A 750 Square Foot Hanover ADU, Built for Sandy

Why are the Morses building an ADU in Hanover?

Sandy is 89, still physically capable of taking care of herself, and the question the family kept coming back to was what happens someday if she is not. They exhausted the other options first. They talked about renting, about seasonal living, and about the housing authorities, whose wait lists run for years. Charlie's father had been on one of those lists. The letter saying he had reached the top arrived two months before this video, six years after he died.

Charlie and Debbie had the room in their backyard. Sandy has great-grandchildren here. Charlie says the reason for the whole project was simply to have a support system in place for Sandy as things happen in her life, before a crisis forces the decision. Sandy's view, from 1,500 miles away during the planning: it is your backyard, and when I die it is yours, so you might as well have what you want.

How was the plan designed?

It started with the published plans on the BuildX website, three or four of which would have worked. Then the family went to a weekend home tour and understood what Buz means when he says the plans are the beginning of a conversation. They picked a basic package and started talking. Debbie suggested a half bath off the kitchen so a guest would never have to walk through Sandy's bedroom to use the bathroom. Every time they said something, a new package arrived with the change drawn in, so they could look at it and say yes, that is what we meant.

The finished design is a detached 750 square foot house on a 26 by 31 foot footprint, one bedroom, one and a half baths, with two decks and a bulkhead down to a full basement where the ducts run through the insulated ceiling.

What happened at the planning board?

Five BuildX representatives showed up to represent the Morses at the Hanover planning board meeting, with all of the paperwork. The chairwoman of the board commended BuildX on the information they brought and how it was presented. Charlie's summary of the company is that it is on top of everything and yet small enough that you can text the owner any time you want, and he is dying to answer. None of the three of them, he says, knows anything about construction, so white glove service was exactly what they needed.

How energy efficient is the Hanover ADU?

Very. The preliminary HERS rating came in at 52 against a target of 55, which is better than the target, and the house meets both the Massachusetts stretch code for ADUs and the 2021 energy code. Heating and cooling come from a ducted air-source heat pump, hot water from an efficient electric tank, fresh air from an ERV, and the lighting is all LED. The walls are R-21, the vaulted ceiling R-48, the floor R-30, the windows U-0.25. There is an EV-ready space. The rater's estimate of total annual energy cost is about $1,990, roughly $2,600 a year less than an average American home.

How long will the Hanover ADU take to build?

One hundred days. Charlie put it as the family's countdown: in 100 days they look forward to Sandy's ability to occupy her own bedroom. Sandy's version of the same date is shorter. My own chair, my own couch, my own bed.

What was the home tour like?

Charlie expected to find a handful of BuildX people and maybe one other visitor. Instead it was, in his words, a beehive: lots of BuildX staff and even more families looking at exactly the solution he was looking at. His advice to anyone thinking about it is to go stand in one on a weekend, because they really are spectacular, and because that is where the published plans stop being drawings.

Can an ADU replace a wait list?

For this family it did. Twelve years on a housing authority list is not a plan for a parent in her late eighties. An ADU in the backyard was a plan with a date on it. If you are on a list, or looking at seasonal rentals as a stopgap, bring that to the first call. The comparison is worth an hour.