We are living in a new world where we don’t like to send our parents to the old folks home or retirement community. Building a detached or attached guest house for mom and dad has become extremely popular with our clients in San Antonio, Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills. We also have clients that plan to rent the new room addition as an Airbnb or VRBO as a rental income property. Building a detached casita has also become popular for parents who have their grown children needing to move back home for a variety of reasons. The first step is to check your building survey (included in your closing documents from the title company) for building setbacks and easements. This shows where you can and can not build on your property. Once you determine you are allowed to build what you are wanting, you will to come up with a design for the new space. Talking to your parents about what is important to them is very important. Think of it as a smaller version of the home they live in now. The floor plan below is a father in law suite we just completed in the Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills area. The square footage was 426 square feet the approximate job cost was $96,000. There are many factors that effect construction cost and many items to consider for your design and scope of work. We work closely with the families we build for to make sure we are capturing all the ideas and thoughts to arrive at the design and layout that works best for everyone. The detached guest house or father in law suite is a great way to have mom and dad close by, but able to maintain that feeling of independence. It can also add value to the overall appraisal of your home (depending on the area you live in and overall construction cost/scope of work).
