When we moved into the house two years ago, Alex always had a vision of converting the garage into a rentable studio unit for passive income. Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant to allow strangers into our brand-new unit and basically live under the same roof as us. But after almost 10 months of renting it out, I’m a huge proponent of Airbnb and would highly recommend it. Plus, a shared laundry room keeps the unit connected yet private from the main house.

Here’s how we transformed our scary-looking garage into a bright, welcoming studio (also known as an ADU or attached dwelling unit) in 50 steps.

1. Hire a contractor and draw up ADU blueprints (beginning of April)

2. Submit blueprints to the city for approval and permits

3. Demolition (2 weeks) - clear out overgrown brush in the yard, remove the walls from the ADU to expose framing, dig 2 ft trench to create a crawl space for plumbing and electrical

4. Cancel out old, cracked pipes and run a new sewage line

5. Remove garage door

6. Frame out the windows

7. Frame the crawl space/floor

8. Remove the stone wall (start choosing plumbing hardware and front door) (end of April)

9. Pour concrete

10. Adjust electrical (early May) - for a couple days, they turned off the power for a few hours

 11. Frame the floors (Early May)

12. Frame the walls and roof (mid May)

13. Buy front door + interior doors

14. Exterior framing + bathroom framing

15. Set up electrical (end of May, early June)

16. Decide on bathroom tile and laundry room tile (mid June)

17. Purchase tile, bathtub, toilet, fireproof laundry door, kitchen (mid June)

18. Concrete stoop is installed (2-3 days)

19. Drywall is installed (1 week)

20. Choose interior and exterior paint colors (mid June)

21. Purchase baseboards and door trim

22. Purchase sink

23. Purchase exterior lights

24. Purchase door handles

25. Purchase bathroom subway tile and choose layout, grout color, and sanded or unsanded grout

26. Sand exterior beams above door

27. Crew turned off water for 1 hour to install pipes (end of June)

28. Crew primed the interior and exterior, then applied 3 layers of paint

29. Subway tiles installed

30. Kitchen and fridge delivered

31. Install front door

32. Wood delivered for the two fence doors on the side of the house

33. Choose grout colors

34. Floors went in

35. Install bathroom sink and shower door

36. Install washing machine and dryer in the connecting laundry room

37. The electrician came on a Sunday to work on all lights + switches + floodlight

38. IKEA kitchen cabinets installation (beginning of July)

39. Install Ring Video Doorbell and porch lights

40. Stained beams and side fences with Albert

41. Fabricator remeasured kitchen cabinets before installing countertops

42. Countertops were installed

43. Kwikset Smart Lock was installed at the front door

44. Upon installation, we discovered that the downdraft hood vent we got from Sears Outlet was missing the actual vent. Alex spent his entire day calling manufacturers and trying to find the missing part, but instead opted to purchase a new downdraft vent altogether (mid July)

45. Move my old college bed into the ADU + purchase kitchen items from IKEA

46. We created the Airbnb listing, started writing a description, and researched how to be a superhost

47. Downdraft hood vent FINALLY arrives after 2 weeks of waiting (and countless hours of Alex arguing with manufacturers and customer service)

48. Final inspection!

49. Clean clean clean.

50. Take pictures and list the unit on Airbnb. 

Like any house project, there were hiccups along the way, but nothing as stressful as our initial home renovation. This time around, we had a very clear design vision, budget expectations, and felt much more familiar with knowing which questions to ask and what terminology to use. All in all, it was about a 20-week project (you can see exactly where we started here). Working on the house will always be a labor of love, but one that really brings out the best teamwork between Alex and myself.

Remember that cypress tree in our front yard that wreaked havoc on our plumbing? Well, it did a number to our driveway, in addition to years of general wear & tear.

So when we came back from our trip to New Zealand, we got started right away on demolishing the driveway.

As we did our research, we decided on concrete pavers. They’re basically like tiles that can shift more easily as the ground changes over time, rather than a slab of concrete which is more prone to cracks. We took a trip to a couple landscaping specialty stores to see samples in person and poured over a Belgard catalog full of colors and configurations. We chose the “Rio” blend paver in an ashlar pattern.

We also added stairs leading up to the garage unit to give it a proper entranceway up the slope of our front yard. This area gets mistaken for the front door sometimes, but some plants and pathway lights should help guide people towards the actual front door.

Our curb appeal and entryway are slowly coming together. Next up… landscaping!

