In this second episode of the Ten Seventy Architecture Show, I sit down with Bailey to talk about something that’s been dominating the headlines lately — tariffs.
We keep it high-level and totally apolitical, focusing on how rising tariffs could affect construction costs here in San Diego and what we’re doing to help clients stay ahead of the curve.
The big takeaway?
If you’re planning a project, there’s no need to panic — but there are smart moves you can make now to set yourself up for success.
Because most projects take at least a year before construction actually starts, the current economic landscape may not be the one you’re building in.
Here’s what we cover:
- Why form should follow finance in this moment — and how simplifying your design can reduce labor costs and complexity.
- How to make use of San Diego’s permitting timeline by completing your design and then delaying permit issuance until you’re ready to build.
- The value of designing for efficiency — from framing and plumbing to HVAC layout and material reuse.
- Why sourcing local materials like concrete, block, or metal framing can help you dodge tariffs and support sustainable design.
- The economics of solar in Southern California — and how changes in utility policy are making battery backups more important than ever.
We also break down one of my favorite case studies: The Prince House — a 580 sq ft ADU my wife and I designed, permitted, built, and lived in ourselves. It’s a great example of what I’d call cost-effective modernism — smart design, clean layout, no wasted space.
Whether you’re building a rental, your forever home, or something in between, the message is the same: start now. You can always scale, phase, or delay parts of the process — but the earlier you start, the more options you’ll have.
Bailey: [00:00:00] Everyone, welcome back to the 10 70 Architecture YouTube show. I am the host here, Bailey Canning, and I'm going to be of course, interviewing and facilitating this conversation with the principal architect of 10 70 Architecture Sean Canning. And just to clarify, since I didn't really think I explained in the first episode. The way this came about was that Sean and I have been working for several years now on his company's. excuse me, on its company's marketing strategy and as a marketing consultant, that is why I am in the picture here.
Bailey: So that is the arrangement of how things came to be. Otherwise, we have a very jam packed show to be talking about today with the latest economic news and how that's going to be affecting the architecture landscape specifically in San Diego. But before we get to that, Sean, how are you doing on this Friday morning?
Sean Canning, Architect: Very good, Billy. Good morning. Thanks for, thanks for hosting this. I appreciate it.[00:01:00]
Bailey: You got it. You got it. Alright, so we're gonna be discussing the tariff situation, as I'm sure anyone watching this is well aware whether or not they wanna be watching the news or not. So I. You know, just at a, we're gonna keep this very high level, very high, very focused on how it's going to impact architecture and construction specifically within the San Diego region, and how you're gonna be advising your clients to go about these types of projects in the first place. It's gonna be very apolitical. We're not trying to get into the weeds of that. So Sean, at a high level, we're gonna be looking at a project later on that kind of demonstrates. approach to designing and developing projects in this new economic landscape, but at a high level, as you're, you know, having meetings with clients and prospects these days, how are you advising people to think about their project in relation to these tariffs and the almost certainly higher costs that they're going to incur?
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, the first thing I wanna explain, [00:02:00] Billy, is the timeframe on a project like this or, or any project we work on, whether it be a custom home. Or an A DU project. It takes us about two months to design most projects, two months to engineer most projects, and then about eight months to permit most most simple projects.
Sean Canning, Architect: So at the earliest, if you were to start your project today, you would be building this project a year from today. That's the. Ideal timeframe, it's the shortest timeframe. In a discretionary project, you could be building your project two years or three years from start. And then if we were planning to start the project in a year.
Sean Canning, Architect: There's also ways to delay the permit so we can complete the permit. You could be ready to build, ready to get the permit issued, and you can have up to two years of extensions. So that means when you're ready to build your project, you're actually gonna be building your project in a completely different economic landscape than what we have today.
Sean Canning, Architect: So that's the first thing I wanna mention. I think a lot of people think this things are going a lot faster than they [00:03:00] are. And I think the city advertises that. They're like expediting a DU permits. But in our experience, we're seeing like one year minimum from project start to construction start. So I think that's the first thing I, I should mention.
Sean Canning, Architect: The second thing is, in general, I think the way to compact combat these tariffs because we don't exactly know how. How they're gonna land and exactly how they're gonna affect the construction cost. But I think the key is rather than form follows function, which you've probably heard before, I think now we're in a situation where form needs to follow finance and I.
