TOW family eager for extra space during pandemic sees ADU as quick fix

The Moss family loves their three-bed, two-bath Top of the World home but the pandemic’s demands stretched them to their limits.

Finance professional Aaron Moss started working full-time from a home office in one of the bedrooms while his wife Carol and their two young daughters attempted to Zoom from their own corners. The nine- and- 12-year-old girls have always shared a bedroom, making distance learning a challenge at times.

“By the end of 2020, we had just run out of space,” Carol Moss said. “We wanted the ability for my girls to have their own rooms.”

Coordinating the girls’ distance learning around their father’s work meetings forced the conversations about building munch-need living space.

“It felt like every day when everyone would get to their own spaces and try to be on Zoom and try to be quiet while he was on his calls,” Carol Moss said.

Given the time-intensive and costly nature of doing a home addition, Carol Moss got serious about investing in an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), which has fewer restrictions due to recent changes in state law. She’s been interested in prefabricated ADUs after reading about them in Sunset Magazine and Dwell. That’s how Carol Moss connected with the Redwood City-based Abodu, which bills itself as a full-service contractor for prefabricated ADUs.

“They seemed to check all the boxes in terms of the size and the design we were looking for,” Carol Moss said.

A 340-square-foot ADU was an attractive option because it would quickly provide the family extra space in their home while providing Aaron Moss with a standalone office space complete with a full kitchen and bathroom, Carol Moss said.

With her parents currently living in Oregon, she also feels reassured to have a long-term plan to provide them with a studio where they can live closer to their granddaughters. It’s also a short-term solution to invite overnight guests without overcrowding their home.

On Friday, a construction crew used a crane to hoist the entire ADU off a flatbed truck and over the Moss’ backyard fence. The project’s total cost was about $240,000 for the studio’s base cost, including $40,000 for construction services to build the foundation and utilities.

Some neighbors are already saying they want to explore a similar project on their properties, Carol Moss said.

The Housing and Human Services Committee is committed to making the ADU process as user-friendly as possible to provide housing to seniors, workers, and community members, the panel’s chair Alex Rounaghi said.

“In the next few months we will be recommending policy solutions to incentivize the affordability of building ADUs that will be rented to lower-income residents,” he wrote in a text message. “We are excited about the progress that has been made over the last year and look forward to building on it.”

Community members are encouraged to attend and share input at the housing committee’s monthly meetings.

“As Abodu expands its service area across California, it is encouraging to see ADU adoption by cities like Laguna Beach,” Abodu Co-Founder and CEO John Geary said in a statement. “We are continually inspired by homeowners like Carol Moss who demonstrate the value that ADUs bring to their community.”

The plan is for the Mosses’ younger daughter to move into her new room, largely because her furniture is easier to move.

“They can’t wait until the day my husband moves his office,” Carol Moss said.