Valley Glen ADU Construction Before the House Remodel
Valley Glen ADUs built and finished first, so the unit can be lived in while the older main house is rewired, repiped and remodeled room by room.
Could we move into the unit while the old house is remodeled? That order can work on a Valley Glen lot, and it suits a house due for new wiring, pipes and plaster throughout. The ADU is built and passes its final inspection first, its utilities run so the house work never shuts them off, and then the main house can be emptied and opened up without anyone living in the dust.
Order of work across the lot
Sequence shapes the details. The unit's feeder and water line are planned so that work on the main house never cuts them, which can mean a separate LADWP meter for the unit or a new main panel set before the house is opened. The unit's kitchen and laundry are sized for full-time use from the start. Once the unit is finaled and occupied, the main house is tested for asbestos and lead, then opened room by room where the remodel calls for it.
What the old house keeps
With nobody living in it, the main house can be worked without temporary kitchens or nightly cleanup. Original trim that has to come off is numbered and stored in a dry, locked space on the lot, wood windows are restored on site, and the front door stays on its hinges behind protection. Rewiring and repiping go through walls opened only where needed, so the plaster that can stay does, and the rooflines and street face of the house are left as they were.
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So that each building can run without the other. The unit gets its own water shutoff and, where the panel numbers favor it, an LADWP meter of its own, so the main house's service can be replaced later without leaving the unit dark. Its drain meets the old lateral at a point the house remodel will not need to disturb.
It can, and a converted garage can be the place to live during the remodel if it is finished first. A small one fits a single room with a kitchen wall and a shower. We check its slab, framing and roof before design, and if the shell cannot be kept, a new unit can rise on its footprint.
Remodeling the main house alongside the unit lets the match run both ways. Its original casing is profiled and a molding knife is ground to that shape, and the same knife cuts any trim the house needs replaced and every piece for the unit. Roof pitch, window proportions and paint are shared too, so the two buildings finish looking related.
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