so this time I'm including the costs how to build an Adu in California in this video I'm going to cover timeline the steps to build an Adu the cost to build an Adu um and just My overall experience building an Adu here in California if you don't know what an Adu is that's okay that's why you're here it's an accessory dwelling unit that could be an attached wait attached detached uh above you know some sort of additional unit on your home or uh multif family so I actually made another video covering how to build natu but what I noticed was that most people just like left the video immediately once I said I'm not going to be covering the costs so this time I'm including the costs but but keep in mind the cost might have changed by now this is just from my personal experience so the Adu that we built detached 12200 ft three bedroom three bath now mind you our lot is about 14,000 square ft California uh depending on where you are in California that could be bigger small in Orange County 14,000 ft is a that's a pretty sizable lot it's a good size plenty of room to build okay now let's get into the fun stuff I'm going to just give you a quick summary right timeline we met our architect May of 2021 we completed our Adu we got our certificate of occupancy which is the final sign off from those City inspectors in January the very beginning of January 2023 so my math tells me that that's a 21mon project and so there is definitely some things that we as the owners and like project managers could have done better or you know expedited the process but this is our first first one so really happy with the results learned a lot and got it done in a reasonable amount of time now this is what everyone wants to know right the cost so the cost was about $285,000 that and when I say cost I'm talking about architect fees permit fees uh planning fees developer fees labor material everything that was everything to build it um and so you guys might be wondering well Darren did you just have like $285,000 laying around the answer is no that' be cool if I did but we finan basically the whole project so if you do the rough math here right uh $285,000 divided by 1,200 ft comes out to roughly $237 per square feet we built it with the intent to kind of cash flow but also a lot of family and friend use and so actually the first year after it was completed we we didn't rent it out really at all we would really just have it for friends and family and they would pay a small cleaning fee because we would get like a professional cleaner but for the most part we wanted to go through this process learn about the Adu process and then obviously have an Adu this year we have decided to start renting it out and it's going to rent for about 4,200 a month that's with utilities included so from a investment perspective if we purely just rented it out you know 12 months a year it'd be 4,200 a month which is about you know $50,000 a year of additional revenue and so don't get me wrong like there there definitely is the option to do that and we would definitely consider it because we'd be cash flowing uh really well with considering our financing costs okay so now I'm going to go into the time timeline of the build then I'll cover the costs and then I'll just share my takeaways biggest lessons and then you know if you if you have any questions just feel free to email me I'll I'll drop my email at the end of the video first how did we find the architect uh I have a friend who had built Adu that I had walked in our city so went and checked that out and I just asked for uh introduction that was all so basically you know this the plans cost $7,000 sure we could have gotten it cheaper but this was a trusted architect I knew that they had worked in our city a lot they've done many projects here very familiar with the process and they handled submitting everything to the city so uh I thought that was a fair price um okay so going back to the timeline of the draft right um for our Adu met beginning of may we sent our revisions at the beginning of June we end up looking it you know over with a couple other people that built adus one of our friends interior designer so we get everyone's intake we get everyone's feedback we submit our revisions and notes to the architect so we finally get through like draft one right just of the the plans and the layouts the lights where everything goes in the rooms the plumbing in the actual Adu itself then we move to the next step which is the elevations this is like the outside of the uh Adu and what it's going to look like you know how high everything is you know what the ceiling pitch will look like all that good stuff and so we got those first elevation draft or we got our our draft for elevations like the first week of July received first week of July once again we kind of take our time we respond I think at the end of July um I think within a week we get that all sorted and then first week of August everything's submitted to the city for plan check and sure enough we you know plan check is approved by the city August 31st so that means you know they have to respond in our city at least they had to respond within six weeks and so we got some notes back uh the first week of October we had to lower some of our windows we had to change a couple things here and there but architect took care of it all here are some other fees that you're going to have to pay before you can actually get your plans approved and like per and get all your permits and all your sign offs and yday we have developer fees that you have to pay to the school district and then you're going to have public works for us that means sewer right so additional fees to those other organizations that are not the city but within our County so basically it takes us until December to pay off all these developer fees City fees uh Public Works fees now we could have probably done this a lot faster but it was the holidays we were doing other stuff um if this was like a project purely for um return on investment we would have been probably done with this a lot sooner so I think I think it was like mid December we finally paid our last developer fee to the school district and we got the go-ahead from the school district you're good to pull permits so what does that mean pulling permits means you can actually start construction right uh at this time we start interviewing contractors we give them our plans we go hey like these are ready to be pulled and we start getting bids from contractors so it takes us you know it's the holiday season so of course not all contractors are going to get back to us we got three or four bids we end up going with another referral but we started we broke ground March very beginning of March and so the construction process starts with site prep so with site prep contractor comes they spray paint the area they're going to be working in you know we got a little Bobcat if you're not sure what that is is it's a heavy machinery that will dig move a bunch of dirt and soil you know Break Stuff up break some concrete up and so they're getting ready to trench you know they're digging up in the front