Two-Bedroom Modern ADU in Pasadena, CA

Hey, everybody. It's Danny with ADU Resource Center, and today we are in Pasadena with Len and Amy. And we're looking at their ADU. Uh, we have a special treat for you. This is a type of condition, not only can you design and build from us, but if you design your ADU through someone else, we can still build it for you, which is what we did with you guys, right? So before we get started, I'll just explain, as we're talking, I'm gonna be inserting images and video in the background, so we'll just be doing the voiceovers along the way. But, uh, thank you for letting us do the open house today, right? What percentage is left? How much, how much till it's done, done? Uh, probably just, uh, 5%. Really? So just- So we're 95%? Yeah. Okay. Nice, nice. It's totally livable now. We hope to get the certificate of occupancy on Monday, so just in a few days. Now, in the beginning when we were talking, I know it was initially talked about as your mother, but that may not be the first tenant in there. It might be a renter first. So what's that story? She just not ready to say, "I want to give up my independence just yet"? Yeah. Yeah, she's kind of the, the tenant that we had in mind, and- Yeah ... we even- Long-term. Yeah, long-term. And in fact, we were originally just gonna do a one-bedroom, but she wanted two, so we did that. Okay. Um, but she's living in a house not too far away, and she likes being there, so she doesn't want to sort of downsize just yet. Understood. So yeah, we're gonna look to rent it out- Okay ... until then. So in your case, you started your journey two years ago? More than that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because you started n- uh, not with designing with us, but with, uh, Lyle at Maximal Space. How, um, how did that experience designing your own floor plan and all that, w- was it fun, or was it kind of scary? I think that once we got into the design process, it i- it is fun to kind of i- imagine what it could be like and to, um, even kind of like... I think our architect was good about thinking about the lines of sight kind of coming out of the windows. And the great thing is that this ADU actually has a better view of the San Gabriel Mountains than the main house does, 'cause it pokes out, um, to the, towards the front. Nice, nice. Um, how is it that you wound up deciding on attached versus detached? Now, you have a big yard. A lot of people would think, "I'm gonna plop it out there." But by putting it as an attached, you saved your yard, didn't you? Right. So now you have more livable space outside. Yeah. Well, and we have more privacy too, so if we have a renter, they're over here. They're not, they're not... They're- They're not looking, gawking at each other ... our house is visible to them. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we just had a really perfect space there. Okay, um- Yeah, the space worked well, and then the practical consideration, um, that our architect explained was that if it's attached, then because our main house already has solar, that we wouldn't have to add solar just for the ADU. And so- Correct. Detached, uh, by law, you have to have a s- a dedicated solar system. But since you already had it, it might not been, have been that big of a deal. But because it's attached, I think you're ready to go. We're... I'm feeling the rain coming. Yeah. Okay, so anyway, um, so once the design is done, um, they, uh, our, our good friends at Maximal Space introduced us, and then we introduced you to Freddy after we interviewed a couple. We have 10 contracting teams, and, um, I think Freddy was a good fit. How you guys getting along? We love Freddy. Yeah? Y- yeah, it's, it's worked well in that, um, Freddy's obviously the, you know, the contractor. And then, um, one of his guys, Danny, was sort of the main foreman, who was mostly on site, and we had a great relationship, um, with Danny and just, we sort of converse with him, and we got to pray with him. And so it's been really great. When we first walked the property well before this was done, we were all wandering around, looking at the logistics of everything. Did you ever imagine it's actually gonna look like this? 'Cause it didn't look like this a few months back, did, did it? Yeah, the integration with the main house is actually even beyond what we thought it would be. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. It's, it's so nice if the surprise is we exceed your expectations. The w- the building materials inside, I really, really like. One of the things that I think people are already talking about, it's bright, it's cheerful. So you didn't use any dark, dreary colors. The flooring, which I... Uh, is that a... I heard- It's bamboo, actually. So I wanted to confirm that, because somebody said, "Did you know that's bamboo?" I go, "I didn't even pay attention." So we'll get a close-up of that and insert that. But, um, everything inside is bright and cheerful. You didn't use any dark... Even the countertops are, are, are light. The, the flooring's light. So, and there's plenty of windows everywhere, so I really love the fact that it's, it's, it makes it feel bigger than what it is. And what is the size of the ADU again? 