Perfect Pleasanton In-Law Unit for Retirement

Retirement and empty nesting are two life milestones where an Accessory Dwelling Unit can be the perfect fit. Whether it's moving out of a main home after the kids have moved out, or earning rental income to support an earlier retirement, an ADU can unlock new possibilities.

For a longtime Bay Area homeowner looking to remain in the Pleasanton area, living alone in her larger single-family home was not her best retirement option. She had long looked for a miniature version of her house that would both give her a place to live when it was time to downsize, and provide the ability to rent out her main home for retirement income in the process.

When recent California ADU legislation passed, her dream seemed within reach. However, while this legislation made ADUs more possible, when she did some research, she found that she could still face potential years of permitting headache. It wasn’t until she found Cottage online that her ADU dream went from just something on paper to real.

“I finally found Cottage online, and I loved the people that I worked with,” the homeowner said. “The enthusiasm, the youth, the creativity, and doing everything online was the best I could have hoped for—it was pretty amazing. I always felt that I was being taken care of and that the Cottage team had my best interests in mind.”

Integrating the main home with the ADU was a key consideration—and one that eliminated prefab ADU and modular ADU options from her search. “I didn't like the prefab houses because I didn't have much say in how they were built, and I didn't like the exterior design very much,” she said.

Instead, it was Cottage’s flexible, customized approach to ADU design that was attractive to the homeowner. As she put it, “I had a really good idea of what I wanted, and I wanted someone who could see that vision and help me create that vision.”

Her custom Cottage design was one that maximized the space in her angled side yard: an economically laid out L-shaped floor plan created separation between the bedroom, the living room and kitchen space, despite the unit’s 430-square-foot size.

Because the homeowner wanted the option to move into the ADU and rent out the existing home, privacy was a key component of the design. The L-shape of the ADU unit creates a pleasant path to the entrance that is tucked away from the main home, and redesigned landscaping presents just enough visual separation between the two units for additional curb appeal.

Beyond the layout and placement of the ADU, the exterior fixtures and finishes perfectly match those of the existing home. This creates visual continuity between the ADU and the main home—an important feature that adds even more to the value of the property.

In the living room, a sliding glass door opens to a concrete patio hidden from both the street and the tenants of the existing home, adding to the indoor-outdoor feel of the 1 bedroom unit.

With full-sized appliances, and kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and living room space in the unit, this ADU marks a new chapter of life for this homeowner…and for the neighborhood as well. The homeowner has shared her journey with neighbors online via weekly Facebook posts about progress, leading a handful of them to actively consider ADUs of their own.

Cottage is proud to have delivered this 1 bedroom Pleasanton ADU because it has enabled a single-family homeowner to add a new unit of housing to a city that needs it desperately, and unlocked a retirement dream to continue to live as a part of the local community. That's a win-win all around.

At Cottage, we believe in providing homeowners the best ADU experience possible from start to finish. From the initial feasibility and planning conversations to design to permitting to construction, we're here to guide your project from start to finish.