Modern ADU in Whittier

Hi, friends. It's Danny with ADU Resource Center, and today, we are with Vance in Whittier. How are you? Doing great. Thank you. And Vache Martirosyan, California Construction. So, uh, we are gonna talk about a little bit of the design, and then get to you on the construction. So first, congratulations. And your project looks like it's real close. How, how far till the finish line? Um, I'm not sure. Vache? We're about, I would say, a week, two weeks out. Okay. I mean, it... The place is beautiful. Yeah, looks great. Completely done. Last time I was here, it was a nice, pretty lawn. Now it's a... Now, now, now it looks like there's a cottage back there. So 450 square feet, one bedroom, one bath, right? Correct. So we'll be inserting some pictures in here so we can see. So Vance, let's rewind. When you started designing with ADU Resource Center, first off, how did you even find ADU Resource Center? I think my wife found you guys on Instagram. Yeah? And, uh, we went from there. And, uh, um, I think his name was Danny, came out. Uh, was it Danny Garcia? Uh, Mike Garcia. Oh, Mike Garcia. Mike Garcia. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, he came out and, uh, and, uh, talked to us about it, and then we decided to go ahead and, uh, pull the trigger and get some plans drawn. So, so is that for family or for rental? This is gonna be for my father. Right. He's 89 years old, and, um, he lives by himself in a three-bedroom house, since my mom passed away several years ago. And it's just gonna be easier, instead of me driving back and forth to make sure everything's okay, uh, he'll be right here, you know? See, the funny thing about that, a, a lot of our clients are thinking about ADUs now instead of elderly care or, you know, the, the, um, assisted living. Mm-hmm. Quite expensive, right, as you know. And it's always a, a long ways away. So for example, um, Leisure World in Seal Beach, I think they said, like, it's 7 to $9,000 now, um, a, a month for assisted living. Wow. And how much nicer is it- What a bit. Yeah. How much nicer is it just to have mom or dad out in the backyard? You guys can have dinner and breakfast together. But- Mm-hmm ... when you've had enough love and, uh, time, go home. Go to, go to your room, uh, go to your house and so forth. So I, I think it's fantastic. Um, was it your inspiration, idea, or your, your wife's? Um, sh- my wife's always wanted to build one in the back. Uh, we have a, a local college that's always hitting us up to rent out a room to a student, and, uh, really don't want anybody in the house, and we were thinking about doing this anyways. And then with the situation came up with my father and having a huge house that he's living in on a hill, um, just figured this would probably be a good time to, to plan for it. And you know, the funny thing is, a lot of ADUs start off for family- Mm-hmm ... and then get repurposed later into a rental, right? Yeah. And I don't know if you've done the, the, the research, but do you have any idea what that 450 square foot, one bedroom can rent for on, in your neighborhood? Uh, I would say at least 1,500 a month. More, more like 2,500. You know- More like 2,500. Really? It's a, it's crazy. So I think what happens is that people say, "Well- My dad's getting a real good deal then. He's getting a great deal. But, but here's the point. So it's always going to use. It, it'll either be for family initially, or one day it could be mailbox money. Mm-hmm. And it can help, you know, with your retirement. One day you're gonna retire, and Social Security's not enough. So having a supplemental income, that could be a great thing. Mm-hmm. So on the design, is that what you visioned, or did you guys mess around with some of our templates and find something? Uh, I looked at all your templates, and they're nice, but I had kind of a strange, uh, layout for my backyard, and it wasn't gonna work because I have avocado trees I didn't want to, uh, encroach upon too much. And so I kinda laid it out myself, and, and you guys ran with it and fine-tuned it and, uh, came out nice. I, I really like the changes you guys made. When we buy homes, we don't get to make any decisions. Mm-hmm. Somebody made that decision for us. But when you build your ADU, you make the outside, the inside, uh, the flooring, the kitchens, the wall, where the dimensions of the walls... There's a lot of things that go into it. Sometimes it's fun, but I think sometimes people have a little anxiety. Did you enjoy designing yours? Yeah. No, I loved doing that. I, I'm, I'm an engineer, uh, anyways, and, and I'm always drawing something. Nice. Nice. So it was just kinda fun to kinda put it together. It's a little