A Davis ADU drawn around the clay,
the heritage elms, and your family.

Custom is won in the drawings, so we put real hours there. It opens with a site walk and a measure-up. A survey leaves things out — it won't tell you which trees the city protects, how far the canopy actually reaches, or how the adobe behaves on your block once you start digging. That first visit reshapes the plan more often than not, and on a Davis lot it usually points the foundation engineer at a soil report early. Then concept sketches. You react, we revise. Most clients run two or three rounds before the floor plan feels right; a few push past five. When the layout locks we draw construction documents — structural, Title-24, mechanical, plumbing, the PG&E load calc, plus the city's reach-code items. The honest part: this front end runs six to ten weeks before anything reaches the City of Davis counter. Longer than stock. That's the trade.

A lot of our Davis custom work is families solving one exact problem — aging parents who want their own front door, or a UC Davis student or grad whose rent makes a backyard unit look smart. The university drives heavy rental demand, so an ADU here earns its keep faster than most towns. That reshapes the plan. We draw zero-step entries, 36-inch doorways, curbless showers with grab-bar blocking set in the walls, and a second primary suite so two generations each keep privacy. The detached state ceiling is 1,200 sq ft, and custom clients tend to push right up against it — at that size you fit two real bedrooms, a full kitchen, a proper living room. Then there's finish level. Quartz, real oak floors, a tiled shower instead of a fiberglass insert. Custom is where the premium package fits, designed in from day one rather than bolted on.