New Energy Performance Incentive Available for New ADUs
In a post on my personal ADU blog, I described an awesome building incentive that was made available for my ADU from the Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO). My ADU … Continue reading
Appraising properties with accessory dwelling units: a preview of new methods and findings
[update Nov. 2012: the paper, including updated results, is out in Appraisal Journal… click here] This year I’ve been working with appraiser Taylor Watkins of problem of appraising properties with … Continue reading
Documents about ADUs and appraisals
[this material may be somewhat dated, please look for newer posts about appraisals by searching the site — ed.] Link to Appraisal Journal paper published 2012: Understanding and Appraising Properties … Continue reading
Notes from a presentation on appraising ADUs
[Kol Peterson attended Martin Brown and Taylor Watkin’s presentation on appraising ADUs and came away with these notes about how appraisal issues affect homeowners. For Martin’s summary of the event, … Continue reading
Dwelling in the Urban Alleys of DC (Part II)
Part One of this post ended with the restoration movement’s success in fending off an outright ban on existing alley dwellings in Washington DC. In this follow-up, I’d like to … Continue reading
Dwelling in the Urban Alleys of DC
A book review of Alley Life in Washington (Editor note: this is part one one of a two part series. You can read part II here.) Alley Life in Washington … Continue reading
Portland small home survey
Attention: If you are seeking the Oregon DEQ, Metro, and accessorydwellings.org survey being conducted in June, 2013, please visit http://adusurvey.org/ From garage lofts, to backyard cottages, to yurts, to cute … Continue reading
“Understanding and Appraising properties with Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)” – a free seminar December 16, 2011 in Portland
[EDITOR’S NOTE: this event has already occurred! For a synopsis of results, click here.] (for an emailable PDF of this invitation, click here) A presentation for real estate, building, and … Continue reading
How appraisals and “GSEs” make financing an ADU challenging
(Update January 2013: please note that the research on which the following piece was based has now been published in Appraisal Journal. Please read the full text of that article … Continue reading
Cider Mixer and OPEN HOUSE at new Eco-ADU in NE Portland: this Wednesday, November 16, 4-6pm
Please join Hammer & Hand this Wednesday, November 16 for “cider libations and greenbuilding revelations” at the new Alameda Ridge ADU. Hammer & Hand’s project team will be joined by … Continue reading
Can ADUs solve our McMansion problem? Or maybe the other way around?
Accessory dwellings don’t often get a thorough discussion in the media these days, because most writers (and most Americans) are still getting used to the basic idea of them. We’re … Continue reading
Building design and construction process – step by step
Reasonable people may disagree, but here are the sequential steps in designing and building an ADU. This is an approximation of the steps for my ADU project, anyway. This was … Continue reading
Why are ADUs such a good idea?
There’s plenty of reasons why ADUs are good for personal and financial reasons, which are described below. But, before we cover that, it’s good to understand the range of reasons … Continue reading
Energy efficiency and building size
Building residential options that use less energy is achieved most effectively by building smaller square footage units and filling in vacant urban space (aka urban infill). Building green is achieved … Continue reading
Building a detached ADU
Building a detached ADU isn’t necessarily different than building a house. Although ADUs (usually <800 sq ft) are necessarily smaller than a normal house (avg house size is 2,382 sq … Continue reading
Ten steps to permitting an ADU
Ten steps for planning, designing, and permitting an ADU Building an ADU is daunting. Here’s a quick sketch of the chronological steps to get ready to build an ADU on … Continue reading
Accessory Dwellings 
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