Neighbor Spotlight: Cheryl, Lee and Kathy in Marin

When we were expecting our first child, there was an inescapable pull back to Marin. For ten years my husband and I had been living in San Francisco in a small one-bedroom apartment and going over the bridge to Marin for work. Plus, our moms still lived in the homes we grew up in and we wanted to be close to them.

It was tough to find something affordable, so my mom threw out the idea that we move into the pool house temporarily. Since my family moved in thirty years ago, they had added a bathroom and closet, but it wasn’t very livable, so we started talking about renovation. At first, my mom and I were pretty skeptical, but my husband took on the project and ran with it. We worked with a contractor he knew from high school who found us a great architect, and it was completed in a year.

The positives of being right next to my mom but not in her space are huge. We are all so comfortable. My two- and three-year olds can go to my mom’s just across the way. We spend a lot of time outside together. My husband’s mom lives nearby, and we have family dinners once or twice a week. We think of ourselves as one big family unit, which has been such a blessing, especially during Covid. We are also able to help my mom out with the maintenance, which turns out is a lot. Someday she can rent out the ADU or move into it, but we aren’t planning on leaving any time soon.

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Location San Anselmo

ADU type converted existing structure

Price $120,000

Year completed 2019

Time 13 months total with 9 months to build

Size 550 SF