Tiny ADU houses young adult children struggling to | Real Estate news

When Tina LaMonica and Warren Wellen bought their South Pasadena Craftsman home in 2001, the one-car storage dated back to 1917, a time when people parked their slender Ford Model T vehicles inside garages like this one.

“We bought it for $650,000,” LaMonica says of the home. “Of course, we could never afford to buy it now.”

The couple moved in when their daughters, Sophie and Ruby Wellen, had been little, and their tree-lined road was full of households with young children who rode their scooters throughout the neighborhood.

“We all grew up together and had block parties,” says Sophie, 30. Now, she provides, “There are no new families moving in. No one left. Why would they?”

Music was always a half of their home, Sophie says, thanks to her father, Warren, 65, who is both an attorney and a musician in the choice rock band Brahms’ Third Racket.

“He plays everything,” Sophie says. “Throughout my entire childhood, he was always making music.”

LaMonica provides, “It can be disruptive.”

So in 2021, the couple pulled together money from different sources, including a line of credit, and turned the storage into a tiny 230-square-foot accent dwelling unit, or ADU, for Warren to use as a music studio.

“It was intended to be a creative space, not a home,” says LaMonica, 64, who is a industrial real estate broker. “The total cost was around $125,000, including permits, construction and all systems — a significant investment, but one that ended up serving our family in unexpected ways.”

The storage before, left, during, proper, and after, below, construction. (Tina LaMonica)

A few months after utilizing his new music studio, Sophie, who had been in law college at the University of Michigan, moved back to Los Angeles after being away for 10 years.

“She wasn’t working right away, and like many new grads, she had student debt and credit card debt from getting through school,” says LaMonica. “Market rent in the Los Angeles area wasn’t realistic, even with a job offer lined up. So, the studio became her first home. It gave her stability and independence during a major transition.”

Sophie, who describes her relationship with her dad and mom as close, says the ADU was always meant to be momentary and she’s grateful for it.

“At 28, I didn’t know where I wanted to live in L.A.,” she says. “I had only grown up in Pasadena, which is a small community. I felt lucky to be able to live in this little house in the back and explore the city to find the right place for me, instead of rushing to grab the first place I could, like so many of my associates had to do. It was right after the bar exam, and I was really stressed.”

The ADU options a Murphy mattress and and a nice-sized kitchenette.

The kitchenette has a compact air fryer-toaster oven from Our Place, and a slim, Classic retro-style fridge.

After clerking for a choose in Washington, D.C., Sophie’s boyfriend William Lang moved to Los Angeles and joined her and her canine in the ADU, bringing his two cats with him.

“It was a full house,” Sophie says, laughing. “And yes, they were indoor cats! But we made it work. Finding a rental was hard. I couldn’t really afford a nice apartment in L.A. I had to save up and wait until my boyfriend got here so we had two incomes.”

It’s no shock they felt at home. Although it’s small, the unit is sunny and vivid, with a pitched roof and a big image window overlooking the plush yard and swimming pool. (The blinds may be closed for privateness.)

There’s a Murphy mattress that turns into a love seat when pulled down, which saves space, and traditional black-and-white checkerboard porcelain tile from Mission Tile in South Pasadena that provides the residing areas a shocking sense of enjoyable. The unit also has a lavatory with a bathe, a closet and a storage nook above the lavatory.

The ADU has room for a desk, flat-screen TV and comfortable chair.

There’s also room for a desk, a flat-screen TV on the wall and a snug chair. Not having a eating room isn’t a drawback because there’s a welcoming patio just exterior the French doorways, with two chairs, a sofa and a espresso desk.

“The backyard was our saving grace,” says Sophie. “Most of the time, William sat at the little table. It was cozy and nice. I got to be near my parents, and they got to know my partner better.”

The ADU has a roomy kitchenette with white cupboards and counter tops, a compact air fryer-toaster oven from Our Place, and a slim retro-style fridge from Unique. “You can bake, broil and fry with the small Wonder Oven,” LaMonica says. “Ruby uses it all the time.” There’s also a mini-split system for heating and cooling, and if needed, a stackable washer and dryer may be added later.

A patio space gives another residing space steps exterior the ADU.

Soon after Sophie moved out, having lived in the back home for two years, her 27-year-old sister Ruby moved in. “She works in Torrance and can’t afford to rent an apartment close to her job,” her mom says. “The ADU gives her a chance to live affordably, stay safe and be near family, while building financial footing on her own terms.”

LaMonica is joyful with the ADU, though she needs they may have added a second flooring, which town of South Pasadena didn’t enable at the time.

She imagines a future in which one of her daughters lives in the main home, and she and her husband live in the ADU. “I think an ADU is a great long-term solution,” she says. “It keeps people from moving out of California. With an ADU, at least you can keep your family on site.”

In some methods, the small ADU is more than just a resolution for young people who can’t afford to live in Los Angeles. A 2025 research discovered that Los Angeles ranked second among the 50 largest U.S. metros for its share of working adults (ages 25 to 40) residing with dad and mom.

Backyard properties can also help people join with their group.

“The nice thing about the ADU is that it can give you a sense of community that’s hard to find right now because people are so isolated,” says Sophie, who now rents a two-bedroom duplex in Hancock Park with Lang for $4,500 a month. “We’re both lawyers at private law firms and doing well, but I still don’t feel like I could have a child right now and give them the life I want. It’s hard to make big life decisions in L.A., especially if you have student debt. It was really nice to have dinner with my parents every once in a while. They didn’t want William and I to leave.”

The lavatory inside the ADU.

As Southern California will get more crowded and housing prices rise, young people have to look for choices different from those their dad and mom had when they had been growing up.

LaMonica says she and her husband never thought they might home both daughters in a transformed storage. “But in a place like Los Angeles,” she says, “the tiny ADU turned into a flexible and essential lifeline for our family, not just once but twice.”

And possibly at some point, Warren will finally get his music studio.