We’re in the final stretch of the ADU. We had our final inspection on Friday, which the inspector failed for a few silly reasons that are easy to fix. For example, he wanted us to add a motion sensor light to the laundry room. He wanted us to have only 3 stairs on the stoop instead of 4 (otherwise we’d have to add a railing), so we simply buried the 4th step with dirty.

And he wanted us to include a “1/2” to our address number since the garage is registered with the city as an add-on to our main house. We went to Home Depot in search of the “1/2,” but of course they didn’t carry it (and neither did Amazon). So we got creative and bought two 1’s and a 2. Then our contractor removed the top portion of the “1” to turn it into a “/” and lightly screwed it into place so we can pass inspection and easily remove it afterwards.

We also installed the backsplash, towel rack, curtains, paper towel holder, organized the bathroom toiletries in glass amber jars, and laid out some hand-washed dishes to dry on our super lightweight and compact microfiber rack.

Minimal work was done on the ADU this week because it’s basically wrapped up. We’re just waiting for the downdraft hood vent to arrive (should be coming tomorrow) so we can install it. Our contractor will also add a few finishing touches, like the bathroom mirror and toilet paper roll holder. Then, voila! Inspection will happen, hopefully everything gets approved, and then the room will be ready to go!

Did we mention that our bathtub is huge? The single glass pane shower door went in last week. We’ll test it out this week to see how much water splashes out, but it should be minimal because the tub is oversized and will catch most of it.

The rest of our entire weekend was spent organizing and cleaning (and we didn’t even finish everything on our to-do list). It’s getting to the point where we’re ready to hire cleaners. The amount of time it takes to clean and sort through everything could be used towards freelancing or other weekend plans. And since we’ll be renting the room out on AIrbnb, it makes more sense to hire a cleaner than to do it all ourselves.

We’ve already listed it on Airbnb and have been researching how to become superhosts. I’ve also started listening to Zillow podcasts and educating myself more about real estate. 

We started our weekend by returning the downdraft hood vent at Sears Outlet. They gave us a full refund which reminded us about something no one ever tells you about home renovations: SAVE ALL YOUR RECEIPTS. You never know when you’ll have leftover tile, extra unopened paint, or wrong models of hood vents that you’ll need to return a few months or even up to a year later.

We made a stop at Costco to start gathering things for the garage like a fire extinguisher (and one for ourselves too, finally).

We also swung by Armstrong Nursery to pick up much-needed Dr. Earth organic plant food, spikes for the peach tree (it’s getting so heavy with peaches!) and spent the weekend tending to our garden.

Finally, we went to IKEA and bought new queen size MALM bed for guest room (on sale for $109) and scored a watering can that was on sale for $5! We assembled it as soon as we came home, moved my old college bed (our previous master bed) into the garage, moved around the furniture in our bedroom, and finally reorganized the guest room to accommodate the larger bed (previously we only had a full bed there). The house is feeling more complete and adult-like every day.

After last week’s debacle, the IKEA cabinet installer came back to extend the back of the cabinets by 3 in. This will help stabilize the kitchen counter overhang. In everyday terms, this means that guests can sit on the bar stools without worrying about the counter crashing down on their legs. Pretty important.

A couple days later, the fabricator came back and the countertop finally went in on Tuesday. It’s a marble-looking soapstone that’s reminiscent of the Pental quartz we have in the main house (yet significantly cheaper).

Our new West Elm mod platform bed ( 20% off for July 4th!) arrived, and it was definitely the highlight of our week (and still is). We were so excited to upgrade our bedroom and bring some style and order to the space. The delivery guys also came in to assemble it, and we bought a new king-size Tuft & Needle mattress.

To make room for our new bigger bed, we donated at least 5 boxes of stuff to Goodwill and 2 boxes of clothes to ThredUp. I’ve been reading Remodelista: The Organized Home by Julie Carlson and Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki which has helped me a lot with letting go of stuff that have served their purpose.

Towards the end of the week, the downdraft hood caused lots of problems all over again. Alex spent the majority of his day figuring out how to resolve the issue. In short, we discovered that the downdraft hood vent we got from Sears Outlet was missing the actual vent. So Alex spent his entire day calling manufacturers and trying to find the missing part, but instead opted to purchase a new downdraft vent altogether. This has been the hardest part about the garage renovation, and In the future, we’ll be sure to avoid the downdraft vent.

