Modern ADU in La Habra

Hi, friends, and welcome to ADU Resource Center. Today, we're gonna teach you how to build your very own ADU. At ADU Resource Center, let our white glove concierge service take care of you. You don't have to worry about designs, architectural plans, structural engineering, permit expediting, or construction. We will take care of all the heavy lifting so you can relax knowing your project is in good hands. Now, let's watch the transformation of this ADU project, and then we're gonna have a little chat with the owners towards the end of the video. Hi, friends. It's Danny with ADU Resource Center, and today, we are with Aravind- And Raul ... and Raul- ... in, uh, La Habra, and, uh, they just completed their 600 square foot, one bedroom, two bath... We're gonna get into the two bath story in a second. But it's one bedroom, so first things first, thank you again for having us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. We're, we're delighted. We had an open house today, and what a turnout, huh? Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was a pretty good turnout. A lot of people. A little bit more. A lot of people. Yeah. That, I mean, neighbors and- Did you think that this many people were gonna come? No. No. So here's the deal, we want to s- let people see, because when you guys started, I don't know if we had an open house to even show you. Mm-hmm. You guys probably dove in blindly without- We dove, we dove in blind- blindly. Right. Um, spoke to Chris, and actually, Chris was awesome, so we liked him right away. Yeah. And we just kind of went with his lead and- Sometimes people say, "I'd love to see something. Do you have anything?" So what we try to do is every other siren is the latest. We don't know what's coming, but as they're getting completed, it's got to be at least 90% done with the floors, the cabinets- Mm-hmm ... and other things so they can see. But when it's 100% done, we get kicked out because somebody's moving in. Moving in. Right? So we gotta be right in that little three-quarters- Right. Yeah ... done, where we're at right now, and what a project. Fantastic. And if I'm not mistaken, we're at the end, so you only have the final inspection due. We have, yeah, the- Occupancy ... occupancy and little touches here and there that still need to be finished, but main build is complete. So as we're talking, I'm, I'm gonna be putting some- Mm ... some pictures and images of the inside and the outside as we're talking. So do you want to know the number one comment on this, uh, open house was about this project? Yes. What do you think? What do you think? Uh, I don't know. Ceiling. Ceiling's good. Absolutely. The ceiling. Without question, right? Mm-hmm. So 600 square feet, and the first thing people are gonna go, "Well, that, that, is that gonna be big enough?" Right? Right. Do you know when you did the ceiling, and we'll get a shot of that, it's how many feet? Um, nine- It's nine foot. Nine, nine, nine. Nine, nine and a half feet. Okay, so it's almost 10 feet. It's almost 10 feet. Right? Where normal would be eight feet. Yeah. Right. Right? So that just little bit more, people go, "This feels bigger than you." Yeah. Right? So not one person said it's small. Mm-hmm. Not one person said it's tight. Everybody goes, "It's open." And then the next thing they go, "You know, we were thinking about one of these. We weren't sure about this island right here with a..." You, obviously, you've- Well, yeah ... got your custom stools, right? Stools, yeah. Which are gonna match- Match the lights ... your light. Yeah. Right? So that's gonna look fantastic. And I, I imagine that if we had a formal dining room table in here, it's gonna get tight because you got a couch. Yes. Furniture's gotta come in here, right? Yeah. Yes. So this is fantastic for an ADU. So the reason why it's kind of, like, two-tiered or, like, offset a little bit was because- My mom is short. So she wanted the, the shorter, where my dad is taller and we kind of wanted the, the, the bigger one, so we're like, "Okay, both," you know? So we have set two, so they, they, they, they stay right there. They have their chairs- Yeah, they have their- Over there. Right. It's for your mom and dad. Yeah. So now the cats out of the bag. Mm-hmm. It's not for you guys. That's your house up there. Yeah. This is for mom and dad. Yeah. So how neat. So I think I mentioned it earlier, this is the first time in 85 years that three generations are living on the same property- Yeah ... with the help of ADUs, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So this is making it possible. So, um, everybody that was thinking about it, they go, "I'm not sure if I'm gonna do a dining room table or maybe an island slash, you know- Mm-hmm ... um, booth type thing." They go, "That settles it." Yeah. "We, we're doing this." Right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's the s- nice thing. Um, now you work remotely. I work remotely. So who works in the office out back? Oh, he... Yeah. That's Arvind. Arvind. He's, he's the educator, so he's the one that needs the office. Doctor Arvind. I'm, I'm a laborer, so I don't... Doctor Arvind. Right. So, so Doctor, so you have an office out there, and I, you gave me the tour, and I actually will have pictures of it. I noticed there's something missing. There's a bathroom missing. