Kicked Out of a Rental, This L.A. Couple Bought, and Then Built the Best ADU They Could
Niki and J.P. added a prefab backyard house to the hillside behind their Silver Lake home, becoming landlords themselves in the process.
Niki and J.P. added a prefab backyard house to the hillside behind their Silver Lake home, becoming landlords themselves in the process.
In 2013, Niki Weber and J.P. Guiseppi were unceremoniously booted from their Venice, California, apartment—which, to add insult to injury, they had done work to—with hardly a month’s notice. Suddenly, they were thrust into a frenzied search for a new home. Niki, the COO of non-profit Regarding Her, and J.P., a creative director at Google, armed their realtor with a fastidious brief that positioned ample land and access to nature at the top of the list. As luck would have it, they purchased the first place they viewed, a single-family home in Silver Lake.
Niki and J.P. purchased a home in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles that had empty space at the rear. They recently filled it with a two-bed, two-bath ADU by Cover.
Photo courtesy of Cover
Their new property overlooked the L.A. skyline and had a little more than a half acre, which Niki and J.P. posit is on the larger end for the neighborhood. As nature lovers and avid gardeners, they loved the generous backyard for both its wildlife and future potential. Niki, who is also a realtor, learned about ADUs in 2015—a year before California legalized the practice—and soon after the couple began dreaming up plans to convert the space behind their home into a rental property.
After years of living in leased apartments and with the memory of being burned by their former landlord still fresh in mind, Niki and J.P. were determined to create the best rental experience they could by emphasizing a connection with the outdoors. J.P. says he was actually reading Dwell when he came across Cover—a Los Angeles–based start-up specializing in prefab backyard homes. He liked how the company’s website made it easy to check if their property was eligible for building. After an on-site drone survey, the Cover team presented the couple with several layout options.
Roughly 60 hummingbirds circle the property, say the couple, which Niki had registered as a certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
Photo courtesy of Cover
While the tricky site created an engineering challenge that "blew up" the couple’s budget, they think its perch overlooking L.A. was well worth it: "In a lot of ways it has a better view than we do," says Niki. "It’s nicer than our house."
Photo courtesy of Cover
See the full story on Dwell.com: Kicked Out of a Rental, This L.A. Couple Bought, and Then Built the Best ADU They Could
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