A Fair Oaks ADU drawn around the oaks,
the bluff, and the family moving in.

Custom is won in the drawings, so we put real hours there. It opens with a site walk and a measure-up. I've walked enough Fair Oaks backyards to know a survey leaves things out — it won't show you which oaks are protected, how far the canopy actually reaches, or that the back third of the lot drops faster than the topo lines suggest. That first visit reshapes the plan more often than not. 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 SMUD load calc. The honest part: this front end runs six to ten weeks before anything reaches the county counter. Longer than stock. That's the trade.

A lot of our Fair Oaks custom work is families solving one exact problem — aging parents who want their own front door, or an adult kid staring at rents who isn't moving out. That reshapes the plan. We draw zero-step entries, 36-inch doorways, curbless showers with grab-bar blocking already 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. The bigger Fair Oaks lots give you room to actually place a unit that size without crowding the main house. 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.