This week marked the beginning of the IKEA kitchen cabinets installation. As we expected, it hasn’t been the smoothest experience and likely the last time we use IKEA for custom cabinets.

Pros: 

The IKEA software is easy to use and quite advanced. It gives you a great 3D rendering of how the cabinets will look, including opening the doors to see how the drawers will pull out. Everything is modular and fits together neatly. We went to the store a few times to talk it out with an IKEA kitchen consultant before placing our order. Plus, they gave us a heads-up that the 10% off kitchen sale was happening in a week, so we were able to take advantage of getting a few hundred dollars back.

Cons:

When it came time to place our order, it was chaotic (like any big IKEA purchase tends to be). The kitchen consultant takes the mouse from you, clicks around to double check everything, and then escorts you to checkout. Meanwhile, an unsupervised child was running around us and printing out an excessive amount of pages (and we happened to be standing right next to the printer). It was really annoying and distracting, especially when we were in the middle of making a big purchase. A few of the pieces were out of stock too (like the drawer handles), so we had to pick them up from another IKEA location.

In the next few days, Alex received phone calls to schedule the installation and fabrication appointments. They were booked up more than we would have liked, so the earliest appointment we could snag was in 2 weeks. Luckily our contractor said it was ok, but it was still a little inconvenient.

The day before installation, we didn’t receive a phone call to confirm. So Alex had to call customer service himself and get redirected a few times before solidifying the installation time. On Monday morning, two installers arrived. But as they were placing everything in, they realized they were missing a couple pieces. So Alex had to go back to IKEA again and purchase the additional legs needed (a $7 purchase that took 2 hours of his day).

And like we expected, the drop-in cooktop caused a headache (and is still continuing to be an issue). At first, it didn’t fit and couldn’t drop in even though it was an IKEA brand cooktop. So the fabricators came back and cut more of the cabinets to drop it in smoothly. Then the downdraft hood needed special measurements so the fabricator had to come back twice to figure out how to get everything flush against the counter. As of today, we’re waiting to hear back on their recommendation for extending the cabinets.

While all the kitchen drama was happening, we got the side fences installed – which means we can finally let the dogs run freely around the backyard! To celebrate, we hosted a 4th of July barbecue for about 15 friends. Alex was so excited to grill burgers and bacon wrapped hotdogs, while I made a strawberry pie, sangria, and showed our friends around the ADU.

Our good friend Albert also stayed with us for the weekend and helped stain the wood fences and beams. In return, we grilled him a fat rack of Costco ribs. :) 

We started off the week by choosing grout colors for the bathroom subway tile, floor tile, and laundry room tile. It’s kind of like choosing paint colors where you end up comparing different shades of the same color. Like the last time we did this, the tile guy gave us row of plastic samples to choose from. However, this time he gave us the option of a sanded or unsanded finish. That’s because the laundry room tile can be spaced apart further which allows for the sanded finish. It’s one of those things you never think again, but once you see it, you’ll always notice it. 

In the end, we decided to do sanded grout in the laundry room to keep the lines cleaner. The grout is more of a brown tan to bring out the wood grain. In the bathroom, we’re doing pure white (unsanded) for the subway tile and a light gray for the floor (unsanded). 

In addition to the tile, our laminate floors went in throughout the living room, kitchen, and hallway. It’s the same laminate we got from Valley One Carpet so it matches the main house perfectly. And like the main house, we have the floors running parallel with the beams to make the room feel longer. Also, the front door is in!

The exterior got another layer of paint. On Saturday, Alex and our good friend Daniel came over to help sand the beams in the entryway. We could have simply painted over the beams, but there was so much grime and dead paint that it made more sense to start with a clean slate instead. Even though it was only 3 beams, it still took the entire day to strip the paint with a heat gun, scrape the paint off, and sand it clean. This weekend, we’ll stain the wood a golden oak color to give it a rich, warm accent.

Sunday was spent hardcore gardening. We did our usual Costco run, followed by Home Depot to return excess bathroom tile ($100 back, woohoo!) and take advantage of its 3 for $12 veggie plant sale. So we bought lavender, Japanese squash, a new tomato plant, another rose bush, and a strawberry plant that I’ve been wanting since spring. I transplanted it into a terra cotta pot that had been sitting around when we bought the house. It had been full of dead leaves so I cleaned it and can’t wait to see the little strawberries that sprout.