748 square feet. 748, okay, 'cause everybody was saying, "This looks bigger. I think it's 800." I said, "I don't know. I think it's 750." Yeah, I think if you go above 750, then there's some impact fees that kick in, so we- Right ... that was why we stayed under. So good point. Um, the one-time non-reoccurring impact fees are over 750 square feet. So you guys knew about that. You chose to be well under that so you don't have to pay for the school district and all the other, uh, crosswalk painting or whatever they do with that- ... whatever they do with the muni- municipality funds. Um, how was the, uh, journey, if you look back? It's been a long one. Um, if you were to kind of sum it up, was it a positive journey for you, uh, building the ADU?Yeah, I, you know, it's, uh, dramatic, but, you know, there's sort of like the, the childbirth analogy. There's some pains, there's some labor pains- Always, always ... along the way, and then there's a lot of joy when the delivery comes. Well, it's not easy. It's not. There's a lot of moving parts to building this, and building and designing a house, as you guys found out. I think w- at the end of the day, I think somebody said there's no great journey on construction. There's only disaster, terrible, or just okay. So we're trying to avoid disaster and trying to get at least okay, but hopefully the, you know, the hurdles and obstacles along the way weren't, you know, gonna be there forever in, in burnt in your mind. I think we had a really good journey. I mean, overall, I mean, watching it go up was... I would not call it a disaster or just- Good. Thank you ... yeah, we had a really positive experience. Now, for the, the people watching that are thinking about getting started, they're gonna be watching our YouTube channel, and they're gonna be watching our videos on the website. A lot of them are very, very scared. Were you guys scared starting out? I didn't wanna do it. You didn't? He had the vision for it. I just, you know, renters, building, it just seemed daunting to me. So- Yeah ... it took, we were well into the process before I was actually excited about it. Did you change your own mind, or did he change your mind? I've just been married to him long enough to know, like, if he sees something, eventually, and he did so much research and so much work, and it was just- Yeah ... little by little. Yeah. So I, I knew it was gonna happen eventually, but, um, but it took me until they started building it, I think, to actually get excited about it. Nice. Nice. How about the idea of, uh, your mother living on the property? Is that gonna be a nice thing? Yeah. I mean, one day she will be here, right? Mm-hmm, yeah. And it'd be nice that you guys can have dinner or breakfast or whatever, but when it's time to go home, she can go home. You guys can go home, and more and more, I think we're seeing two and three generation families living on the same property now with ADU legislation. I'm gonna speed it up because we're starting to get rain. So two last, two more questions. If you had any advice for any of the watchers that are about ready to start, did you learn anything of value that you could share that might help them streamline their, their project? Yeah. I think one is, um, the initial process that we went through with Maxable was a feasibility study, where they just kind of come out and, you know, for a small fee. And that was helpful just to get the lay of the land, literally- Mm-hmm ... and to sort of say, are there any hiccups that they see on the site, and on the layout, and so forth. So, and I had also done a lot of research on ADUs previously. Mm-hmm. So watched a lot of videos and talked to the, you know, county and stuff like that. So I think just, you know, that sort of, a little bit of hand-holding at the front end, and then, you know, having multiple bids, right? To have multiple contractors to talk to. Yep. And even before actually we, you and I kind of had that conversation, I had gotten bids at other points from other contractors because I thought we were further along. But every contractor you talk to, you learn something from. Right, right. Their perspective, their, their take on, on utility connections or on vaulted ceilings. So you're, you're just learning along the way. So I'd say talk to multiple contractors and visit... We also visited the site of a, something, another project that Freddie had built, and we did two reference checks. Good. So just your due diligence, and then you can go into construction phase. And do you think it's a good idea, I mean, I really appreciate us, you allowing us to have an open house today, 'cause all of these people are about ready to get started. They're just going, "Is there any chance we could walk through something before we pull the trigger," right? So this has been very helpful. I don't think you had that opportunity, did you? Well, we did. We, we, we went to- Yeah ... one of yours. We went to one of yours. You did an open house. Oh, you did? Wonderful. Wonderful. In Northwest Pasadena. Okay. And then we visited one of Freddie's in Orange County. Beautiful. Beautiful. So that was important to us. Yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. Last question. If you did it all over again, towards the end of the, the, the phase where we start the construction, would you recommend ADU Resource Center for the construction? Definitely. We would. 100%. Yeah. Thank you for the kind words. Yeah. All right, and we are in Pasadena with Len and Amy, and if you would like to build your own ADU, call the number below.