Hi, everybody. It's Danny with ADU Resource Center, and today we're in Covina with the Dalton family. And I, uh, I wanted to start off that we started this during COVID. Yes, we did. And it was kind of a crazy world back then, but I think one of the things that I remember vividly that I wanna just make sure that we talk about is that I wish we could take credit for the design here. I wish we could say that we did a fabulous job, but actually it was you, wasn't it? So- Oh, it was... I was bored. It was COVID. Right. So we showed up, and you had some things all laid out really, really nicely. So I wanna give some words of encouragement. If you're at home and you think, "I, I'm not an architect, but I think I have an idea of how I see, how my vision is," and it worked out pretty good. Did it, did we stick pretty close to your, your s- your drawing? Exactly. This is exactly what I drew. I would agree. I remember looking at the drawings, the original sketches, and going over ideas, and I definitely think this is 100% our vision. And you're gonna be living in it. Yes. So does this meet your approval? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. My girlfriend and I are gonna love it. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, it's a one bedroom, one bath, and I... We've already done the, the, kind of the tour, so I'll, I'll be inserting some videos. I love that bathroom shower door. Oh. Yes. It's gorgeous. It's one of my favorite parts. I, we, we both, me and Vahag, we were, I went, "Check out this door. This thing weighs a t-..." It's like a s- a safe vault door. Mm-hmm. But I go, "I think I want one of these for my house. I like it a lot." So congratulations on that. And I do like the fact that we kind of went up a little taller. This feels like it's a little taller than normal. So I believe if I'm not mistaken, this is either eight and a half or nine foot ceiling. I believe it's nine foot. With such a small square footage, we decided to take it up a little bit to just make it feel a little bigger. Now, there was a few hiccups along the way. There was some unexpected logs that got thrown under your feet. This was a garage. We knew we wanted to convert it. So in theory, the hope is that we can take some of the structure and save it. But what we discovered is there was not footings down below, and so I think we had to do some underpinning. Correct? Correct. Yeah. And I know that was an u- unexpected expense. I don't know, we, we never really know. We don't have a crystal ball. Right. So we can't tell what's below our feet until we dive in. And unfortunately, sometimes we find out that there's not enough footing. So as a garage, we can build on a slab. It doesn't have to be anything. Mm-hmm. But if it's going to be a residential structure, it can't tip over. It can't sink into the ground. So it has to have the proper foundation. And in your case, I'm sorry, but we had to make it right. But the good news is we're over that hump- Mm-hmm ... and it is perfectly, and this will stand up in, against an earthquake or a tornado. Mm. So we have that going for us. So it is what it is. One of the hardest decisions to make was going the legal route, going with the permits, making sure everything was done so it wouldn't fall over in an earthquake. I'm hoping my kids can live here long after I'm gone, so it had to be done right. It was willing, I was willing to do it and have it done so it wouldn't fall over. You know, building, building is still cheaper than buying. If we wanted to go buy this somewhere in this neighborhood, we know that it- ... is gonna be way up there, maybe a million dollars, 'cause this is a very, very nice neighborhood. Right? And the homes here are very expensive. You can't go out and buy this, uh, for the price that you built it, right? Oh, goodness, no. That's, that's the major reason why we did it, was because- ... there was no way if I wanted to continue to live in California, especially if I wanted to be an educator, be a teacher, like how I would like to be, I would not be able to buy my own space. Right. Absolutely not. Right. So to be able to build upon, like, uh, the garage plot originally was, uh, just amazing. We have 500 square feet, so it was a good sized garage. It was. It was a very good- Mm-hmm ... sized garage, and more than enough to do a one bedroom, one bath, with a nice open concept living room and kitchen. So I mean, I, I think there's a lot of people going, "You're kidding. I can take my garage and make it like this?" Mm-hmm. So there will be some before pictures. Mm-hmm. There'll be some after pictures and stuff. And, and I think a lot of people are gonna be in disbelief when