Sep 245 min read

Q&A with ATL ADU Clients Angela & Johnny

Tell us a little about yourself. How long have you lived in Ormewood Park?

(Angela) We’ve lived here for 5 years. Before that we lived a couple streets over for 16 years, so we’ve been in the neighborhood for a long time. Our last house was 800 square feet so we outgrew it pretty quickly. When we were looking for a house, we tried to find one with an ADU or in-law suite, but we couldn’t find anything. When we found this house it was in our price range and it also happened to have this really nice backyard space.

Angela and Johnny added a green tile backspash, wall mounted TV, and Murphy Bed as they prepare to list their ADU as a short term rental.

What led to your decision to build an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in your backyard?

(Angela) Family was the main reason. Johnny's family is in South Carolina and mine is in North Carolina. Earlier in their lives it was not a bad drive to come and stay for 3-4 days, but now it’s tiring, so when they come to stay, it can be for a week or two. And for that amount of time, it’s nice for them to have their own space. They don't necessarily want to hang out in your living room 24/7. Out here they can have their own downtime and have things easily accessible. For example, there isn’t a full bathroom on the main level of our home. So we would worry about them going up and down stairs and now we don’t have to worry about that.

Longer term this has become a part of our retirement plan. It could go a couple different ways, we could move out here and rent out the main house and this could be our base while we travel. Or if we completely move in retirement, we’ve got two rental properties instead of one, which makes it a better financial decision long term.

The Studio / 1ba 'East Lake' ADU is 308 sft with a 57 sft porch. This ADU benefits from being on an ally which provides easy access and off street parking. In the City of Atlanta, you can rent the primary home and the ADU.

Why did you decide to work with ATL ADU CO rather than take a DIY approach?

(Angela) Expertise was the bottom line for me. We talked to a lot of people and they all think they can throw one together, but based on our research we knew it wasn’t quite that simple. There are a lot of people that think they can build an ADU but they don’t know the rules. I would say most people I talked to didn’t know the rules! And that can make you nervous when you’re budgeting a large amount of money and you don’t want things to go wrong. So having someone that knows how to navigate that system was important to me. We were lucky to find someone who had expertise.

(Johnny) And we wanted it to look and feel like a home. We looked at some of the prefab options and it just looked like you put up a shed in the backyard. We wanted something that tied in with our primary home and made it feel like an extension of the home. Plus having someone that you trust, that knows how to do it correctly, that cuts out a lot of the problems you could have along the way.

How did you decide to go with the East Lake studio model?

(Angela) At first we were looking at the 1bd / 1ba RTown. To be honest, when we first talked I was having Covid sticker shock and I was trying to get my brain around budget. So we eventually downsized to the smaller East Lake for budget, but I'm so glad we did! Looking back, I think the RTown would have been too big of an option for the space. If it was just a grass backyard it would have been fine, but living on Moreland we have to park in our backyard. The East Lake studio is a perfect fit back here.

The backyard was essentially one large parking area before and now it provides much needed housing. Alley ADUs make so much sense because it's like building efficient housing on a vacant, street facing lot in the city.

How was your experience during construction?

(Angela) I thought it was great. We lived through two major remodels in our previous house that were brutal. So I was nervous about going through construction again, but I didn’t have to think too much about this. We had routine calls and communication with everyone went really well. There were a couple bumps but we thought that was fabulous for the amount of work that went into this.

How do you utilize your ADU currently?

(Angela) We have had one parent stay for a week so far and our 13 year old daughter uses it a lot! She uses it for voice lessons and does Karaoke with her friends, so it’s nice to have a separate space for that. Johnny put in a hook up for her to do aerial, which is like yoga but in the air, and we definitely don’t have space for that in the main house.

Future wise we’re so close to the airport for friends who live out of town, this is a place they could stay overnight on their way to catch a flight. And we will look at some short term rental options when we don’t have visitors here. The current phase is like trail run stays to figure out furniture and anything you wouldn’t think about until you stay here. So once we iron out the details and get photography done we will list it.

With privacy, thoughtful design (like this Murphy Bed), and proximity to the Beltline, their ADU will do very well as a short term rental.

What would you say to others who are considering building an ADU?

(Angela) As long as you have identified a need and a use for it, I can’t see a downside at this point. I would definitely do your research and have a solid budget in mind, but we came in under budget. It was a very straightforward decision for us.

(Johnny) It checks so many boxes, income wise, family wise, and kids. It’s already a crucial part of how the house and the family interact. It really was nice having my dad stay here and feel comfortable because he’s not in a hotel or our spare room.

(Angela) Also can we talk about how awesome the extra fridge space is?! I didn’t realize how great that was going to be but I’ll buy something from Costco and think “this will never fit in the freezer…oh wait, we have another freezer!” Seems silly but that has been a big deal. Do it for the fridge space! haha