building an adu - Kristen Ann McLaughlin

Building the ADU: A Year Later…

Nearly a year ago I ended my last post on the topic of Building the ADU with “The next step: pouring the foundation.” And then, throughout the rest of 2024 and into 2025 – silence here, although I did keep a daily stream of building updates with photos on Facebook . The problem there, now, is that to find the beginning or follow the sequence of what happened requires scrolling down through dozens of posts. I want to have some kind of easily obtainable record for our family to look at – or that others who are interested in the building process can check out. So: back to this blog.

Building the ADU: preparing the site

It began at the end of June with the arrival of heavy machinery needed for digging the foundation. But first, a number of trees had to be taken down that were too close to the proposed “new wing,” otherwise known as an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). You can find out why we needed to add onto our house here. A daily blow by blow with videos can be found on my Facebook page here.

Another building project: The ADU

We thought we were done building, that this would be our “forever house.” Never say never. Or plan too far into the future. Life has a way of taking curious and unexpected courses.

Last year our daughter, son-in-law, and two youngest grandchildren decided to return to New Hampshire after several years of living in Vermont. They moved in with us “temporarily” while looking for a house to rent. After months of searching, however, they couldn’t find anything suitable. There’s a severe shortage of houses for rent right now, a situation that appears to be occurring throughout the country.