project, you know. So when the transfer from the design over to construction, was that a pretty smooth transition? It was fast. I mean, well, it, it took almost a year for the plans to go through the City of Whittier, 'cause they're very slow. They are. But once it happened, I mean, it was like boom, boom, boom, boom. And isn't that ironic that the construction is faster than the planning? Yeah. Right? So Vache, um, on the construction itself, how long, how, how, how long has it been in construction? I will have you answer that. No, 'cause you broke... You know when we broke ground perfectly, because that was, uh- Yeah ... that was, uh, February? Yeah, I think it was, uh, maybe the third week of February. Yeah. So- So about seven months almost. Yeah. Yeah. So, so we broke ground. We started right away. Uh, we had, you know, the design finishes start, picking out material. Mm-hmm. And then we've been g- we go- we've been going at it pretty good. It looks awesome. I, I, everybody is, is thrilled. We're, today we're having an open house. Thank you very much for inviting us out. Yeah. No problem. And, and, uh, a lot of customers like you, in the beginning, when they're first starting, they, th- we can send them plenty of videos, but there's nothing like walking through one. Yeah. So we appreciate the, the, the invite for a few hours, just to let our, our clients see what the possibilities can be, and it turned out fabulous. So is there anything that you, uh, want us to pay attention to on the construction itself or- Honestly, we love the kitchen, how the two-tone, especially with... Typically people, what they use is the same color of the countertop. Mm-hmm. They just do the six-inch backsplash. Mm-hmm. But you said, "You know what? Let's spend that extra money, and let's make it look good," and you, you went a different tone- Yeah ... that matches with the, with the, with the, uh, kitchen cabinets. Yeah. Another element that you did, which is, a lot of people don't do, I really like what you did, was, um-Your shower, you don't have that step to, to, to go in. It's all one piece. Yeah, it's beautiful. Your entire flooring, you know. Yeah, and that's, that was kind of a consideration in case my father ever needs to, uh, use a wheelchair, and we could just- 100%. You know, we could just- It's a phenomenal idea ... kinda help him get in there easily and, uh, safely. You know, he won't be stepping over something. Correct. 'Cause he, he's 89. It's, it's getting harder for him to walk, you know, so it's not gonna get better. 100%, no, 100%. You're, you're, you're, you have a egress door in your bedroom that gives you opportunity to, you know, walk out of it- Mm-hmm ... not just a window. So you have two accesses, even though you got only 450 square feet, but you got two accesses- Mm-hmm ... which is great. And it's amazing, because if you f- figure, you know, the garage is about the same size as the ADU. Um, but I mean, you, you couldn't imagine that you have a whole apartment back there f- uh, about the size of a garage. It's fantastic. Yeah, yeah. You know? Um, anything that you learned along the way now that it's coming to, your journey's coming to the end? When you started, I'm sure that you had some things, "I don't wanna make any mistakes. I hope this turns out great." Now that it's almost over, you, you know, you, you've got a little experience under your belt. For the people- Right ... that are watching the video, they're seeing it for the first time. They think, "Okay, I know I wanna do one. I don't wanna make any mistakes." What advice would you give for beginners that are just starting out and they're a little bit afraid? Um, well, s- if, if you're gonna actually go ahead and st- and start doing it, uh, I, I know I had a lot of anxiety, because I'm always thinking about the whole picture. And, um, I was worried about, you know, when, when are they gonna do this? When do I have to do this? But it was very streamlined. I didn't really have to worry about anything, because just as I started thinking about it, they would talk to me and, and, and, and, and give me the answers I needed. Um, so looking back at it, had I... If I go through this all over again, it'll be a lot easier, you know. And I think the planning phase is a little boring, 'cause there's nothing, it's uneventful. We, we can't see progress. But the construction is quite fun, because every day when the, the contractors- Yes ... leave, you can go snoop around and see what the daily progress is. Mm-hmm. So we get to see validation every single day, and I think that's the fun part. 100%, yeah. That's the fun part, so. Yeah. Um, Vache, is there anything that you, uh, would like... The open house people