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. So you had to walk all the way- Yeah. ... to the main house. That's right. Right? So I think what's gonna happen- Or, or a bush. Or a bush. If I couldn't go. Right. So- Edit that out. What's super cool is you have an exterior- Mm-hmm ... bathroom, right? Yes. So it's a one bedroom, two bath. Mm-hmm. The second bathroom is on the exterior. Yeah. Yes. We'll show a shot of that. So number one, it, it, it provides you with your office, you know, so you, you can make it more convenient, but I also vision that you're gonna make an entertainment area out here at some point. Yeah, kinda directly in front of the house where our plan is, because our parents are gonna be moving here, so this will be kinda central station for all the siblings and the rest of the family. Party, yes. Yeah. Family gatherings. So usually weekends was for family, family days, and we would go to our parents' house, but they're gonna be living here, renting their house, and this will provide- And they don't come into the inside house. Yeah, exactly. They're gonna be on the exterior. Yeah. Well, I mean, and because it's, this is big enough for them, but it's not big enough for, like, 30 people. You know? So with their old home, used to be... So now we have to provide something for the outside. It's got a shower too, so it's a full bathroom. Yeah. Yeah, it's a full bathroom. Yeah. It, it, it's a full shower. Yeah, full bathroom. Yes. It's pretty big too. It is big. It is big. Yeah. Um, tell me this, when you guys got started, um, how long did, how long have you been thinking about an ADU before you actually said, "It's time to do it"? Um, well, we kind of knew we were gonna build something here 'cause the property kinda asked, like, not asked for it, but we had the room. We would be able to build something and still have our yard, our patio, everything. So our first, um, intention, 'cause we had a pool home before, was to build a pool. But then as our parents and, I mean, our parents are older, so we're like, we need to spend more time with them. Right. Right. You know, kind of type thing. I wanted my dad to retire already. He didn't wanna retire, so I kinda didn't give him an option and, "You're, you're coming over here." Yeah. And we discovered ADU- ADU ... online. Online, basically. And it sort of, like, should we try it? Like, this is a good time for us to start thinking, at least exploring. Financially we weren't ready at that time, but it's, "Hey, let's get information." Let's get... Yeah. That's where we met Chris. Right. And, you know, from the get-go, um, our, our communication with Chris was fabulous. There was no pressure. You know- Yeah ... setting up a meeting one-on-one with us, uh, here at the house. And listening. He made it easy and he kind of put security in that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. "You guys can do this." Yeah. Yeah. We can do it. Yeah. Um, really listening and asking, pointing questions about like, "Well, what do you want?" Well, we want an entertain- a home for our parents that we can entertain. Where do you want it was the big question. Yeah. The where, right? Yeah, the where, because the property's kinda big. So our initial was to knock down that little office and build there coming forward. Wow. Yeah. But just because of the creek and the easement, it was in, it was a possibility, but it would be con- Cost prohibitive. Yeah. Prohibitive. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not with- not within our budget because that's on stilts. Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So that would be just a more- When it came down to designing and picking out a floor plan, was it difficult, or was it, was it easy? It was really easy in the sense where we didn't really have an idea of how we wanted the house to look. Yeah. Yeah. So what helped us a lot was your guys's, um, webpage and the model homes you guys had. Mm-hmm. So we were able to pick out one that we really liked, and I don't know if you recognize the model. I do. But- And you ed- you edited it. Yeah. So all we did was flip the bathroom to the back. