Have you ever wondered how long it would take to build an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, in your backyard?
In the case of Álvaro “Al” and Nenette Alcázar, a retired couple, who moved from a six-bedroom house in New Orleans to a one-bedroom ADU in Los Angeles, it took them just three and a half months.
“We went on vacation to the Philippines in November, right when they were starting construction,” Al says of the ADU his son Jay Alcaraz and his partner Andy Campbell added behind their Harbor Gateway home. “When we returned in March of this year, the house was ready for us.”
The Alcázars were surprised by the quick completion of their new 570-square-foot modular home by Gardena-based Cover. When construction was completed, they had not yet listed their home in New Orleans, where they lived for 54 years while raising their two children.
Andy Campbell, seated left, and his partner Jay Alcazar's house are reflected in the windows of the ADU where Alcazar's parents, Al and Nenette Alcazar, stand, now reside.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell's backyard at Harbor Gateway before adding an ADU.
(Jay Alcazar)
Alexis Rivas, co-founder and CEO of Cover, was also surprised by how quickly the ADU was permitted, in just 45 days. “The total time from permit submission to certificate of occupancy was 104 days,” he says, crediting the city's Standard Plan and the ADU's integrated panel system for making it the fastest Clover has ever enabled.
For Al, a longtime professor of religious studies at Loyola University New Orleans and community organizer, the construction process was about more than just demolition and site preparation. Watching Cover workers collaborate at home reminded him of “bayanihan,” a core Filipino value that emphasizes community unity and collective action.
“My parents were public school teachers,” says Al, who was exiled from the Philippines in 1972. “When they moved to a village where there were no schools, the parents were so happy that their children didn't have to walk to another village to go to school that they built them a house.”
“It's just a bedroom, but we love it,” says Nenette Alcazar. “It's the right size for two people.”
Like his childhood home in the town of Cag-abaca, Al says his and Nenette's ADU “felt like a community had built it somewhere and brought it out into the yard for us to live in.” Only in this case, the house was not a Nipa hut made of bamboo, but a house made of steel panels manufactured in a Gardena factory and installed on site.
Jay Alcaraz, 40, and Campbell, 43, had been renting a home in Long Beach for three years when they started looking for a home to buy in 2022. Initially, they hoped to stay in Long Beach, but when they realized they couldn't afford it, they expanded their search to include Harbor Gateway. “It was equidistant from my job as a critical studies professor at USC and Jay's job as a senior product manager at Stamps.com near LAX,” Campbell says.
When they finally purchased a three-bedroom mid-century home that needed some work, they were delighted to find themselves in a neighborhood full of multigenerational homes within walking distance of grocery stores and Asian restaurants.
The ADU does not overwhelm the backyard. “It looks like a house in a garden,” says Al Alcazar.
“We can walk to everything,” Jay says. “The post office. The deli. The supermarket. We love Asian food and we get to eat at a different Asian restaurant every day.”
Campbell adds, “We have the same thing here that we had in Long Beach, more space for an ADU.”
At a time when multigenerational living is growing among older men and women in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center, it's no surprise that the couple began considering an ADU for Jay's parents soon after purchasing their home, knowing that Al and Nenette, who no longer drives, would feel comfortable in the neighborhood.
They began by reviewing ADUs that the city has pre-approved for construction as part of the ADU Standard Plan Program on the city's Department of Building and Safety website. The initiative, organized by former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's office in collaboration with Building and Safety in 2021, was designed to simplify the lengthy permitting process and help create more housing.
The 570-square-foot home has a single bedroom and one bathroom.
Jay and Al Alcazar have coffee in the ADU kitchen.
They approached several potential architects and secured a line of credit for $300,000. They decided to go with Cover after touring their facilities and one of their completed ADUs. “We liked that they were local and that their facility was five minutes from us,” Campbell says.
The couple originally envisioned removing the pergola and grass from their backyard and adding an L-shaped ADU. But after consulting with Rivas, they decided on a rectangular unit with large-format glass sliders and warm wood cladding to preserve the garden.
The configuration was the right choice, as the green space between the two homes, which includes a deck and drought-tolerant landscaping, serves as a social hub for both couples, who enjoy barbecuing, sharing meals at the outdoor dining table, and gardening. Just a few weeks ago, the family celebrated Al's 77th birthday in the garden with his entire family.
Nenette, who describes herself as a “green thumb,” is delighted by the abundance of the California garden, which includes oranges, lemons, guavas and camellias. “I can see the palm trees moving back and forth and the hummingbirds in the morning,” he says.
“They're a lot of fun,” Jay Alcazar says of his parents. “They make excellent dinner companions.”
Although some young couples may be hesitant to live near their parents and in-laws, Jay and Campbell see their ADU as a convenient way to stay close to and support Jay's parents as they age in place.
Plus, Jay says, they're a lot of fun. “They make excellent dinner companions,” he says.
Campbell, who likes to have coffee on the outdoor patio with Al, agrees. “When I first met them 12 years ago, they had a group over for dinner and had a karaoke party until 3 a.m.,” he said. “I thought, 'Is this normal?'”
A Philippine teak bed and family memories help make the new ADU feel like home.
Unlike the Alcazars' spacious 1966 home in New Orleans, the interiors of their new ADU are modern and simple, with white oak floors and cabinets and Bosch appliances, including a stackable washer and dryer. Despite downsizing a lifetime's worth of belongings, Al and Nenette were able to keep a few things that help make the ADU feel like home. In the living room, mother-of-pearl lamps and carved wooden side tables serve as a reminder of their old home. In her bedroom, Nenette's family artisans built a hand-carved teak bed from the Philippines, which still shows signs of water damage from Hurricane Katrina.
“Madonna and Jack Nicholson commissioned this bed,” Nenette says proudly.
The couple chose heat-treated wood siding for its warmth. “Over time it will develop a silver tone,” says Alexis Rivas of Cover. “It requires no maintenance.”
But one thing didn't work on his move to the West. When they realized their sofa would take up too much space in the 8-foot portable storage unit they rented in New Orleans, they decided to purchase an IKEA sofa bed in Los Angeles. It is now in the mix along with his personal artifacts and family photographs that add even more memories to the interiors, including a reproduction of the Last Supper, a common tradition in many Filipino homes that symbolizes the importance of coming together to share meals. With limited storage, families share the two-car garage, where Al keeps his tools.
“It's just a bedroom, but we love it,” says Nenette, 79, of the ADU, which cost $380,000. “It's just the right size for two people.”
The ADU feels private, both couples say, thanks to the 9-foot-long custom curtains they ordered online from Two Pages Curtains. “When the curtains open, we know they're awake, and when they go down, we know we should leave them alone,” Jay says, laughing at his ritual.
In terms of aging in place, the ADU can accommodate a wheelchair or walker if needed, and Rivas says a custom wheelchair ramp can be added later if needed.
Now, if only Jay could mount the flat-screen TV on the wall, Al says, mocking his son. It's hard to escape dad jokes when he lives in your backyard, and that's the point.
“It's really nice to have them here,” says Andy.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell enjoy having Al and Nenette Alcazar around. “They feel like neighbors,” Jay says.
After losing his family and home in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the country, Al, who once studied to be a priest, says he is deeply moved to receive the bayanihan spirit once again.
“They tortured me in the Philippines and it didn't break me,” he says. “So having a house built by a friendly community really points to a shorter but more spiritual meaning of bayanihan, which is, 'when a group of friends,' as my grandmother Marta used to say, 'turn your Stations of the Cross into a garden with a rose.' Now we have Eden here in my son's backyard.”