are here. Yeah, open house people are here, and then they're ha- it sounds like they're having a good time. Good. Uh, what I want to talk about is a lot of people when they get into something like this, and they are scared in regards to, you know, the word out there about the contractors, they're gonna tell us it's gonna cost, for example, $100,000, and then by the time it finishes, it ends up 150 or 200. How was your experience working with our team, California Construction Group, and, you know, regards to the contract, the, you know, how, how detailed it is, how, and how did you really go through that phase? Um, yeah, the, the contract was very detailed. Um, and we settled on a price, and for the most part, that hasn't changed, other than, like, some upgrades that I've made. And, uh, so it's worked out pretty well. I, I, I'm very satisfied with all of it. I think it's important that we, uh, we, we talk about this for just a second, because a lot of people are worried about the bump, the construction bump, right? And when we... We're not the cheapest, uh, ADU builder in, in Southern California. We're not the most expensive. We're in the middle- Mm-hmm ... where we can add value, right? But we tell you, "Look, you're probably going to want one of these, one of those, one of those." So we anticipate things that maybe some of the other contractors that, I don't wanna use the word lowball, but if they're gonna be buying the audition by giving you a, a dreamy low price, there are going to be some things, there are gonna be rocks that you're gonna add to the wagon. Right. Things that you want, right? And it's okay for you to bump yourself, because it's something that said, "Hey, somewhere along the line, we decided we want this. I want it. It's a little bit more than what we started out with, but I approve it because it's something that we want." That's okay as long as we don't ex- uh, uh, uh, go over your threshold. Mm-hmm. Right? Yes. Yeah. It's always nice to... Sorry, go ahead. No, no, I was just gonna say, the only thing that surprised me a little bit were all the, uh, you know, inspection fees and things. It's- Yes. They, they can kinda catch you off guard if you n- if you're not ready for that. Correct, correct. And permits. And that's... You're absolutely right, and that's exactly why we put, uh, third-party and deputy inspections- Mm-hmm ... to be excluded on contract. Because what that is, it goes back to the design company. The design company has a hired engineer, third party. Every part of inspection, for example, the engineering, uh, the, sorry, the foundation and the framing- Mm-hmm ... they had a portion of, of the engineer had to come back and observe, uh, they call it structure obs- uh, structural observation or framing observation, right? Mm-hmm. Uh, and then for them coming back, they charge about, you know, a, a number. Right. And that's whatever is the third-party inspection. Yeah. Yeah, and it wasn't overboard. It was just, like, another surprise. I'm like, "Okay." Correct, correct. A little extra again on this portion of the payment. Well, see, this, this, but this is good information- Yeah ... because if you get a bid on construction and it sounds too good to be true, well, it probably is. Yeah. Because there's other things associated with the city, that they have their own admin fees that they're gonna charge to come out and make sure that it's done right. The city is your eyes and ears. The inspector will not let the project advance if, if it's not done correctly, right? Yeah. But that service is not free. Mm. And I don't think that all the contractors are transparent. They don't talk about that. We do, and some ci- sometimes clients go, "Well, I got a lower price somewhere else." Yes, I know, but it probably doesn't include the comprehensive breakdown that we do. Mm-hmm. So good for you. Yeah. Important to know. Thank you. And, uh, and, and, and going and seeing your work, um, makes all the difference in the world, because you can see the quality of the work, say, like when it's at this stage and what people are doing here today, um, looking at the, uh, the brand-new unit. So, um, looking at your quality of work, I, I just really loved it, and I decided to go with these guys, you know? I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Last question from me then. I'm good. Anything that you wanna add? Um- I can't ... if you did it all over again, would you still recommend ADU Resource and California Construction? Oh, most definitely. All right. Yeah, I think. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Vache. Thank you. We're here today in Whittier with Vance, and if you'd like to build your very own ADU, call the number below.