yard as well to create some some sewer lines and water lines from where uh from the street and our main water line to the Adu in the back so basically this full month of March right and you're going to see some clips here you're going to see some pictures and videos of the site prep um they're getting this they're getting all the trenching which is all the underground piping right uh ready and then they're they're preparing to lay the foundation they start installing all the footings right it's all this wooden framing to get ready to pour all the concrete be prepared as well you know we had I think a week of rain which set us back a week CU they can't really be doing this type of work in the rain right it'd be muddy it'd be unstable they can't be driving the Bobcat like that so yeah I mean here's here's like a quick here's a quick like overview of what it looked like okay so by the end of March they were ready they finished the footing right foundation work finished the underground plumbing you got to get some inspections so we got to pass on that before we can move on to the next step so April they were still you know continuing with that trenching doing some underground electrical work doing some underground water pipes then once all that stuff was passed then we could pour the concrete the Foundation was set at the end of April that was completed so basically March and April trenching Plumbing underground lines Foundation then may framing so if you're not sure what framing is that's the wooden frame of the home going up this process is really cool to watch here's some photos and videos you can kind of see this is like when the home starts to take shape so this framing process took about 2 and 1/2 weeks and that's also you know by the end of May right like third week end of May is framing went all the way up both two stories and boom roof on top so framing was a big milestone because once you do the framing then you could start doing the MEP so what is MEP mechanical electrical Plumbing rough inside the home right so they're wiring stuff through the wood they are doing the PEX Plumbing which is um peex is basically like this plastic instead of copper going through the house for your water so they basically spent the whole month of June doing the mechanical electrical and plumbing and in this time frame they're also starting to install the windows they're starting to install the windows they're doing the roof shingles they're the house is starting to look a little bit more like a house it's just not wrapped up yet and so in terms of inspections the next big inspection we had was MEP right what I just talked about mechanical electrical Plumbing we had a bunch of Corrections on that nothing major luckily but we did have Corrections um also one of our Windows was installed too low so they had to like reframe that back up but that happens that's part of construction now you're probably wondering where are we in the timeline it's it's the first week of August we got an inspection at the end of July so we had Corrections we finished those Corrections we get another inspection and yeah by the end of the first week of August we passed MEP which is a huge milestone you're wondering why is that a huge milestone well now you could wrap the house your house can get enclosed and you can start doing all the you know insulation closing up the house okay so then the house gets insulated they install the lath they install they basically wrap the house so now your house is no longer just like wooden frames everywhere it's enclosed it's got that cool little paper with the little like chicken wire looking stuff over it you know you'll see it right here um you see this a lot with construction and then that passes so now it's like middle of August and we get to start hanging drywall so we start to really get to enclose the walls inside the home so drywall gets hung another inspection for that uh it's the end of August this thing is starting to look like a real like house building you know the timeline gets a little foggy because now it's like we did some additional work to our yard plus concrete work for the Adu but um I think that added probably like an extra two weeks or three weeks to the timeline if it was just the Adu then we would have just stayed on track um but obviously taking the contractors resources to work on a different project for like our main house slard instead of like working on the finish of the Adu added some time so this was on us as owners project managers like I said said if this was just for like return on investment we probably would have finished this maybe 2 or 3 months faster but now it's September and so now they are working on running the gas line so the gas line was was on the whole other side of the yard so that was a pretty long trench and then finish work so what do I mean by finish work basically from the middle or like later part of September last probably last third or fourth week of September until basically the new year was all interior finishes so installing the cabinets installing the flooring installing the stair rails tile in all of our showers backsplash in the kitchen installing all the light fixtures installing like making sure everything in the house actually works um and then with a new build construction when you pour your own Foundation there's going to be some settling so even after you know some of the stuff was installed for example if you have luxury vinyl plank and you don't cut enough space for the wood to exp or the the planks to expand you can have bubbling so your floor could be uneven so basically the next you know three months October November December we're really just dialing in the interior of the home and then uh also some exterior Landscaping work just making sure that Adu had like a little patio area um we did it with DG instead of grass so we wouldn't have to worry about maintenance for those of you who don't know DG is just decompos osed Granite so it just looks kind of like that sand material and it's just hard packed so yeah here's here's some like photos of the finish work right here's like the here's like the shower the kitchen the cabinets you know everything's going in um this stuff just takes time because it's more skilled more detailed but yeah we also had a couple revisions that we had to take care of so you get these inspections you get revisions those revisions take time right because the contractors are working on other jobs as well so I I think at the end um the biggest thing was that if I would have pressed harder on my contractor to make sure this got finished sooner it would have this isn't like I needed to get this rented out right away now if it was a different type of project I probably would as I mentioned before got this done two to three months faster oh also because we are in California we had to get solar installed so that was another permit that was another sign off uh that whole process probably took two weeks though but yeah we did that also at the end of December so yeah all in all that's the timeline from from actual construction which started in March of 2022 we got