ADU

St. Paul ADU

We took a St. Paul garage, tore it down and built an amazing ADU that now provides additional living space for our family.

Contact Me Today

Challenge

To create a home above a garage in a turn-of-the-century, well-established St. Paul neighborhood.

Approach

I considered cost, materials and timeline. I also needed to create a space that was within the ADU limits (800 sq ft of living space) and meet the requirements of the Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) as the home is in this district.

Results

I designed and self contracted a brand new ADU with a heated three car garage and 800 sq ft apartment.

More Projects

Lookfar House

In October of 2020, after designing and completing the construction documents, I did the legwork- I got the city building permits and HPC approvals I needed. I found carpenters, a plumber, an electrician, framers, a roofer, wood flooring guys, concrete people, mechanical (HVAC), a great painter, a garage door guy, and other subcontractors. We demolished the old one-car garage. We brought in sewer and water from the street ($30,000.) It took about 10 months from start to finish and cost around $325,000 not including the contractor (me), finish carpentry (me), some painting (you guessed it) and architect (me). Now we have a two-car plus studio gym and mechanical room garage with an 800+ sq ft apartment above. The apartment has 1.5 baths, one bedroom, walk-in closet, laundry, balcony and full-sized kitchen, dining and living room. Our daughter loves it and gets the family discount on rent. Watch the video where we walk through it.