Eight years in the past, Rion Nakaya was dwelling in Oakland with husband Michael Cosentino and their two youngsters when her mom, Maggie, misplaced her companion of 37 years.
Like many Gen Xers, Rion, 47, confronted a well-recognized problem from 400 miles away: attempting to watch the welfare of a guardian who’s cell and comfy at house however on a set revenue and overwhelmed by the calls for of a 90-year-old home.
When the upkeep on the 1926 Tudor in South Pasadena turned an excessive amount of for Maggie, who’s now 69, the couple acquired critical about shifting her to the Bay Space in 2016.
“We wished to be nearer to my mother and I initially thought she might transfer up right here,” says Rion, a digital producer and founder and editor of the Child Ought to See This, a free instructional video useful resource for educators and households.
“My objective was to be close to her and have the children spend actual time along with her.”
For greater than a 12 months, the couple seemed for an inexpensive rental for Maggie that was inside strolling distance of their Oakland rental. Additionally they seemed for a property within the East Bay that would home all of them. However amid the rise in multigenerational dwelling — a latest Pew Analysis Heart examine discovered 60 million Individuals, or 4 instances as many as in 1971, dwell in multigenerational housing — and skyrocketing actual property costs, the household determined that it made extra sense to maneuver to South Pasadena and renovate Rion’s childhood house.
“I used to be making extra money and but it was turning into tougher to dwell,” Michael says of the challenges of shopping for a house in California. “We heard tales about folks displaying up with tech cash and shopping for properties for money.”
The garage-turned-ADU faces away from the primary home, with a personal entrance on the aspect.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
For Nakaya and Cosentino, the query for the South Pasadena house wasn’t nearly transforming the kitchen and updating the HVAC, however about how three generations might dwell comfortably collectively whereas respecting Maggie’s want for privateness and independence.
The reply got here in remodeling the indifferent storage right into a 550-square-foot accent dwelling unit, in any other case often known as an ADU or granny flat, for Maggie.
The primary home, which had degenerated over time following deferred upkeep, would additionally want a full replace, together with of a main bedroom addition that was in disrepair, the outside stucco, the roof, water-damaged siding and worn interiors.
After seeing the work of Northern California-based Medium A lot in Oakland, Cosentino, a senior producer at KPCC, and Nakaya reached out to the agency’s architects Gretchen Krebs and Ian Learn for assist renovating the property.
The architects, who’re married, understood the couple’s appreciation for midcentury fashionable structure and Scandinavian and Japanese design in addition to their want to create two distinctly totally different properties for 3 generations.
Rion Nakaya and Michael Cosentino moved from the Bay Space to be nearer to Rion’s mother.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
“We’ve been enthusiastic about this loads too,” Learn says of aging-in-place considerations. “Our mother and father are in several states of well being and economics. We understood the necessity to create sufficient area so that individuals have autonomy between them in addition to an space the place they’ll be a part of communally.”
However the renovation wouldn’t be straightforward. As a result of the home is situated in a historic district of South Pasadena, the architects, who labored with Downey-based GA Design Construct, have been required to protect the qualities of the single-family house, such because the Tudor language of the street-facing facade, and design the ADU, which might be seen from the road, to appear to be a storage.
That didn’t cease them from pushing the envelope in again, the place they designed a completely fashionable exterior with dramatic pitched roofs graced with daring black home windows, diagonal cedar siding on the main bedroom growth and a slatted black trellis that extends the again portion of the kitchen and echoes the black trim on the home windows.
“We have been so constrained on the entrance, so the again was a spot to go one other path whereas utilizing a number of the references of the home,” says Krebs. “It’s so enjoyable to stroll to the again and see a totally totally different home.”
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
In its new manifestation, the primary home is simply barely larger: 1,636 sq. ft quite than 1,446. It additionally has an open ground plan, a number of skylights that bathe the interiors in mild and heat wooden cupboards for the household’s books and equipment.
Whereas the lounge was left intact, together with the house’s authentic fire and coved ceilings, all the interiors have been gutted to create a extra versatile floorplan with a simple circulation for the couple’s youngsters — Clementine, 11, and Dante, 14 — different members of the family and associates.