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause the bathroom actually would be a good, it was over on this area in the corner. No, I recognize this. I think I recognize this a little bit. Right. So, I mean, we changed a little bit. Like, I think the, on that one, the laundry room was a little bit bigger, but it didn't have a pantry. Right. So we made the laundry room a little bit smaller and added the pantry. Right. Yeah. And I, and I have to say that that was one of the things that we appreciated from our conversations with Chris, right? It wasn't like, "Here, this is the standard." Like- "This is what you guys have." "... listening. What do you want? Like, what are you thinking?" Yeah. This is kind of what we're, you know, a, a home for our family, but also opportunities for us to have, uh, family gatherings, and yeah, really the flexibility, uh, as you can see from the end result, right? Like- Well- ... how much our input was important- I'm glad to hear you s- ... at the, in the final product. I'm glad to hear you say that because our model- Mm-hmm ... um, we're not your typical contracting company. Mm-mm. You know, we're a consultant firm, and we want to sit down. So he probably asked a thousand questions. Yes. Yes. He wants to know- Oh, yeah ... what, what's important, what's not important, what are your hot numbers, what's the bullet points. And then once he has all that information, he goes I think I got something that will work Will work. Right. But here's the thing, I think sometimes contractors are quick to say, "What about this? What about that?" Yeah. And they don't know anything about you. Yeah. They don't know about your, what you're gonna... It's like trying to put the wrong size shoe on your foot, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad to hear you say that that went well. Yeah. So he factored in a lot of those things before- Yeah ... he recommended a template. And really coming in not knowing, it kind of, I think, eased our f- like, not fear, but sort of the anxiety of like, are we ready? Like, is this- This gonna be the right, right ... something we could afford it. So, so, and there was never any kind of like, "You gotta do it," or, or unnecessary contacts. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, there was time for us to breathe, think about it, and I think that's what sold us to the company, right? Like, how- Besides the fact that it's A to Z, like, right? Yeah. Oh. You guys take care of A to Z, which was a... We both have busy jobs where we're like, most of the day we're gone. We're not there till like 6:00. Yeah. Like, from, I leave like at 5:00 in the morning. So it's like we don't really have the time to, like, going to the city, getting permits, dealing with that. And that's probably the number one that, at least for me- Yes ... sold us, the fact that you guys take care A to Z. We, we found, you know, we, prior to doing ADUs, we were building track homes for a long time. Mm-hmm. And that's a different thing altogether. But when we started doing the ADUs, the legislation changed, and it made things easier in 2020. Uh, we discovered that everybody was interested, but they didn't know- Yeah ... anything about it. And so it's very scary when you don't know, because we don't know what we don't know. So we decided we are gonna create a white glove service- Mm ... where you can be an, an experienced builder, if you've done projects in the before, in the past. Okay, so we can talk a l- we can put it in fifth gear. Mm. Go a little faster for those clients that are already accustomed to it. But what about the people like yourselves that said, "Hey, look, we're gonna need a guide. We need some help." Yeah. You know, we need a, a, some, a chaperone. So we put it in first gear, and we go slow, and we take little baby steps. Mm. And then as you know, the baby steps get a little quicker. Right. Once you start getting your rhythm- Mm ... on the whole thing, it picks up the speed. And before you know it, you're gonna go, "Okay, I think I understand what we're doing now." Mm-hmm. But it's important to start off slow, get the information, make sure we, we create a personalized, tailored floor plan. Yeah. A design concept first. Exactly. Then figure out, okay, does this design con- concept fit your budget? Mm. Mm-hmm. It does, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, we start de-contenting- Yes ... figuring out what we can do to help fit it. Yeah. Once we figure that thing out, then we're off to the races. Yeah. Yeah. Then we just say, "Okay, let's start creating the engineering, the structural engineering." Mm. And then most importantly, take our place in line with the city. Mm-hmm. So how did that go, waiting for the permits and plans and everything? For, for