New SFR, ADU and DADU in the ‘Hood

 

10/4/23 Maple Leaf neighborhood

For the past year, I’ve been watching several residential construction projects on my walking routes. A few months ago I sketched an enormous SFR with AADU (architectural jargon for single-family residence and its attached accessory dwelling unit). Around the corner from those are the ones shown here, which confused me for much of their progress.

The original 750-square-foot house on the left, which is about a hundred years old, had been completely gutted and redesigned. Then the 3,500 square foot SFR on the right, which is set back slightly from the smaller house, was built and attached to it, making the small house an ADU (accessory dwelling unit). What confused me was the dark connecting bit (literally painted black) between them. Was it a hallway with doors between the two houses? A primary house with a mother-in-law unit? An Airbnb type of thing?

I continued to ponder the possibilities as I sketched, when the developer/builder happened to come by. Delighted to see me sketching the houses, he offered to take me inside all three (a detached accessory dwelling unit behind the other two is hidden from the street view) and answer my questions that way.

It turns out that the connecting bit does not include access to either dwelling; the “hallway” is actually a walk-in closet for one of the homes. Structurally, the two buildings are connected that way so that they could be built so close together. With four bedrooms plus three “bonus” rooms, the big house has three full stories. One of the top floor bonus rooms, which is set up to be a “media room” with a wet bar, opens to a deck with a magnificent west view of the Olympics. The price will be about $2 million (in case you were wondering).

Although I’m still not a fan of this type of modern architecture (for one thing, there’s no space for large trees, which I have only recently become more aware of in terms of benefits to residences), the floor plans seem well designed for the types of families that might live there. Learning about anything always increases my appreciation for the planning and details involved, even if I don’t necessarily care for the results.