While Alex continued to sand the beams, I cleaned up the backyard with much-needed maintenance to get it all in a good place before our 4th of July barbecue. I turned the compost, planted all our new plants, and rearranged our containers. 

Alex also tested stain colors for the interior/exterior beams and wooden fence planks. He tried 5 stains, ranging from natural to mocha. We chose our favorite before revealing it to each other at the very end – and to our surprise, we both chose the exact same one! To get a better sense of it, Alex stained the veggie bed so we can see how many coats of stain we’ll need and how it might change in the sunlight.

And while we were doing all this, the electrician came to work on the ADU. In this way, he could get more done without the construction crew in his way. 

We were literally working in every corner of the house. My shoulders are still sore as I type this. But there’s no other way we would want to spend our weekends. Alex and I love having a project to work on (especially Alex), and it’s so satisfying to watch the house continue its transformation.

We started the weekend STRONG by running around Home Depot, Anderson Moulding, IKEA, and Lowe’s – all before noon on Saturday morning. We were on a mission to complete a lot of little errands and gather more house items, including the bathroom tile. 

One thing we started to consider was whether we wanted the subway tile to be arrange in a brick format or stacked symmetrically. The first way is standard, but the second way is a little more modern and polished, though it requires a very blocky space. In the end, we decided to move forward with the standard brick arrangement because our tub will have some odd angles that would potentially break the precise stacked pattern. This blog post is an amazing overview of all the layout choices we had to consider.

[sources: Design Sponge, My Paradissi]

On Sunday, we spent our entire day at home and tackled more projects, cleaning, and planning. Alex spend half the day removing paint from the exterior beams and sanding it down. The paint was severely chipped so in order to work with it at all, we needed to remove the damage. We love having the exposed wood grain as our accent (initially we thought about painting it black, but it’s too pretty to cover up!). This weekend, I’ll apply the clear coat paint to seal it, just like we did for the door while Alex cleans up the 2 other beams behind it.

But the highlight of our weekend was definitely grilling! Alex is a grill master, and he was so excited to finally purchase this Cuisinart grill and get it set up after the gardeners cleared the backyard on Wednesday and Thursday. Now we have wood chips around our raised garden bed and fruit trees, which should help with controlling the excess dust and weeds that have been popping up.

The gardeners also re-piped our hose hookups and added a new nozzle, so we have fully functioning water sources both in the front and back of our large wall. It’s nice to have so much space on our lot but also a bit overwhelming to maintain and design. We’re still considering what to do in terms of landscaping, but the grill fits in nicely with Alex’s old outdoor furniture on the (cracked) concrete for now. We were also extra motivated to get this all set up for our upcoming 4th of July BBQ.

Our first meal was a nice slab of Costco salmon, and for dinner, Alex truly outdid himself with smoked brisket, marinated in cumin, cayenne, and sugar. It turned out super moist with a delightfully roasted crust.

We also picked fresh rosemary and fresh green beans from our garden to make roasted garlic mashed potatoes and stir-fried green beans to accompany the amazing main dish. I’m salivating just thinking about it again. 

And finally, one of the bigger updates – we have front steps! At the beginning of the week, they dug the ground and framed the steps. Then on Thursday and Friday, they poured the concrete and spent all of Friday smoothing it over in 30 min. intervals. It’s the perfect height and won’t need a handrail to pass inspection because they’ll use soil to create a 12 in. slope that matches its height.

At the end of last week, the crew started installing drywall – which means the ADU will be transforming even more quickly.

On Saturday morning, I made a batch of crispy waffles from scratch to fuel us for the day. I even whipped egg whites by hand and folded them into the waffle mix to make them extra fluffy.

Then Alex started by sanding down the beam to clear up the random paint splotches. Our contractor will be removing the weird metal and creating a custom fitting. Meanwhile, I clear-coated the door with 5 layers of polyurethane (which took the entire weekend in between letting each layer dry). We followed the same technique as last year. Can you believe that we clear-coated our front door in the garage?

As our arms and backs got tired, we took breaks by cleaning the backyard. We’re hosting a 4th of July barbecue so we want to make sure there’s room for our firepit and new grill. We’re also hiring a gardener to come this week to clear all the weeds and lay down wood chips. This should help with controlling the excess dust and priming the area for irrigation. I also turned my compost and even found a lizard hiding in the weeds.

