And so. You know what, you know what's neat about ADUs that I think we're proud of, for the first time in 80 plus years, three generations are now living on the same property, you know? Right. They do it a lot in Asia, but not in America, and, but with ADUs, and the price of housing nowadays. So young kids go out and try to buy a house, they find out they're difficult. But buying an, or building an ADU is a lot cha- cheaper, right? Absolutely. Did you stay in budget, or did you go over your target budget when you first, uh, started out? Um, stayed within the budget. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. How about the design? And when you met Steve, how did you find ADU Resource Center? Well, I did my research. I always get three bids or I never go with the first choice. So I, I started researching what a ADU was, and then so, you know, I was even looking in the cost per square feet on my own. And so I just started making phone calls. And of the ones I made, um, Steve was the only one that really took the initiatives- initiative, saying, "Hey, let me come out." He wasn't trying to get money from me up front, and a lot of them were wanting money, like, just to come look at the property. Sure. Sure. And so that was a quality about Steve that really impacted my decision, his eagerness to come out, take time, and you know. Now, I have a question. You're a woman. Yes. And you were doing this on your own. Were you scared? No, not at all. No? 'Cause we have people watching right now that are going, "I know nothing about architectural design. I even know less about construction. We know we want an ADU, but I'm afraid of making a mistake," right? So a lot of people are gonna be hopefully watching this video and going- Right ... "Well, if she can do it, and look how nice hers turned out, maybe we can, too." So I'm hoping that the... Was it a pleasant, uh, experience designing with ADU Resource Center? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I had a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun. The architectural in me came out. I was drafting like I was in school again. Yeah. You know, just trying to figure things out. But it was a great experience. The only boring part about the building an ADU is the wait time on the city, because we have to wait for them to approve the plans, and there's always a line. So waiting in line always is terrible, but once the waiting is done, now we trans- transition into construction. Correct. How was that transition over to the construction phase with Danix Construction? Um, that phase was seamless in my opinion. It was more of, like you said, the city, the wait, the documents. Yeah. That was the biggest part. But the construction, once that started, it was, it was great. Steve, was there any challenges on the design? I noticed there's a couple things I wanna point out that you in particular are famous for. And, uh, vaulted ceilings and dormers are obviously a big deal, and I'm really impressed to see that in a garage conversion, because most people take the l- path of least resistance and take a garage and say, "What's the cheapest thing I can build with a garage?" Well, you, you didn't do that here. You built art. So congratulations. Thank you. No, and, and again, um, with, with Elmer, it was a huge help because, um, sometimes when you're doing the drawings, there's sometimes it's very difficult sometimes to catch the small details, especially in the construction aspect. So when we saw an opportunity to, opposed to doing a flat ceiling, maybe vaulted just with the bedroom, it actually worked. So we found ways of, of, of kind of giving it a different style but maintaining the cost of the original. So this was something that was good. And again, this is something that, kind of with Danix Construction, is with, there are certain changes that has to get made just to kind of tweak it up, just to enhance the experience, you know, it was, it was working really well with them. Was... Now, this is 499 square feet. Yes. Was the garage the same size, or did you push a wall out? No. So this was a almost a three-port garage.So what we ended up doing is keeping it under the 500 to keep the junior ADU aspect because we have already an approved detach, 1,000 square feet, two bedroom, two bath. So interesting. If you are thinking about how many projects you can put on your property, you're allowed one ADU and one junior ADU. This being attached and under 500, it qualifies as a junior, leaving you the availability to do another one, right? That's correct. So we know that's probably maybe down on the horizon. Elmer, with Steve's design, he does a lot of creative things, right? And I don't know if the, that's a good thing, or is it, does it create more trouble for you? Was there any challenges or anything with this design? It does not create more challenges. It's just trying to stay on the budget. That's the main point. Well, it sound like- Yeah ... she said you stayed within budget, so that's a good thing. So make things change, and to put vaulted ceiling, dormer, and stay in the budget, it was a little challenge, but we got, we got it done. Beautiful. Yeah, well, I love seeing garage conversions with vaulted ceiling 'cause it doesn't feel small in here. It feels big. Right? And that's a- Right ... that's a wonderful thing. Now, advice. Novices people on the, on the video are gonna be watching. What advice for beginners that you say? If you, if you looked back and you said, "When I was starting..." What were you thinking about, or what did you learn that you could say, "Here's a tip for you guys." If you're, if you wanna know some help, what would you advise, uh, people s- just starting out in the beginning? Um, my advice would be do some homework. Find out what a ADU is, what a junior ADU is, and then, um, start making phone calls. Just don't go with the first person. You know, make a list. Get, let people get back with you, or you get back with people. And, you know, go for what's in your heart. You wanna be with family. You want a rental. You know, it can come to pass. Just knowledge is power, so get knowledge about it. And then, you know, start, you know, reaching out to different, um, companies that can help you make your dream come true. How about chemistry? Do you think chemistry and synergy with the team that you're gonna... 'Cause you're gonna be working with your project manager for a long time- Right ... while you're waiting through the permit process, and then ultimately with a contractor. I think it's kind of important that we have a, a good clique, that everybody kinda gets along and likes each other 'cause you're gonna be together several months, right? Right. So hopefully that helps too. Yeah. You have to trust, um, your, your designer, project manager, and the contractor. So there was a lot of trust factor here. So, and I was comfortable. Well, hopefully, hopefully we exceeded your expectations, and hopefully we didn't fall short. Yeah, absolutely. And you're smiling, so that means we must be close. Yes. Okay, last thing. If, if you did it all over, is there anything that you would've done different, or did you say, "I don't want... We w- we won't do this thing," but then afterwards you go, "Ah, I wished I got it." Is there anything that d- you didn't check off on your list of, of wish list? I'm a very involved, hands-on. And so for me, there's nothing that I regret that I didn't do. We have some people that get scared because of the money. You know, and they're saying- Mm ... "Well, we promised ourself we wouldn't go over a certain budget." But I think a lot of people, that if they get what they want, the budget's minor. What they want is they want to fall in love with it. And so when it's- Right ... finally done, they go, "You know what? It was worth everything. We're glad." Glad. So it sounds like that's the case for you. Absolutely. I'm happy. Last question, if you did it all over again, would you still do business with ADU Resource Center and Demix Construction? Absolutely. Well, thank you for allowing us- Thank you for having us ... to come to your open house today. Thank you. And I love your ADU. Thank you. And if you'd like to build your own ADU, call the number below.