The Living Is (Mostly) Easy for the Residents of Three California ADUs

Kelly Vencill Sanchez
·2 min read

Backyard units are the new normal for everyone from renters to entire families looking for a starter home. Here’s what it’s actually like to live in one.

Brian and Melissa's two young children spend hours playing in the yard. With Melissa's mother in a house on the same property, the kids have easy access to Grandma whenever she's in town. "It's such a unique experience having multiple generations together," Brian says. "If the kids get up early, they can just run over to Melissa's mom's and spend time with her."

Mary Kawar never planned to leave the home she’d owned for 15 years. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area community of El Cerrito, it boasted a lifetime’s worth of treasures, from antique furniture and souvenirs collected on her travels to photos of her children and grandchildren. But during the pandemic, Mary’s daughter, Jennifer, asked if she would consider moving in with her. Mary, now 88 and semi-retired from her career as an occupational therapist, liked the idea.

"I loved my house and had no intentions of leaving it until I left the planet, but it was more than I needed," she says. "And Jennifer wanted me closer if or when I needed additional support."

Mary Kawar made the most of limited space in her backyard ADU in Berkeley with Clei's Circe wall bed and Genie convertible table, both from Resource Furniture in San Francisco.
Mary Kawar made the most of limited space in her backyard ADU in Berkeley with Clei's Circe wall bed and Genie convertible table, both from Resource Furniture in San Francisco.

For her part, Jennifer had never thought about building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), but she’d just purchased a home in Berkeley with a backyard art studio that she figured could be converted into a standalone apartment for her mom. "I thought it would be easy and relatively inexpensive because it already had plumbing, electrical, and heat," Jennifer recalls. "The lie I told myself was that it was basically an ADU—it just needed a few tweaks," she adds with a laugh.

Those "tweaks" snowballed into a major renovation, but after eight months or so, Mary was able to move into the space.

The compact yet fully outfitted kitchen enables Mary to prepare meals and host friends. The pendants are by Livex. The cabinets are standard Ikea boxes with doors by Semihandmade.
The compact yet fully outfitted kitchen enables Mary to prepare meals and host friends. The pendants are by Livex. The cabinets are standard Ikea boxes with doors by Semihandmade.

Downsizing from a 2,000-square-foot house to the 360-square-foot ADU went surprisingly smoothly, in part because Mary was willing to sacrifice size for the comfort of having family nearby. "When people hear I’m in such a small space, they say they could never do it," she says. "But it’s a unique design, with high ceilings and lots of windows. I have a regular oven and a full-size fridge as well as room for my coffeemaker and Vitamix."

Wall and shower tile from All Natural Stone in Berkeley is paired with Artisan Tiare porcelain tile from the Tile Shop in the bathroom.
Wall and shower tile from All Natural Stone in Berkeley is paired with Artisan Tiare porcelain tile from the Tile Shop in the bathroom.

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Living Is (Mostly) Easy for the Residents of Three California ADUs
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