10 Amazing Granny Flats Part I

The days of putting in-laws and parents in basement or attic apartments is long gone: today’s families are opting for more chic, stylish options for mom and pop. Check out these five beautiful “granny flats,” and come back on Monday to see another five:

1
A back hatch window from a Porsche 928 is used as an awning over the front door of grandma?s new northern California digs — an L-shaped floor plan wrapped around a garage. Grandma?s daughter and grandkids live in the main house. Additional custom details by Hyer Architecture include a sewing counter and fire-engine-red kitchen cabinets.

2
This addition in Seattle (on the left), a legal rental unit, turned a single-family home into a two-family one. If you add in-law space to your home, consider going through the hoops of making it official. That may allow you (and future owners) to rent it out. Ask your local zoning and building department officials for rules and permitting information.

3
Here an adult son and his family moved into the parents? main house, while the parents moved into a new in-law home built on the site of a dilapidated garage. The new building incorporates ?universal design? and ?green? features, including construction from bales of straw, really. A sloping patio is made of recycled concrete—and makes the house wheelchair accessible.

4
A daughter rehabbed an old garage apartment for her newly-widowed father in this Minnesota home. For this type of unit, insulation and soundproofing are key. An existing dormer works as a bed nook. Lots of built-in cabinets save space.

5
A daughter built this San Francisco Bay Area cottage in her backyard for her widowed mother. Everything is on one-level. The house and a trellis surround a patio, which became an extra room yet didn?t count as square footage towards the maximum footprint allowed by the local zoning rules.