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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Family Apartments




No city will prevent a home addition if the design meets other regulations such as open space, setbacks, and height. Some limit total home size as well. Private developments often exclude ADUs from their communities, but will permit additions if other regulations are met. An addition with one or two bedrooms, a living suite, and one or two bathrooms can be added to a home by finishing an attic or a basement or by attaching a new addition to the rear or the side of an existing home. The kitchen is the design element that most often differentiates an ADU from an ordinary addition. Generally, zoning regulations will permit a second kitchen with everything you normally find in a kitchen except for the range and the oven. A sink and countertop, a refrigerator, and cabinets for storage are all normally allowed. Sometimes the regulations prevent the use of a separate outside door to enter the addition, but will usually allow a sliding glass door for patio access. You can see how you can achieve most of what you want in an ADU by making it part of the house. If the space is for aging parents or relatives, they may take meals with the family anyway.

An addition can be connected to an existing home through the use of a small connector room that may simply be an entry foyer and short stair to reconcile the levels of the home and the addition. A chair lift or elevator can then be added to this short stair if needed.

A preplanned addition that looks for the entire world like an Accessory Dwelling Unit can then be attached to the connector space. We are testing this concept in several Colorado cities and have no reason to believe that there will be any problem.


This home has a spacious rear yard making the addition of an Accessory Suite a relatively simple task. A two-story module contains a first floor family room for the use by all residents in the home plus a master suite on the second floor. The one-story module is the family Apartment for Uncle Paul.

posted by Custom Blogs @ 2:51 PM 




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