they see the transition. So I mean, when you and I started- I was- ... this was just a, this was a, a garage with a bunch of your stuff in it, right? A whole lot of trash wasting space. Yeah. Now look at it now. Mm. It's, it's incredible. So it's fabulous. The, the design phase, when you said, "Okay, let's get going," I know that takes a long time. We had to wait our turn. And unfortunately, because we were right in the middle of COVID, a lot of people got sent home from the city, so they were understaffed, and they even had to outsource a lot of the, um, design stuff, 'cause the... You know, during COVID, a lot of people, you either watched Dr. Phil or you work on your house. So everybody was working on their house. And they had, I think, 2,500 projects. Mm-hmm. But they l- they laid off a lot of workers. Yeah. So they had to sub a lot of that stuff out to San Bernardino and Riverside County. But at the end of it, once we finally got into the construction phase- Mm ... was that hand off smooth? I wouldn't have known what was happening until somebody showed up at the door. It was so smooth. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. It was just, everything was being taken care of, and then it got started, and it was so smooth and easy. I couldn't have asked for anything else. Okay. Thank you for the kind words. Mm. Um, there's gonna be people watching this video, and they're going to say, "Well, look, I, I think, I'm pretty sure I wanna do one of these." Mm. "But what do I know about building? Zero. What do I know about design? Nothing." Right? And neither did you. Mm.You pulled it off, right? So do you have any advice for the scared newbies watching the video? If you could make a suggestion to give them a little confidence, what would you recommend? Know what you want. Stay in your costs, because it will keep your stress down. Um, a- it'll... In the end, it'll be worth it. This will be worth it 10 years from now, next year, uh, 50 years from now. Yeah. Right. You? Yeah, absolutely. It's a definitely an investment in the future and it's just- ... no matter what we do with it, whether that's me living out here, whether that's my brother, whether that's renting it out, like, no matter what you do- Yeah ... like, it can really be... Like, you can do what you want with it, and that's really exciting as well. Yeah. And I don't think there's any risk in adding livable square footage- No, no ... to any property- No ... because it's gonna be used. Mm-hmm. It'll be repurposed. This was a garage- Right ... now it's repurposed into living, a living, a apartment, right? Mm-hmm. So I don't think there's any downside. So the property pro- profile goes up. You've got more, 500 more square footage on your property profile. Right. Mm-hmm. You've got an extra bedroom, an extra bathroom, which all translates- Mm-hmm ... into equity growth down the road. Mm-hmm. Plus, one day, who knows, maybe you'll be in the main house and this'll be a rental. We don't know. Right. But then that becomes mailbox money. So there's al- there's never a, a time where it's not gonna be put some use. Some use. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Okay, maybe my last question: Is there anything that you learned on the way that you would change? A lot of people sometimes when the project's over- Mm-hmm ... they go, "You know, if I knew now what I knew then..." Would you have changed anything? No, I don't think so. I think it all just worked out how- Yeah ... how we needed it to. Now, we don't always stay in budget. There's things along the way when you, you have th- you know, changes and you have ideas and you say, "I wanna do this, I wanna do that," or the city says, "You need to do this." But at the end of the day when it's all said and done, even if you went over your target budget, are you still within the comfortable budget that you're happy? Oh, yeah. We stayed... We knew what was gonna happen. We knew where to stay in our budget. And the only thing that went over for us were the underpinnings that we didn't know were coming. Yeah. So, no, we were well within our budget. Okay. Everything was fine. Yeah. Last question. Mm-hmm. If you did it all over again... And by the way, you and I did this one together. If you did it all over again, would you still recommend ADU Resource Center? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I didn't have to do anything. The day we met, we laid it all out. I gave you my ideas. And the next time I had to worry about anything was signing the checks. Thanks for the kind words. All right. We are with the Dalton family in Covina, and if you would like to build your own ADU, please call the number below.