In the case of Alvaro “Al” and Nenette Alcazar, a retired couple who downsized from a six-bedroom house in New Orleans to a one-bedroom ADU in Los Angeles, it took just 3.5 months.
“We went on vacation to the Philippines in November, right when they started construction,” Al says of the ADU his son Jay Alcaraz and partner Andy Campbell added behind their Harbor Gateway home. “When we returned in March this year, the house was ready for us.”
The Alcazars were surprised by the quick completion of their new 500-square-foot modular home by Gardena-based Cover. By the time construction was completed, they still had not listed their home in New Orleans, where they lived for 54 years while raising their two sons.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell’s backyard in Harbor Gateway before they added an ADU.
(Jay Alcazar)
Alexis Rivas, co-founder and CEO of coveragewas also surprised by how quickly the ADU was permitted, in just 24 days. “The total time from permit submission to certificate of occupancy was 104 days,” he says, crediting the city’s Standard Plan and the ADU’s integrated panel system for making this the fastest coverage ever.
Mainly, an old professor of religious studies at Loyola University New Orleans and community organizer, the construction process was more than just demolition and site preparation. Seeing the Cover workers working on their house reminded him of “bayanihan,” a core Filipino value that emphasizes community unity and collective action.
“My parents were both public school teachers,” says Al, who was exiled from the Philippines in 1972. ‘When they moved to a village where there were no schools, the parents were so happy that their children did not have to walk to another village to go to school that they built a house for them.’
“It’s only one bedroom, but we love it,” says Nenette Alcazar. “It’s the right size for two people.”
Like his childhood home in the village of Cag-abaca, Al says his and Nenette’s ADU “felt like a community had built it somewhere and carried it into the yard for us to live in.” Only in this case, the house was not a Nipa hut made of bamboo, but a house made of steel panels manufactured in a factory in Gardena and installed on site.
Jay Alcaraz, 40, and Campbell, 43, had been renting a home in Long Beach for three years when they started looking for a home to buy in 2022. They had initially hoped to stay in Long Beach, but when they realized they couldn’t afford it, they expanded their search to Harbor Gateway. “It was on par with my job as a professor of critical studies at USC, and Jay’s job as a senior product manager at Stamps.com near LAX,” Campbell says.
When they finally bought a three-bedroom Midcentury home that needed some work, they were happy to find themselves in a neighborhood full of multi-generational households, within walking distance of Asian supermarkets and restaurants.
The ADU does not overwhelm the backyard. “It looks like a house in a garden,” says Al Alcazar.
“We can walk everywhere,” says Jay. “The post office. The deli. The supermarket. We love Asian food and can eat at a different Asian restaurant every day.”
Campbell adds, “We have the same here as Long Beach, plus room for an ADU.”
At a time when intergenerational living is increasing among older men and women in the United States, according to the Pew Research CenterNot surprisingly, the couple began considering an ADU for Jay’s parents shortly after purchasing their home, knowing that Al and Nenette, who no longer drive, would feel comfortable in the neighborhood.
They began by assessing ADUs that the city has pre-approved for construction as part of the ADU Standard Plan Program on city property. Website of the Construction and Safety department. The initiative, organized by former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office in partnership with Building and Safety in 2021, was intended to simplify the lengthy permitting process and help create more housing.
The 570 square meter house has a single bedroom and a bathroom.
Jay and Al Alcazar drink coffee in the ADU kitchen.
They contacted several potential architects and secured a $300,000 line of credit. They decided to go along Cover after touring the facility and one of the completed ADUs. “We liked that they were local and that their facility was five minutes away from us,” Campbell said.
The couple originally planned to remove the pergola and lawn from their backyard and add an L-shaped ADU. But after consultation with Rivas, they opted for a rectangular whole with large-format sliding glass doors and a warm wooden cladding to preserve the garden.
The configuration was the right choice because the green space between the two homes, which includes a patio and drought-tolerant landscaping, serves as a social focal point for both couples, who enjoy grilling, sharing meals at the outdoor dining table and gardening. Just a few weeks ago, the family celebrated Al’s 77th birthday in the garden with their extended family.
Nenette, who calls herself a “green thumb,” raves about the bounties of the California garden, including oranges, lemons, guava trees and camellias. “I see the palm trees moving back and forth and the hummingbirds in the morning,” she says.
“They’re a lot of fun,” Jay Alcazar says of his parents. “They are great table companions.”
While some young couples may be hesitant to live close to their parents and in-laws, Jay and Campbell see their ADU as a convenient way to stay close to and support Jay’s parents as they grow older.
Plus, Jay says, they’re a lot of fun. “They are great table companions,” he says.
Campbell, who enjoys having coffee on the patio with Al, agrees. “When I first met them 12 years ago, they had a group over for dinner and a karaoke party until 3am,” he said. “I thought, ‘Is this normal?'”
A teak bed from the Philippines and family memories make the new ADU feel like home.
In contrast to the Alcazars’ spacious 1966 home in New Orleans, the interior of their new ADU is modern and simple, with white oak floors and cabinets and Bosch appliances, including a stackable washer and dryer. Despite downsizing from a lifetime of belongings, Al and Nenette were able to keep a few things that made the ADU feel like home. In the living room, mother-of-pearl lamps and wood-carved side tables remind us of their old house. In their bedroom, craftsmen from Nenette’s family built a hand-carved teak bed from the Philippines, which still shows signs of water damage from Hurricane Katrina.
“Madonna and Jack Nicholson both ordered this bed,” Nenette says proudly.
The couple chose a thermally treated wooden cladding for its warmth. “It will develop a silver tint over time,” says Cover’s Alexis Rivas. “It’s maintenance-free.”
But one thing didn’t work out during their move west. When they realized their couch would take up too much space in the 8-foot portable storage unit they rented in New Orleans, they decided to buy an IKEA sofa bed in LA. This is now in the mix, along with their personal items and family photos that add even more memories to the interior, including a reproduction of the Last Supper, a common tradition in many Philippine homes symbolizes the importance of coming together to share meals. Because storage space is limited, the families share the two-car garage, where Al stores his tools.
“It’s only one bedroom, but we love it,” said Nenette, 79, of the ADU, which cost $380,000. “It’s just the right size for two people.”
The ADU feels private, both couples say, thanks to the 10-foot-long custom curtains they ordered online Two pages of curtains. “When the curtains are open, we know they’re awake, and when the curtains are open, we know to leave them alone,” Jay says, laughing at their ritual.
As for on-site aging, the ADU can accommodate a wheelchair or walker if necessary, and Rivas says a custom wheelchair ramp can be added later if necessary.
If only Jay could hang the flat-screen TV on the wall, Al says, teasing his son. It’s hard to escape your dad’s jokes when he lives in your backyard – and that’s the point.
“It’s really nice to have them here,” says Andy.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell enjoy having Al and Nenette Alcazar close. “They feel like neighbors,” says Jay.
After losing his family and home in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the country, Al, who once studied to be a priest, says he is deeply moved to once again be the recipient of the bayanihan spirit.
“I was tortured in the Philippines, but it didn’t break me,” he says. “So having a house built by a friendly community actually points to a shorter but more spiritual meaning of bayanihan, which is: ‘when a group of friends,’ as my grandmother Marta used to say, ‘turns your Stations of the Cross into a garden with a rose.’ Now we have Eden here in my son’s backyard.
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