us, it was fairly easy. For us, it was fairly- It was fairly easy, but we were caught in between the pandemic. So that probably delayed a little bit just because there was people working in the office and people working from home. So it wasn't really, it was just, that, that was life at that time, you know? Yes. So, um, but other than that, I mean, the process was really quick. Really quick. We didn't really have to worry about much. I, I think something that we're still feeling the effects of, during the pandemic, we know that people got laid off. Mm-hmm. And a lot of them got sent home to work remotely. Exactly. Right? Mm-hmm. And the problem with working remotely is there's a refrigerator and a TV. Mm-hmm. And they didn't want to come back to work. Right? And so now the problem is, is that we have so many people working- Now you understand the office. That's why we made him an office. When he went... Nobody wants, nobody wants to, you know, he gets to work in shorts every day, right? Yeah. And, and at home, so why would he, why would he want to come back to the office? Yeah. So that's the world we live in right now, and I think that's why it's taking so long to- Yeah. Yeah ... get through the city, because we have so many remote workers. I think LA County alone had 2,500 projects, and they had to outsource to Riverside and San Bernardino. We're still feeling the effects of COVID now- Yeah ... because what used to take two months now takes six to seven months. Yeah. How about the, um, designing with, did you work with Sharice? We worked with, uh, Abeed. Abeedus? Abeedus. Abeedus. Yes. We worked with Abeedus. How did that go? He was fantastic. He was awesome. Awesome. He, any correction, any little detail, first of all, he kinda- Yeah. Yeah ... taught us a lot, because we never knew what an easement was until we met Abeedus. And he was like, "Wait a minute, you can't build there. You guys have easements." Yeah. He already knew our property, like he lived here. Yeah. I guess he already spoke to the city. He already had our, our layout, our- The floor plan. Yeah. The floor plans. Yeah. So when he's like, "This is where we wanna build," he's like, "Oh, you can't build there. You have an easement." And he taught us what easements were- Yeah ... and all that stuff. So he's like, "These are, like, I would recommend these options, but you know, if there's anything particular you want exactly, we could, you know, work around it and see about that." Right. And knowing what the options were, I think, was really for us, like, oh- Okay ... behind the garage. Mm. I don't know if that's where we wanna do it. Yeah. Because we had a lot of space, and of course then we had it in this area. This. So yeah. But knowing the options and, you know, was good. Yeah. Otherwise, I mean, to us it would be like, we would have probably built in the middle of the whole yard and not had a yard up to one side or to the other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which that's the, that's what I was like, look, your best option is you're still gonna have a big yard to this side if you do one side or the other side. Yeah. Right. You know? So that's kind of like- Which is not gonna come into play if your mom and dad are gonna work here. If, if they're gonna work here. So we know that the master plan includes a fun room- Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, yeah ... on that side, right? Exactly. Yes. So when you got done with the architectural design and planning, they said, "Okay, great. Good news, we're now moving on to the construction phase." Yes. The handoff from the design team to the construction phase- Mm ... smooth? Smooth. Smooth. Totally smooth. No problem? Nah. No. Nah. We met our, um, Chris, actually. We had, like, a little meeting. He introduced us, introduced us to the contractor. He told us, "Okay, this is gonna be who you're gonna be working with now." Mm-hmm.He introduced us to his team, and told us, "Okay, we're building the house together. Remember, so whatever you need-" We're starting- Yeah ... February 1st. And there's, we're starting February 1st. 2023. On that first weekend in February. Yeah. It literally was like, "Oh, sh- Well, we have, I, I think we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 385 projects right now in Southern California in various stages of planning, permitting, and construction. So we have five internal licensed general contractors with their respective teams, but you got a good one. Yeah. You know, he's pretty good. His crew's pretty good. Yeah. Um- And he's pretty, he's pretty awesome himself. Like, just a really regular easygoing guy that, you know, whenever we call, he's always there. Mm-hmm. The thing about construction is there's always, um, unforeseen things that pop up. I don't know there's ever an awesome construction experience. Mm-hmm. But we're trying to make sure that it's not a negative one. Mm-hmm. Right? So hopefully the journey through the construction is, is a fun one. I know it's funner than the architectural phase- ... 