Posted on 09/20/2023 3:23:13 PM PDT by millenial4freedom
On a quiet cul de sac in suburban Los Angeles, the installation of Martin Guevara and Grace Kuo's prefab accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, caused quite a stir in the neighborhood. "It was like a block party," said Guevara, 68. "All of our neighbors came out to watch." Guevara was referring to a prefab ADU designed and built by Villa Homes; the 850-square-foot home was craned over the couple's existing home and placed into position in their backyard in the South Bay last year. "It was in two halves," said his daughter Melanie Guevara, 33, who lives in the ADU behind her childhood home with husband Devon Hollowood, 34. "It was already outfitted, including the appliances."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
affordable housing is a problem with seemingly no straightforward solutions.
We do know that housing costs for even simple smaller homes have far outpaced the incomes of many middle class people who would like to buy such homes.
There are some cheaper parts of the country but it’s really become a national problem.
The Millies and Zero Gs only need a house big enough for them, their cellphone, their pack and hiking shoes and a pizza.
The prefab ADU is part of the solution.
Some calculations show that we aren’t building nearly enough new housing for our growing population and family formation. So part of the housing cost issue is based on supply and demand. The supply isn’t enough to meet demand, so prices rise .
I am intrigued by the ADU idea. Maybe my husband and I could buy a house with a little bit of acreage in someplace like Huntsville AL, area, and put a couple of these on it. One for his brother, who will not have any savings for retirement, and one for guests or for us when the “big house” becomes too much to manage. One of our kids could move with their family into the big house and check in on us occasionally when we are older and frailer.
I’ve got news. Building codes only get bigger and more onerous. There is a big change requiring more insulation about to hit. Zoning codes are similar but less centralized. There’s basically only one building code for almost the entire nation, but lots of zoning codes.
“affordable housing is a problem with seemingly no straightforward solutions.”
There is a simple solution: kick out every illegal AND their descendants who have been here in the last 75 years
Illegals + fed % rate discount = ADU invasion.
We’re thinking about moving into an ADU in our daughter’s yard in a few years. I like that idea more than the generational homes that Lennar is building in AZ, which are a little too close for comfort for me. My son’s death 3 months ago taught me that family is the most important thing in this world and we’ve all drawn closer since then.
“My in-laws previous home was a Sears home built in the 50s. Still standing”
Craftsman homes. I love them.
My Oh Mio!
“affordable housing is a problem with seemingly no straightforward solutions.”
Well, we’ve got about 30 million people that shouldn’t be in the country.
Let’s bring in another 30 million illegals - then they won’t be able to afford food either. They’ll forget about the pain of not owning a home when they’re hungry. (the democrat solution)
Well said.
Those are WAY better than the Caracas homes in the hills.....they are CARDBOARD! At least they were 30 years ago.....and a hard rain would wash them down the hills...yikes.
Please God no! Aren’t there enough trailers, mobile homes & RV’s littering the landscape. I grasp that people do it because its a more affordable option. But affordability isnt the best metric for any culture. Generally, the most affordable things arent built to stand the test of time. I so much prefer seeing already-built older homes refurbished & updated- especially pre 1950s! I like combining the old & new. There are so many formerly beautiful landscapes that have a trailer or some other affordable option someone has built sitting in the middle of it, depressingly.
One of the things I focus on as a conservative is beautification, restoration & planning. It’s like the forgotten element in a good portion of American culture. One of the things that invites a stable, happy, peaceful & high standards and expectations is some amount of planning in local areas, architectural codes & standards & not allowing visual blight to just sit there & rot itself into a rundown appearance. After visiting other nations, I’ve noticed one thing that many of them do far better than us- local planning, beautification & visual standards.
Conservatives in other nations take an interest in the issue. They see blight a degradation of their culture & are offended by it. They don’t allow littering or trashy yards. They respect a person’s right to their own land but still expect that a property look Tidy & attractive because everyone is forced to look at it & it has an effect on neighboring home values. They seem a little more balanced about it. I know of one place in the UK where an Amazon supercenter wanted to buy a plot of land. It was in the main part of a rural market town near its entrance & the town had 250 year old trees lining both sides of the street. Amazon wanted to cut them all down & put up concrete barriers where the trees had been. The local council voted in favor of it & the entire town came out in protest. Amazon didn’t get its concrete barriers.
I sometimes think about things like that when fellow conservatives talk about how so much of culture doesn’t have enough respect for the past. Part of the reason we are constantly ceding cultural institutions is because we have removed ourselves from advocating for them or defending them. Too often we see this kind of thing as superficial or someone else’s problem. If you arent producing a culture worthy of defending, you won’t have enough people to defend it when it’s under attack! 😉
This.
Bennett Pre-Cut Homes still sold in the 1960s, I almost built one; Aladdins still seen everywhere. Easy to recognize by their front porch roof clapboarded columns.
A solution to do what? Make us look more like China?
It was a bungalow. I’m guessing 1000-1100 Sq feet and raised 5 kids in it.
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