Planning to Plan with… Planning
The opportunity to transform our garage — a useless space that was piled three or four feet high with holiday decorations and items our kid had outgrown — into what was could essentially be a studio apartment was really exciting. Not only could we get some much-needed additional space at a relatively low cost, but part of our home would actually (finally) look the way we wanted the rest of our home to look.
Our initial research on Accessory Dwelling Units was haphazard. We read articles about people who had received unicorn-like exemptions or had been grandfathered in under previous laws that seemed inapplicable. We found advocacy groups who didn’t quite seem to know how to react to winning their advocacy campaigns. We found a couple of companies that were diving headfirst into a brand new marketplace by specializing in one-size-fits-all garage conversion projects, but we weren’t impressed by their offerings.
Slowly but surely, we realized we were going to be on our own. In retrospect, our process was inefficient. We spent weeks working with Dan’s mom, an interior designer, sketching up ideas for plans — should the bed go here or there, what about the kitchen and bathroom, what kind of appliances would we need? We were so focused on looking at the “trees,” we had no idea that there were was a forest at all.
After all that wasted time, we made an initial trip to the Planning Department office in our area. After some last-second (and unfounded) paranoia about whether we somehow wouldn’t qualify to build an ADU, we got confirmation that yes, we could. From there, things started to accelerate.
The first problem we had was knowing what we wanted and where to start. The Planning and Building and Safety Departments seemed to still be working out the kinks of what was still very new legislation and to make matters worse, we really didn’t know what to ask.
They gave us a basic understanding of what we’d need to get started, including site plans, floor plans, photos, elevations, etc. There was some, but not much, information on what we could expect to spend on permits, a lot of the things that just seemed beyond our ability to complete. The more we heard, the more over our heads we felt (and we hadn’t even started yet).
An early takeaway was that while some people create their own plans, most people hire professionals. We reached out to our friend Pegah Sadr, an architect with S.L.A.G Design, and asked for her help. She gave us a great rate. We also asked Theresa’s cousin, a General Contractor, for his input, with the hope that he could eventually run the job for us.
We really wanted to wrap our heads around what the project itself would cost so we could start the process of getting a loan, but we couldn’t get anyone to give the answer we needed. Our architect wasn’t comfortable speaking for a contractor, and contractors wanted plans that weren’t fully written. The garage itself was just 360 square feet, which is fine for a weekend (or a lifetime, if you’ve lived in New York City apartments, as we both have), but really not suited for long-term stays by people other than family.
We debated whether we wanted to add on to the existing structure (ADUs can be as big as half the size of your primary dwelling to a maximum 650 square feet), but ultimately decided against it. Building a foundation and roof would be a massive additional expense compared to just re-configuring the space we already had. Since our primary “tenants” were going to be ourselves, our family and friends, the incremental improvement wasn’t enough to justify it, particularly since we’d have to move an existing shed and would lose even more of our already decreasing yard. As a compromise, we decided to take an additional 200 square feet behind the space and turn it into an enclosed patio.
Once we knew the size of the structure, we were able to get to work on some sketches with Pegah. From day one, we realized there we had brought too many cooks into the kitchen. Everyone’s ideas were good but their perspectives were different. We tried to listen to as much advice as we could and then process it through the filter of what we wanted from the space. After weeks of conversations in person, by phone, by video-conference and email, Pegah produced a design that gave us just about everything we wanted.
Of course, there’s always a catch, and as novices, we didn’t realize we should have budgeted for this one (and the others to come).
We wanted to retain the high arch of the ceiling to help prevent the small size of the garage from feeling claustrophobic. Pegah explained that the roof as built would not be able to support insulation and sheetrock. Our choices were either to build a new roof or hire a structural engineer to come up with an alternative solution. We opted for the latter, who provided a workable solution, but his calculations and drawings … well, they weren’t free.
With the engineer’s drawings and calculations in hand and after a lot of last-minute additional back-and-forth between Pegah and us, we were finally able to send something to Planning for plan check (something we didn’t, and still don’t fully, understand). We thought we were basically done with Planning and were eager to get our loan and move on to construction.
We were wrong.