'cause there's nothing for us to gauge by then on the planning and permit side. Yeah. Yeah. But every day the contractors go home, you get to sneak outside and go, "Let's see what they did." See what they did. Exactly what we want. I have a camera right there- ... behind the garage, and I would take pictures of the project as it was going from- Going ... you know, the initial laying out of the little- Making the build ... the, the orange line around- Yeah ... the property to, you know- And yeah ... digging, the plumbing, the cement- Yeah ... the framing, the roof. That process was a, I mean, it couldn't be any- I couldn't believe it. Mm-hmm. Like, we would go out for work- Work, yeah ... and then the next day it's like, "Oh my God." That's right. "They built it up." That's why we went, went to pieces. The, the cement, when it was just the cement slab- Yeah ... I was like, "This is really small." "I don't know how we're gonna fit a bathroom and a kitchen and everything in here." Yeah. Yeah. But to be able to, like- Mm-hmm ... chronicle those, those moments, I guess, if you will, of, like- So- ... seeing it finally realized when the frame and the roof came up, and we looked up, and knowing that the ceilings were gonna be this high- It was crazy ... was like, "Man, this is gonna be an incredible build." It'll be. And surprisingly, you know, when we're coming out of a slow process like planning and permits- ... I think people are surprised how quickly the construction goes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Right? It goes rapidly, doesn't it? Yes. Very, very quickly. Yes. Yeah. So as long as we can get the materials that we need, and if there's anything special order that we can order, we get it in advance. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you know, these guys, they're good. They're good. And repetition is a good teacher, so that's all we do is ADUs. Mm-hmm. So you can imagine, you do them over and over and over- Yeah. It's practice makes perfect ... they're, they got a system. Yeah. And they, they, they- And I will say, like, we have family members and even neighbors, or your sister-in-law- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm ... who they didn't go through ADU, and knowing that they go through other contractors, and seeing the, s- how slow paced- They are. Yes. Yeah ... those, some of those work, that work was, and knowing how fast- This was ... this, and people were- We s- ... like- My s- my sister, her front neighbor is building. And they've been out of their home, like they've been in, in, in a hotel or something- Like two years ... before we started building. And they're still, like, building. Yeah. And we're already almost done. Yeah. And my sister, "How did that happen so fast for you?" They haven't even, they still haven't been able to move back to their home. Yeah. You know, uh, here's the, here's the thing. I mean, there's many answers for that. Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna guess, but I can tell you a common one is experience. Yeah. If you have a unexperienced crew, they're going to charge less. Mm-hmm. A more experienced crew o- o- obviously charges more because of their, their, their experience, right? Mm-hmm. I think there's a balance in between. Yes. I think we can c- we can be competitively priced- Mm-hmm ... yet we don't have inexperienced people. Yes. We have seasoned people that know their job. They've been doing this for 15, 20 years, right? Mm-hmm. They don't even need to be supervised. And so part of it is that you have a good team that's experienced and repetition, and they all work cohesively together. Mm-hmm. Our architects work with the contractors on your pro- They do ... on your plans- Mm-hmm ... months before they even get to see it. Yeah. So they're ready to mobilize the minute it says it's, it's ready to issue. Mm-hmm. They, they already, they're r- they already know your, your project in the back of their mind. Yeah. And that's something that I'm very grateful for, and that we always talk about, because we're like, when we hear, like, the, the horror stories that come from my sister and her neighbor. It's like, "Well, the framer blamed it on so-and-so that they didn't do the wall right over there." So it's like, we didn't have to deal, we didn't even have- None of that ... any of it. 