Frakes Garden Cottage: New Construction, 2005
Size: 1,500 s.f.
Location: Niles, California
“Look: I’m tired of maintaining my property as a city park for the pleasure of the neighborhood. This house is ridiculously small, with buildable land all around it. It takes a lot of work to maintain it and all I get out of it is ... people staring at me through the windows. I have to keep drapes drawn all the time, it's dark. I’m a captive in my own house. They always say how much they enjoy the pastoral setting... well you know, I think I’m entitled to some of that also, after all, I do pay for it. So, I would like to build a little garden cottage with modern conveniences at the edge of the alley that looks back at the house. I want some privacy, light and to be able to live outside as much as I can. Also, this is actually a duplex. The room in the attic has a separate entrance; see the deck on the other side. There is an incredibly inadequate kitchenette up there, but it qualifies. This is a great piece of property because of this additional rental income. I would just rather live in something new and contemporary; I work in the digital film Industry up in Berkeley. Oh, yeah, the city told me that this house has some type of historic significance.”
The plan made sense. We just needed to make sure the property remained a duplex to retain its unique value. The existing house would have to be decommissioned into Unit #1 on the property. This would be simple: all we have to do is remove one of the kitchens. The new structure, the garden cottage, would be Unit #2 and where they would live.
