Open-Concept Modern ADU in Los Angeles, CA

Hi, everybody. It's Danny with ADU Resource Center, and today we are in East LA with Sally and Clarissa, Steve, our project manager, and Karen and Elmer, who are the contractors. And I just wanna say congratulations and thank you- Thank you ... for letting us have an open house today. Thank you. So I have to tell you, this is one of the very first ones where we got to see Steve's design with dormers, raised ceiling, and exterior cladding. So I wanna hear a little bit from everybody. This is your microphone. As we go around, just be sure and pass it. So let's, let's start with you guys. I think we just talked off-camera, and you told me that this is for you. Your mom lives up in the front, so how cool is that that two generations get to live on the same property? Oh, I think it's great. Um, yeah, actually, it's my grandmother's house in the front. Grandmother's? Grandmother. She's 96. Um, so she allowed us to, to build back here and, and have the ADU so we could be close with her and help, help take care. I, I love it. I love it. I think we're gonna be darting in some before and after pictures of the transition, so that's gonna be exciting. So all right, so who's responsible for the design and the look of this between you? Um, Steve. Well- Actually Steve? Well, Steve, yeah. Steve, Steve had a lot of the ideas. When our, our first meeting was just kinda like, "We're gonna do this." And we had met with other people before, and it was very cookie cutter. It wasn't... It's like, you know, basic. But when we met Steve, we all got a really good vibe from him, just like, "Okay, let's see what he can do." And he hasn't let us down so far, so. So, so w- why ADU instead of just going and buying a property? Like, everybody thinks, "I need to go buy my own house. I gotta buy my own property." But why build an ADU on, in the back of grandma's house? Uh, I feel like it's just more affordable for us right now. Um- Was it a little affordable or a lot affordable? A lot more af- A lot. A lot more affordable. There's no way we could go out and buy a house right now in this market. I mean- Right, right. And it would be an older house, too, wouldn't it? It'd be an older house. Yeah, older house. Not fixed up. I mean, the- Gladly build. Yeah. Yeah. The, the houses around here, we've looked at the prices, and it's way out of our price range. When you started out, were you nervous? Were you saying, "Hey, I don't know how to design a house"? Uh, you know, you're... I know he's your guide, but, I mean, we're all saying, "I've never designed a house in my life." No. And this is a custom house. This is not a Home Depot shed. This is really, really nice. So I'm sure it was a little bit ner- Oh ... uh, intimidating at first. Oh, very much, yeah. It was. It was a lot. Um, we didn't know anything, so he guided us step by step, told us the whole process, and- Like, I had- ... it's come to fruition ... zero vision. Every time he'd say, like, "It's gonna look like this. It's gonna look like that," I'm like, "Dude, I don't see what you see." But I did have a lot of trust and faith in him and his vision, and we weren't wrong to do that. I mean- So- ... it's a beautiful house. So as it got going and building momentum, I'm sure your confidence built. 'Cause when you start seeing what he sees, you say, "Okay, I get it. I get it." Mm-hmm. "I can see how things are gonna look." So how did you determine the color of the cabinets and the flooring and this countertop and stuff like that? I, I watch a lot of HGTV. Yeah? Yeah, and I just... I mean, I watch a lot of that, and I just- Nice. I mean, I mean, he helped. Steve helped a lot. I mean, I was like, "Do you think this is gonna look good? Do you think..." Good. All right, Steve, I'm gonna ask you a couple questions. So how did you see the vision? Because I saw the before pictures, and it was just grass. Yeah. It was dirt, right? So how did you visualize this? Well, most importantly, I was trying to do something a little bit more, uh... Wanted to show the clients that, you know, that you guys can build, you guys can design and build your own home. When is, uh, you know, when is, uh, only... When... How many times you guys think in your lifetime you guys are gonna be able to design and build your dream home in California? Right. Didn't even think it was possible this lifetime. I never thought I would. You know? Right. And the goal was always to kind of break away from what a traditional ADU is. This, this, you know... And the goal was that, and again, to do it in the sense that it was essentially accessible. This is not an arm and a leg, you know, where it costs you. This is something that is reasonable and everything Well, on average, an ADU is one-third the cost of going out and buying a new home. One-third. Oh, really? But you get everything brand new. You can have your windows where you want them, the doors. We're gonna talk about those windows in a second- Oh ... right? But, I mean, every single thing that you want is brand new. So as, imagine going out and buying a, you know, the typical mid-century house built in 1955, almost 80 years old, right? And now all of a sudden you've got all these maintenances and repairs and so forth, and it's an arm and a leg, and it costs three times as much as this. But with the help of good contractors, we can keep that cost down. So, uh, I think I wanna segue into you guys now, so Karen and Elmer with Danix Construction. Uh, I was talking to you guys out be- outside before we started, and I asked Elmer, I said, "Have you ever done these, uh, dormers before or the exterior cladding?" And I won't tell, I won't say what he said, but he said it was, it was not easy. But he says now that he looks at it- Yeah, now that I look at it, it's, it's, it's amazing. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. We have the right people to do the job, too. Right. Yeah. The workers are great, that they're really, you know, dedicated to the work that they do. Um, Elmer, who manages the field, he's committed. Like, our motto is, you know, we're committed to our clients. We're committed to getting the project done, to make the client happy. Right. And of course, the quality of the work that we do. And, and just a plug for Danix, it's a family-owned company. Right. Yes. Everybody works for you. There's no subs. They're all employees. Yeah, yes. It's all in-house. Yes, we have all in-house. And you guys have been doing this for 2,000 years, so you know what you're doing. Right? And actually, actually, you're the licensed GC. Right, yes. You're the inside person. He's the outside talent, right? Exactly. Yeah, that's a wonderful team. That's great. So- Yes, I handle everything in the office. It makes it easier, 'cause a lot of contractors sometimes get behind because they have to do everything. They have to do the paperwork. They have to take, you know, take care of the field. With us- We, we talk to each other 20 times a day, and i- it's like, you know, I need this to get everything done, all the paperwork. I handle that at home. He handles the field. Right. So we work great together, even, you know, as a married couple, and we can separate the, the job from the marriage. I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. 'Cause you're not supposed to bring work home with you, but for you guys- Yeah, yeah ... I'm sure it's impossible, right? Yeah. So what did you learn along the way? We're gonna have some people watching the videos, obviously, and they're at the bottom of Mount Everest looking up, and they're gonna go, "Oh, we don't know if we know how to do this. We don't know what to do." One word, patience. Patience. Patience. A lot of patience 'cause we did not know anything. Like, we see a blank slate, and then we see things going up, and we're just constantly wondering, "What's next? What's next? Are we there yet? Are we done yet?" Steve can ask you, we've been very on edge, like, "Is it ready?" You know? Yeah, yeah. So I think we both learned how to be a little bit more patient and just have a little bit more faith and trust, and we weren't led wrong. And the design phase is a boring part. There's nothing... It's very uneventful. Mm-hmm. We're just waiting and waiting. Because it's so popular, there's 80,000 ADUs in California now, right? And there's 2,500 applications right now with Los An- greater Los Angeles County already. So the line is long. And once you finally get through the planning phase, I think this construction phase is a lot funner because you can see daily progress, right? Mm-hmm. It's a lot more fun. Yeah. We were in here every night. Right, right. Do you have any advice, um, for anybody that is concerned about budget? I know you said it's cheaper than buying a house, but we're all a little nervous when we see the zeros, right? And we're gonna go, "Ooh, ooh, this is gonna be expensive." Um, everybody goes over budget a little bit. Did you go over budget a little bit? A little bit. Just a little. Did you get what you wanted, though? But, yeah- Absolutely ... every- everything act- that we wanted. So in retrospect, the money is well spent? Well, it's worth, well worth it. It's, yeah. Okay, okay. It's what you need. 'Cause that's, that's obviously a big thing for our clients c- because the first thing, they go, "Oh, my God. How much is this gonna cost?" But if you get w- what you want, or more importantly, if they exceed your expectations, then you come out on top. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, last question, if you did it all over again, would you still go through ADU Resource Center? Absolutely. 100%. I'd go through Steve- 100% ... and through the company of Danix, absolutely. All right. Thank you. Okay, so I'm here with Sally and Clarissa in East LA, with Steve, our project manager, and Karen and Elmer with Danix Construction. And if you would like to build your own ADU, call the number below.