Budget Breakdown: A Writer Adds a $239K Backyard Unit to John Prine’s Former Record Label Offices

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2019, writer Ben Locke had to rethink the way he lived. Growing up, his family had occupied a series of historic houses, where his mother ardently dove into design projects—a passion that would later rub off on Ben—but several years of severe illness exacerbated by exposure to irritants such as mold and dust forced him to approach his environments differently.

Ben recently helped redesign his parents’ home in Nashville’s Germantown, which dates to the late 1800s and once served as the record label offices and recording studio for late musician John Prine. His first solo design venture, however, would be a detached accessory dwelling unit (DADU) in the backyard. But it was only after breaking ground on the project that he made an arrangement with his parents to live in it until he completed his own home on property he recently purchased. So, knowing he would now be staying in the DADU, making choices to accommodate his condition became critical.

"I needed to maximize space and prioritize being in a really clean environment, taking care of the furnishings that I had, and being really cautious about the things that I purchased and what came into the house," Ben says. Armed with $254,000, a large chunk of which would go toward the structure’s envelope elements such as the metal roof, concrete flooring, siding, drywall and doors, Ben created a compact, inviting space outfitted with finishes and furnishings to support a clean living environment.