'Cause, because we didn't have to deal with any architects. I mean, you know, we just dealt with Chris and wherever he assigned us. Yeah. Because we were Orbit, because we're Orbit. Mm-hmm. And that's it. So we didn't even have to hire, you know, talk or make a contract or with- Yeah ... all these different entities that go in the, you know, that happen in the process of building a home. Yeah. Yeah. And the security of going with a contractor, reputable company- Mm-hmm ... that was really big for us getting started. Yeah. Right? And Chris did an incredible job. So almost the last question. Okay. Um, if you were going to give advice to somebody watching the video, there's a lot of people that will see this, and they're gonna go, "I'm thinking about doing one. I know I want to do one. I don't know w- when's the right time, when's the wrong time, and number one, I don't even know if I'm qualified to do one." Right? Mm-hmm. I'm sure you felt the same way. Yeah. Yeah. What advice do you have for them? Look into it, 'cause, uh, as soon as you look into it- Research it ... you, you, yeah, research it, inform, inform yourself. Yeah. I mean, for us, the most awesome thing was that we found a company that did A through Z, so that was very easy for us. Who's that? ADU Resource. ADU Resource. ADU Resource. So when we found, you know, and it was, we, we looked at several too. Uh-huh. We looked at several, and we, uh, a contractor that said they would do everything and they would take care of everything, but it was just the fact that we would have to, like, still do our own blueprints, get somebody to do blueprints, get somebody to do... And we didn't wanna do that. Mm-hmm. So to me, it's do your research and just dive in there. You don't have to, it, it's not a commitment, you know, but you'll find out. Yeah, yeah. And, you know- Your budget is your budget, so Is there anything you learned along the way that if you knew n- if you knew what you know now that you didn't know in the beginning, would you have made any, any changes? Mm. Do you have any re- any regrets? Uh, I don't know. Regrets, no. I don't think we have any regrets. It's pretty good? Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. I think communication is really important, right? Yeah. Know who your contractors are. Reach out to folks, right? Like, for your own sense of security- Mm-hmm ... I think that's been really, uh, i- is an important consideration. Like, is this somebody you can call, and they'll get right back to you, right? Back to you, yeah. Your experience, very- Yeah, answer your question- Yes ... because you're going through this process, you're gonna have millions of questions. Well, there's three, three people that you should be very comfortable with. That would be your customer care person, which is Chris. Mm. Mm. And then your architect, and then your contractors. Yeah. Those three- Yes ... you know, you gotta have an open door conversation- Mm-hmm ... uh, pipeline to. And not one, but three, right? Mm-hmm. So that's, you've got three people keeping an eye on your project. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's our model- Yeah. Yeah ... that's how we do it. Yeah. Um, okay, one last question. If you did it all over again, would you recommend ADU Resource Center? Most definitely. Most definitely. As a matter of fact- ... they have- We have. We, like, we already, um, we recommended Chris to a few people, and he already, he, he closed, he closed the deal, I think. Or he already finished the project. They finished another project, right, with Matt. We don't say the word closed. We say facilitated. Facilitated. Facilitated. Facilitated. With a family member. With a family member. And they had great experiences. Great experiences, yeah. So... I mean, that's a testament, right? Like- Besides the fact, like, we, all our neighbors, 'cause we all, we all have, like, pretty much large, have come by. And like, it was to the point where I told, I called Chris and I told him, "Hey, you need to bring me business cards, because I mean, I give them your number, but if you have a business card, I can just give them your business card." Uh-huh. And they, they, I finished them, all of them. They're all gone. I was like, "You need to give me more." Well, thank you for the kind words, guys. Yeah, thank you. And thanks for today. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. And by the way, we are gonna take you up on what, at least one more open house- Oh, yeah. Definitely ... because I believe you have a little bit of time before the final move in. The final, yeah. Yes. The move in day. And just, like, to finish the final details, and then it'll be just, you know, uh, facili- what do you say, facilitated? Facilitated. All right. Well, listen, uh, we're with Arman and, uh, Raul in La Habra. And if you want to build your ADU, contact the number below.