It's good to explore with sketches while you are developing ideas. It's not clear why you are adding on. What is your main goal? It's not just a new laundry area. The architect will want to know.

Why is the laundry area still in the garage? Will you share it with the tenants?

Who gets the non-tandem parking outdoors? Who will have to move their cars every morning before the garaged cars can get out?

The photo and plan(s) show your lot mostly covered with concrete and house. Have you already checked your local regulations about what fraction can be hardscape?

The furniture in the ADU is not shown to a consistent scale. Try measuring again.

Take your architect's advice. They will have better knowledge to advise you than anyone here.

I agree first find out if ADUs are allowed then realize garages cannot be converted to living space usually so that will need to be ripped down a you begin like any other addition. The picsyou posted are really not helpful IMO a simple to scale floor plan showing all the original and where this is planned is much more helpful BTW all measurements need to be clearly marked

You will need an architect so right after you know you can do this in your area then get an architect

I went to an architect and we have laid out these plans and working with the city to get approved.

Anyone find the main entrance to the side of the house weird? It would take a couple turns to get to the door.

See Layout below:

We have to move the water line to shift the driveway over and make it wider - anyone know how much that costs?

There are some bad design decisions, but dealing with existing constraints it is sometimes unavoidable.

It appears the interior finished depth of the garage from the paint of the back wall to the garage door tracks is at best 18'-11 1/2". The dimension shown (20') is from outside of the exterior walls.

Hi Mark, yes it was unavoidable due to the current layout of the house as well as what we could really do with that space in the front. Any feedback on what is a bad design decision?

As for the new garage, it should be 20'9x19'4 for the interior.

Everything looks like it is designed to minimal size, like 30" in width for the toilet can be uncomfortable for some people.

The large bedroom window at the main entrance is something to be avoided.

A 30" wide shower with an 18" entry width is in some cases unusable.

The New JR ADU is limited in its use.

The list goes on.

Some things are unavoidable but know what you are getting into.

Hi Mark,

Appreciate the feedback. I think you are referring to the existing home structure which is hard to differentiate from the proposed plans and has smaller bathrooms and spaces than we'd like.

Here is what the current home looks like so you can see what we are trying to add.

Hi,

Does it make sense to build a second story above the garage and turn that into an ADU (~600 sqft)? This would require re-inforcment of the foundation. - doing this will also leave our driveway alone and we wouldnt have to relocate the Approach, Water Meter, and pour concrete on around 1600Sqft of space. Redlines indicate where everything would have to be excavated and re-done

Concerns are 1. Cost, 2. Ease of build / timeline

(We are ready to submit the third time to the city with all the updates, making a second story plan now would mean to resubmit from beginning + cost of redesign)

Green lines in second image would be a second story above the garage and new front addition.

How would a second-story ADU work for parents to move in?

It would make more sense to move, or do a teardown, for the whole thing. Everything is so below modern American ideas of space that the result of this is not going to give good value. In Toyko, sure. Not in the US. It's just too cramped.

We decided to turn this to a rental and move in a few years. Figured we should maximize spend and space utilization. This is in southern California.