In the late afternoon, we stopped by Sears Outlet and browsed aisles of heavily discounted appliances. Luckily, we were able to find a downdraft hood island (pictured here) which will complement our IKEA cooktop perfectly and saved us almost $1,000 because combo cooktops + downdraft hoods are super expensive. And if you’re wondering what a downdraft hood is, we’ve only just learned recently about them too. Basically, instead of cutting a hole in the ceiling for a typical hood vent, our contractor recommended a downdraft hood which will suck air down into the island and pump it out through a vent at the bottom. The vent will electronically rise out of the island, and with the push of a button, it’ll lower back inside the island when not in use.

We also bought a $600 fridge from Pacific Sales Kitchen & Home at Best Buy. It’s nothing fancy and pretty similar to the fridge I had for 5 years as I moved around apartments.

This time around, it’s been much easier to arrange deliveries since Alex is working from home, but inevitably there are still some hiccups. Our Lowe’s delivery was trickier than expected because they didn’t communicate the status clearly to us. But finally on Sunday afternoon, we received our packages which included the tub and interior fireproof door. In order to pass inspections, we’ve temporarily boarded up the door that connects the kitchen to the laundry room, but ultimately this will be replaced by an interior fire-rated door.

And finally on late Sunday afternoon, we stopped by Dunn Edwards to to choose exterior and interior paint colors. We’ll be keeping the garage walls a matte white called Swiss Coffee. We’re still choosing the exterior colors… something gray and neutral. There are multiple areas we need to account for, including the exterior wall, beams, and underside of the roof which I just learned are called “eaves.” It’s pretty cool to see where the new sections of the house are becoming attached to the existing main house. Here are some rough Photoshop mock-ups to get a better idea of the final result.

We passed another inspection on Monday and are moving full steam ahead on tiles, floors, and bathroom fixtures. Last week, I found the tile and aesthetic that I wanted to achieve. So this weekend, we needed to gather all the materials and supply them to our contractor. Then his crew will install everything over the next few weeks.

In this weekend alone, we went to Home Depot three times, two Lowe’s locations, Target, and IKEA. It was exhausting, but necessary.

After doing the main house, we’ve learned to make decisions quickly, confidently, and within budget. Some of the hardest decisions come down to creating cohesion. For example, we were drawn to this gold faucet, but decided to buy the matte black finish instead to avoid clashing with the satin chrome showerhead and tub spout that we already purchased months ago.

Pinterest is my best friend and helps keep us from wasting time looking for inspiration or expensive, hard-to-find fixtures. We know what’s within our means and from there, it becomes a matter of calculating how much square footage we’ll need. And when it comes to tiles, each location has a set number of units available in their inventory (similar to furniture). So we have to drive around to different Home Depot and Lowe’s locations to gather the necessary amount of units. And we always save the receipts so we can return any excess.

At Home Depot, we purchased the bathroom tile – a charcoal, concrete-like ash tile. We still need to purchase the white subway tile once we take more measurements.

At Lowe’s, we ordered the 72 in. bathtub (a special order because 60 in. is the standard), Toto toilet, matte black bathroom faucet, light wood-grain laundry room tile, herringbone backsplash, and interior fire-proof door that connects the laundry room with the main house. They’ll be delivering it all to the house this week. My favorite part about the backsplash is that it falls within the same family of our current kitchen backsplash – same brand, same colors, different tile shape.

We also placed the order for our kitchen at IKEA. We used their software to design the space over a month ago. It even includes a 3D view where you can digitally open and close all the cabinets. Within the next couple of days, they’ll give us a call to set up time to take in-person measurements and install the cabinetry. It’s moments like these that make us really grateful that Alex is working from home.

We still need to choose interior and exterior paint colors, door handles, side yard fences, install a glass shower door, and a few other things. As of this morning, they were cleaning the roof and hammering it together to the main house. And now that the walls are insulated and soundproofed, it actually feels like a cozy, studio apartment.

While Alex and I were traveling in NYC, the crew made lots of progress on the ADU including window installation!

All the electrical and plumbing are pretty much set up, so I spent the weekend perusing tile and tubs at Lowe’s and Home Depot. We’re going to use charcoal tile in the bathroom and light gray wood-grain tile in the laundry room.

I’ve also decided that I want to style the room in the same aesthetic as Auburn – calm, inviting, and similar to what we have in the main house, but still unique in its own way.

Source

The only downside is that when I came home, there was no hot water. But I’ve gotten really good at boiling water in the electric kettle. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor inconvenience that all be worth it later.