our final sign off January of 2023 which I think is pretty pretty reasonable probably could have done a done it a little bit faster but like still very reasonable the permitting and the planning process took us quite a bit longer because we just didn't we didn't press for it as much that probably could have been done you know two or three months faster as well now that I've actually gone through the timeline of everything drop a comment if this has been helpful um or if you would want more information on other things uh without your feedback I really don't know if this is helpful or not now I'm going to dive into the costs I think this is actually one of the things that people really like to know about so like I said in previously architect 7,000 we play we paid the planning department in our city $2,168 we paid the public works so sewer sewer traffic and school fees we paid 8,000 8,056 and then to actually get the permit we paid $678 roughly so before we even could start construction this project costed about $24,000 and so that's even before we started building so now we took those plans we interview these contractors and then this is just for labor and raw materials covered by the contractor so like nails paint plaster you know whatever whatever the contractor needed to do the basic stuff like we agreed that that would be covered in these fees and we have a very clear draw schedule so 10% deposit 20% Upfront for materials I tried to fight that a lot the contractor said no I I need this 20% UPF front um a lot of it is going to be for like the framing and so basically like right when he got the money he's like I'm going to order all the framing so the overall agreed upon contract for labor and raw materials with my contractor was $2,850 and so I'll break that down for you in our draw schedule it's right here 10% deposit up front just I guess as a good faith which I to be honest I tried to fight this upfront 10 to 10% deposit a lot cuzz I didn't want the contractor to like run away with my money or whatever but um after going through the project I do understand why he needed this and then also he took a 20% materials deposit which I thought was like whoa this is a lot of money you know but within the first two weeks I realized that he bought a lot of wood there was a lot of wood that showed up in my house it had to be craned in right because there was so much wood for all the framing that they were going to be doing and then my first 10% payment was upon completion of foundation the next 10% was completion of the framing then it was another 10% completion of rough me then the next one was completion of drywall after that completion of Stucco after that completion of tile and flooring last but not least completion of project and so I actually love the way my contractor operated and did this because it was was very much so hey I have to pass these inspections right I have to go get the city inspection and sign off before you pay me anything because that means the job's not done and so now this is actually one of my main trusted contractors that I work with because I know the way he does business I know that he's trustworthy um and I know that he gets things done okay so now you're wondering like where is the other 285,000 that you mentioned at the beginning of the video because this is like about 212,000 plus 24,000 we're missing a good chunk here so the remaining portion was materials so we paid for the cabinets paid for our own solar we paid for the flooring we paid for the tile in the bathrooms we paid for all the light fixtures we paid for all the counters right we pay for basically everything inside the contractor did not provide that but the contractor did go pick that stuff up for us and then install everything right so there were some additional things that we paid for that were not included in the rough materials right um and those were the finishes so this is also a piece that could vary quite a bit depending on what kind of finishes do you want in your Adu right if you're going to go high-end marble well that's a lot more expensive than our you know basic quartz or if you're going to go with real wood floors that's going to be more expensive than the luxury vinyl length that we chose so um you can also go kind of crazy with light fixtures or you know different types of showers um or the tile that you select so those costs can vary all in all yeah the cost for us was about 285,000 that's contractor labor right all the fees for the architect uh the fees regarding planning planning phase I'll call it right so the architect the city developer fees the permitting all that good stuff um and then materials right so tile bathtub uh fixtures right that could be your plumbing fixtures your light fixtures flooring your cabinets your counters your sink all that stuff if you enjoyed this video so so far please like this video And subscribe to the channel biggest takeways would be don't get really upset over things that you can't control I learned that right away with this project because it started raining when they started working so that set us back I think a week or two right away right so there's just things that we can't control just don't lose your cool over it doesn't help the situation I would say budget a little bit of extra just in case because maybe you bought the wrong stuff you know maybe the stuff that you thought that you wanted is out of stock and and the only available option that you like is more expensive uh I want to say that happened to us with some tile that we picked out for the bathroom it wasn't we didn't have enough to make the bathroom so we had to choose like a different one there's just little things that you would want to budget extra for right and then you're going to probably want to allocate a little bit of extra time and you know treat your workers with respect I would always try to you know give them extra water or whatever else and just treat them well because they're working hard you know they would come early um sometimes they would stay late to get things done overall I just try to treat everyone with respect and I think the workers really appreciated that on our job site another thing too is if you have trusted reliable referrals for this type of stuff that's good but also make sure that they are licensed right licensed bonded insured all that good stuff make sure they have their certifications up to date and then make sure you have a very clear draw schedule right like make sure you have that contract all up front um if I didn't have that with them I would have not I would not have been comfortable moving forward like I want to say another one or two of the contractors I had were like didn't provide me any actual timeline sorry to ramble here but big takeaway right do a good job interviewing your contractor make sure you have a clear timeline and scope of work I hope this video helps you build your Adu um or maybe you know helps you plan for your Adu if you need help and you don't have anyone to reach out to I'm going to drop my email right here email me and I'm happy to answer any questions that I can help with