The unique fire and coved ceilings have been preserved in the lounge of the newly renovated house.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
The wall that separated the kitchen from the yard is now gone, creating an open, light-filled area that appears out over the yard and a brand new communal deck that serves as a bridge between the house and ADU.
“We wished to open it up,” says Rion. “The home was so darkish and Medium A lot added huge home windows, a Nanawall and skylights that convey the sensation of nature inside. We dwell in a tree-friendly metropolis and there are such a lot of birds and squirrels within the neighborhood. It makes an enormous distinction.”
The doorway to the ADU faces away from the primary home and road.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
The small floorplan preserved the yard on the lengthy and slim lot, leaving room for a basketball hoop, an outside eating space and Rion’s drought-tolerant and edible gardening tasks. The architects additionally maximized area by including built-in storage within the storage and important home and an attic above many of the areas.
Including to the fashionable really feel of the courtyard, the architects clad the outside of the ADU in diagonal cedar planks, much like the main bedroom addition. Closed off from the courtyard and road, Maggie’s dwelling faces away from the primary home, with non-public entrances on the aspect and in again, the place her door opens onto a fenced yard that gives ample room for her canine.
“The present format of the constructing was properly suited to an ADU as a result of it’s all one stage,” says Krebs. “The households could be adjoining to 1 one other after which be capable of come collectively.”
The inside of the South Pasadena ADU incorporates a loft.
(Mariko Reed)
For Maggie, the ADU wanted to be large enough for her to really feel snug and comfortable, however not so massive that upkeep could be an issue. The architects put in no-nonsense linoleum flooring, a small Ikea kitchen with Semihandmade fronts, skylights, a toilet with a curbless bathe for straightforward entry and a loft for storage.
“She didn’t need it to really feel scientific,” says Learn. “She wished a colourful, clear field for her issues and antiques.”
Architects Ian Learn and Gretchen Krebs of Medium A lot designed the open kitchen with entertaining in thoughts.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
Requested if they’d any recommendation for owners contemplating an ADU, the architects stated it’s essential to be clear on constructing tips earlier than continuing.
”An ADU looks like it’s loads lower than a home, but it surely’s nonetheless a home,” says Learn. The South Pasadena ADU value roughly $250,000 by the point it was accomplished in October 2021, however the architects say it might value twice as a lot immediately as a result of provide chain and labor points. “Be clear on what the rules are going to be. You may make investments some huge cash in a venture and discover out you don’t qualify for permits, or you must do upgrades, and it’ll value much more than you suppose.”
A photograph within the eating room captures the couple’s youngsters on the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
Twenty-two years after shifting away, Rion is again house in Los Angeles County, which she says has modified immeasurably in her absence.
Previous to the pandemic, she had envisioned internet hosting associates within the household’s new open kitchen that was particularly designed with entertaining in thoughts. She had additionally hoped to help her uncle, her mom’s older brother, who was sick with most cancers for a few years earlier than he handed away in 2020.
Nonetheless, a lot stays the identical. Her center faculty principal lives down the road. Her youngsters attend the identical colleges she did in her youth.
A sliding NanaWall opens the kitchen and eating room to the outside.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
The property seems like a contemporary retreat on a road with a small city really feel, and the couple are pleased with the house’s communal really feel. “Now we have dinners collectively a couple of instances every week with my mother,” Rion says. “Pizza nights on Mondays. We ship the children over along with her mail they usually assist her wash the canine.”
Provides Michael, who can be 47: “I’ve recognized [Maggie] for greater than 20 years now, however I by no means actually acquired to know her, as a result of we didn’t dwell close by. Now that we get to see one another so typically, I’ve a chance to know her in a means that I hadn’t earlier than.”
The couple are followers of Midcentury, Scandinavian and Japanese design.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Instances)
Working within the tech business, the couple led a nomadic life for a few years, dwelling in Brooklyn, London, Paris and the Bay Space. Now that they’ve put down roots in South Pasadena, they are saying their youngsters have one thing they cherished rising up: a relationship with their grandmother.
“It’s an absolute present to spend time with my mom,” says Rion. “We take into account ourselves extraordinarily fortunate.”
