New Accessory Dwelling Project
With the recent changes to state law regarding Accessory Dwelling Units, you can see how various municipalities are dealing with changing their planning ordinances to come into compliance with the state legislation. In Oakland, they are allowing development within a house, and development attached to a house. They are allowing you to convert an existing […]
Accessory Dwelling Units – Can You Build One?
In California right now, there is a significant amount of interest in “accessory dwelling units” (ADUs). These used to be called “granny flats”, “in-law units”, or “back yard cottages”. Now they are most commonly called “accessory dwelling units” or “secondary dwelling units”. By definition, an ADU is a smaller dwelling that is attached to, or […]
Follow Up: San Francisco Earthquake Safety Fair was good!
Thanks to everybody who came out to the San Francisco Earthquake Safety Fair last Thursday. It was a very successful event. I shared a booth with Mike Miranda of MEMGC, a contractor with whom I’ve worked for a while. Mike is something of a force of nature once he gets started. The event was sponsored […]
San Francisco Earthquake Safety Fair
Are you thinking about working on a project in San Francisco? It could be remodeling, or legalizing an in-law unit. Maybe you are thinking about adding a rental unit. Whatever it is, you probably have lots of questions. This week there is an event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium that you might want to […]
In Progress: Danville Project Breaks Ground
The project in Danville, adding a retirement apartment for the owners onto a house they will be deeding over to their children, has finally broken ground. This project has been in my studio since the late Autumn of 2015. We applied for permits back in the early Autumn of 2016. We are breaking ground in the […]
Project in Progress: Berkeley Cottage
Projects are rarely, if ever, perfect from their immediate conception. Some come together quickly. Others take longer. This project in Berkeley is somewhere in between. But it is coming together fairly quickly. We are working within the city’s planning regulations for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The projects need to be less than 750 square feet, […]
Project Comes Back to Life
Every project has it’s own pace. Some are quick. Some are slow. Some hit road blocks. Some are paused and come back. One of my projects, which had been put on “hold” back in December, has come back to life. The project is in Sunnyvale. It was a project that started out as a secondary […]
Grand Designs
Do you like watching HGTV or DIYTV? If you do, you are going to LOVE Grand Designs, a British TV series now in it’s 17th season. I discovered it streaming on NetFlix. I believe the current season may be available on Hulu. Some episodes are available on YouTube. It’s worth the effort to hunt it […]