Comment by sowbug
2 days ago
I bought a prefab backyard office after the pandemic for about $30K. I love it, even after the final price came to about $80K.
We figured out that overhead power lines would prevent it from being lifted in by a crane, so we decided to have it assembled onsite. Then the county decided -- after full approvals -- it needed a concrete foundation. We asked how to do that when the backyard already had a concrete foundation. Building department said pour it on top of the existing foundation.
I've mentally blocked my memory of the other ways the county came up with to make it hard to place this cuboid shape in my yard, but each time added another $10K. And the end result, other than being a foot off the ground because of the duplicate foundation, was nothing more than the $30K structure I originally bought. I can't point to where the extra $50K went and say at least I got value from it.
Like all home construction or remodeling, each misstep was outrageous, but tolerable because it was surely the last hiccup before completion. Only later do you realize it's Zeno's Paradox and you're always halfway from the finish line.
You spent $80K on a $30K garage?
Whoever your contracter was doing paperwork screwed you.
Just for you, I went back and checked the numbers.
$33K list price 4K delivery 3K sales tax 8.5K onsite assembly 1K building application and permit
So that's $49.5K for what in my mind was a $30K prefab office.
Then a basic wood frame foundation for a couple grand, torn down when the county changed its mind about the foundation type (but I did end up using most of the wood for other projects), a $4,500 site plan demanded by the county now that their concrete foundation made the project look more like a permanent fixture on the property, additional permits for the foundation, changes to the site plan when we discovered the existing foundation under the backyard pavers, and then building the foundation and the framing atop it, which all in totaled $70,485 -- not the $80K I remembered.
So I started with "Ooh, an extra room for about $30K?! Let's do it!" to "Ugh, it's actually going to be $49K with all the tax and delivery and permits," to "Aaargh, $20K more because of errors or crazy shit that they could have told me from the start." Yeah, maybe the contractor used the foundation change orders to sneak in an extra $2K-$3K, but I'm not a GC and by that point I wasn't going to bid it out.
But, as I said, I love the office and use it daily, so I can't say I regret it.
Was the office considered an ADU?
Yes and no. It was approved under the California state rules fast-tracking ADUs, but the thing I bought didn't have plumbing or sewer. Had I known I would be in for that much time and money, I'd have chosen something with a bathroom, so that it could have someday been an in-law unit. This is just an office or studio.