Q&A with ATL ADU Clients Mary Ellen & Will

Tell us a little about yourselves and how long you’ve lived in Reynoldstown

Mary Ellen: We both moved to Atlanta over 10 years ago for work — neither of us is originally from here. My family ended up following me, so now my parents live nearby and my sister is just down the street. His family is still in Buffalo. We absolutely love living in Reynoldstown — we feel so lucky to be here. On the weekends, we can walk to grocery stores, restaurants, the doctor, the barber — just about everything. It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else.

This 1bd / 1ba 'Reynoldstown' ADU in Reynoldstown is two blocks from the Beltline and Krog St Tunnel, where demand for housing is incredibly high.

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

Will: When we bought this house in 2020, it felt huge compared to the studio apartments we had been renting in West Midtown. We thought we’d live here comfortably for a long time. But then our son was born a year later, we were both working from home, and we quickly realized three bedrooms wasn’t quite as spacious as we’d thought — especially once we started planning for a second child.  But we love the neighborhood and have a great mortgage rate so we really didn’t want to move.

At the same time, my family was visiting frequently and often staying in ADUs nearby, spending a lot of money on Airbnbs. We got to see a wide range of them. I’ve always been into urban planning and density — I read all the blogs — and the idea of having our own ADU was super appealing. But our backyard is small, and we figured it would only happen someday when we had a bigger house with more land.

Then ATL ADU published a blog post about building a studio model, and we suddenly thought, “Wait, maybe we can do this now.” We grabbed a measuring tape, went out back, and realized it might actually work. And our backyard wasn’t doing anything for us. It was buggy, sloped, and the deck was unsafe. We never used it — and Cabbagetown Park is just a block away. So the idea of transforming our unused yard into livable space that could also host visiting family was exciting.

Fortunately, they are zoned R-5 which has 4' side and rear setbacks, otherwise this project would not have been possible. Let's fix that for others Atlanta.

With a growing family, many people consider a home addition. What made an ADU feel like the right solution for you?

Mary Ellen: We considered adding a room onto the house, but the layout made it tricky. Ultimately, the ADU made more sense for our lives. We wanted a quiet space to work from home, room for guests to stay comfortably, and a place to work out that wasn’t in the middle of the living room. We love our home as it is and didn’t want to change it. And we had a newborn at the time, and the thought of renovating the main house — even if we could move out — felt completely overwhelming. We had zero interest in going through that.

The ADU is just 4' off the primary home. The City of Atlanta does not define a minimum distance between the primary and accessory homes.

How are you using your ADU currently?

Will: It’s a true flex space — we use it for work, for guests, for hobbies. There’s a workstation in the bedroom, so when one of us works from home, we can head out there for a quiet, comfortable space. It feels like leaving the house, but your home is right there. We’ve hosted family overnight — my parents stayed for 10 nights, which was the longest so far. Our 3-year-old would wake up and run out to see Grandma and Grandpa. It was perfect. We weren’t all under the same roof, but they also weren’t six blocks away. We could come and go freely, and it felt so easy.

Mary Ellen: I like to sew, and before the ADU, I’d be spreading fabric out on the living room floor every night and packing it all away afterward. Now I have space where I can just leave everything and come back to it. Plus, the attic has a surprising amount of storage — that’s been a huge bonus.

Due to the proximity to the main house, the front of the ADU, with several large windows, faces the back of the property for more privacy and natural light.

Why did you decide to work with ATL ADU instead of taking a more DIY route?

Will: We never seriously considered doing it ourselves. We were both busy with work and had just had a baby — we signed the contract within a week of her being born. We talked to others who had gone the DIY route and maybe spent less, but we didn’t want to be project managers or troubleshoot every detail.

Mary Ellen: From the beginning, ATL ADU was clearly thinking ahead. When you visited and talked about building on piers because of our drainage issues, we realized — these people know what they’re doing. We’ve heard horror stories and we didn’t want that risk. Working with someone who understood the permitting process and how to manage subs was worth the turnkey service for peace of mind.

We also visited a few of your projects and spoke to past clients — every one of them had a great experience. One former client told us, “I don’t even know when the guys are showing up, but there’s always progress, and if something goes wrong, they call me and fix it the next day.” That was exactly what we needed.

The ADU was built on piers to account for stormwater and reduce the impact on surrounding trees due to the small lot size.

How was the construction experience, especially being just a few feet from your house?

Mary Ellen: Surprisingly easy! We barely noticed it. We thought our front yard would get torn up from staging materials and that we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our porch — but none of that happened. It was all handled really well.

What would you say to others considering building an ADU?

Will: We took our backyard that was completely underutilized and turned it into a really valuable part of our lives. Now we have more space, visitors can stay comfortably, and a better quality of life. It’s also a step toward what we believe in — more housing, more density, more options in our cities. If anyone ever moves here permanently, that’s two more people walking to Publix instead of driving. That’s good for the environment and good for the community. I’m always saying we need more housing — this was a way for us to contribute in a small but meaningful way. We’re not going to save the world, but it feels nice!

Mary Ellen: If you’re even a little bit curious, just reach out. For a long time, we thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could build an ADU?” but figured it wasn’t possible. Not only was it possible — we fit the one-bedroom Reynoldstown model in our tiny backyard. You might be surprised what’s doable.

An underutilized back yard was converted into 32% more living space in a very desirable neighborhood, adding value and quality of life for their family.

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If we can help you and your family build an ADU like this, and you're in the Atlanta area, we'd love to connect!