Hi Replier.ai, What are the views to outside and where is this on the lot? That makes the room locations and placement inside the plan as criteria. Is the bottom wall facing the inside yard? What is the top wall facing? Is it facing another house as property or an open piece of land? This will give your plan priorities on views and windows from each room as priority and criteria.

Hi @AWARDA Architects! Thanks for your response. It is facing the backyard. Where you see the trellis down the house, that's where the ADU will go. The right side is where the living room is in the plans, and on the left, we will excavate. The bottom is towards the soil, so no view on that side possible.

Move the kitchen into the dining room-eliminate the dining room. It is not necessary for an ADU unless you think you will have huge family dinners there? This now gives you the option for an island with seating and a full wall for built-ins to where the kitchen used to be for TV/game storage etc. I am treating this as a guest house unless you have another function? I do not like the windows in the corners in the bedrooms but it will look like a mate to the big window from the outside but I would prefer them centred in the room.

IMO you need to think about who will be renting this space . So what do you plan for occupancy in the ADU? Thet IMO drives where to makes changes . Ae re you planning long term rentals for instance I need more info..

Yes what is the purpose of this ADU?

Why do you think in such a small space you need an island.

I would NOT move the kitchen to the dining room because then you'll be walking through the kitchen to get to the bedrooms.

What size beds are you planning on putting in the bedrooms?

I like what this design-build group creates for ADU

https://www.instagram.com/minimallivingconcepts/

First of all… thanks all for adding your comments! Very useful! I didn’t know what to expect when I wrote this post and it is great to see all the different point of views.

Answering some of your questions:

• Purpose of the ADU: we would like to keep it flexible. We have in mind long term rental but we might use it for our parents in the future or try short-term too to see how that goes. I expect 2-4 people staying there.

• Dinning: I agree we don’t need such a big dinning space!

• kitchen location: I would switch it with the dinning location because then it will be on the way to the bedrooms.

• kitchen island need: I just like a lot when there is a place to sit while somebody is at the kitchen, even in small units. I find it more useful than a straight and long kitchen.

• bedroom windows: I also prefer the windows centered. I asked the architect why he decided to locate them there… maybe there is some reason behind that I missed

• beds: I am planning to put a king or queen size bed in one and the other I didn’t decide yet. Maybe two twin or a queen.

Thanks!

What is nice about the layouts Bev suggested is that they offer central entertaining especially to the outdoors as well as the master being private from kids bedroom on opposite sides of the unit.

Your bedrooms are very small for a Queen or King bed. Queen will fit OK- 60" bed which will leave you good amount of room for side tables/dressers and walkway to closet but a King I think would be tight.

I have schemed different scenarios - moving the kitchen to either wall, eliminating Dining, moving Laundry, reducing one bedroom to 9' - and none of them seem to support an island. You can do the math: 24" cabinet + 36" [yikes!] aisle + 24" [seating only] island = 7'-4 1/2". Your Living is 18'-6" one way and 17-9" the other, so subtract the 7'-4 1/2" and you are only left with about 11'. For a Living Room, you need a good 10' plus circulation (you do not want a couch backing to window). Especially since you have 2 bedrooms. I would even postulate you need a Dining table for 3-4 residents.

I see why the architect has the placement of windows as they are, albeit without elevations showing the ADU sitting under your deck. For the tv, simply make the side window a transom for a tv below it.

I would suggest going back to your competent architect and prioritize your criteria - a small ADU cannot be all for everything - and be willing to lose something - like a bedroom, if you really want that island and a cooking, viewing, and eating space is the priority.

Is this ADU located adjacent to the house, below the overhang? WIll you fill in the lot with dirt to support it if so? Do you have a plan showing the relationship to the house with setbacks?

@Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor that's 1 of the schemes I did (in my head). The W/D doesn't fit with a 5' wide bathroom door. Backing couch to window probably isn't optimum in CA hill country.

Sorry Jeffrey, that doesn't work

CA is all over the place ... they barely allow you any water to flush a toilet, but are allowing a small single family home to be crammed on your property right next to the main house! They have problems with water run off now, so the solution is to add more structures, specially to hillsides?

We built a guest house in CA back in 2011 and zoning did not allow anything that could be considered a single family home (no kitchen) and that hillside would have given OP's project a quick rejection.

Just watch out for your local CA property tax assessor ... ours showed up at our front door before the ink on the COO had dried! Wanted to inspect the guest house. I told him to call and make an appointment and closed the front door!

I kind of like the kitchen as is - for a small space gives space on either side of range and dw is out of prep area. that’s a lot of wins! you could add a mobile island if you desired. i’ve looked at a lot of small apartments with a friend lately - the new trend is definitely island or peninsula with seating area, but this almost always makes the living space too small for a table. i like keeping it open for renter to decide how to arrange.

A one-wall kitchen is great, but the appliances must be in order from refrigerator to dishwasher to sink to stove. I like the rest of the plan.