Sean Canning, Architect: There's a couple strategies here to design more simple buildings. First thing I should mention is there is a statistic from National Association of Home Builder, which stated that the average construction project is gonna increase about $7,500 to $10,000. And if this statistic is true in the grand scheme of any construction project that [00:04:00] we're working on here in San Diego, I mean, that's so minuscule.
Sean Canning, Architect: It's barely gonna affect the construction budget at all. But back to simplicity. I think there's a couple strategies here. You wanna make sure you're working with an architect who completely understands framing, because the more simple the framing is, the less cost the construction would be. And this has nothing to do with the cost of framing necessarily, but it has to do with the labor involved in framing.
Sean Canning, Architect: So rather than designing these complicated, articulate buildings, we're gonna propose in most scenarios that we're gonna design more simple, more straightforward buildings. And I don't mean this to say that these are gonna be ugly buildings or they're necessarily gonna be like minimalist buildings or anything like that.
Sean Canning, Architect: They can be different styles, but we're really gonna shoot for an efficiency of framing and then also an efficiency of the the MEP. So we're gonna want to. Like congregate the plumbing in one area of the house. So we don't have extended lengths of plumbing. And the same with the, [00:05:00] your air conditioner.
Sean Canning, Architect: We just wanna make sure everything's very efficient and I think that's going to help drop costs down. We could always layer on complexity later on, but for the time being, I think the strategy needs to be designed more simple, more efficient buildings.
Bailey: Got it. So we can definitely dive deeper into the design adjustments that might need to be made. But before we go forward with timeline, like you were just talking about, would it perhaps make sense? So you talked about the fact that people don't necessarily need to start a project or start the construction
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: it even further. it make sense potentially to start it sooner? So maybe should people, maybe they were three or six months out, nine months out from starting a project, as long as they have the finances to do it, would it actually make sense to start sooner rather than later? Given the fact that if you do believe these materials are going to increase in cost. You could start to, you could start your project and then the suppliers could secure the materials [00:06:00] faster, if that makes sense. I've, there's been people talking about, you know, buying cars now, buying other types of goods before these
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah.
Bailey: did. So what do you think about that?
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, I think that's what we're seeing going on right now in April, 2025. The contractors that are working on the projects that we've already designed, they're ordering all their materials as soon as they can so they can avoid the tariffs. But I don't know. I don't know if that would be a good strategy moving forward.
Sean Canning, Architect: 'cause we don't really know when these tariffs are gonna kind of like fully hit and increase the construction material cost. But let me give you two examples and explain the difference in, in timeframes here. So the standard client we get comes to, comes into my office and they say, Hey, I want to build.
Sean Canning, Architect: You know, this custom home, and I want to do it as right, right now, basically. So like I said earlier, it takes a couple months to design, a couple months to engineer, and then it typically takes about eight months to permit something like that, as long as it's a ministerial permit rather than a discretionary permit.[00:07:00]
Sean Canning, Architect: And then that eight month period during permitting, we're communicating with the client to say, Hey, we got this sign off, we got this sign off. And usually the clients at this point are like. You know, let's speed this up. Let's, let's hurry up the permit. I wanna get the permit. So I want to, I wanna build so it becomes a little bit of a rush.
Sean Canning, Architect: And I think that puts a lot of stress on the client. Put, definitely put some stress on us and the, the development services department. Now, in comparison, if you were to start your project today, design your project today, we'll engineer it and then we submit for permitting. And then we complete the permit.
Sean Canning, Architect: So all sign-offs are completed and we, all you have to do is issue the permit so you can legally start your construction project. Well, now we can delay that issuance so we can push it out another year. And that can allow you to get prepared for the construction project without all the, without all the stress.
Sean Canning, Architect: You can use this time to line up a contractor. You can make sure the contractor has availability on his schedule. So I think the latter scenario takes a lot of the [00:08:00] stress out of, out of construction, which is inherently a very stressful part of the project.
Bailey: Sure. And are there any, like, is the, if you wanted to delay, like you talk about, is that kind of
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: would that be given automatically or could there be some complications just so people know?
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah. Well, it could be, it could be slightly complicated. It's not, it's not maybe complicated is the wrong word. We basically have to reach out before the. Permit expires and ask for an extension. And Margaret does that in our office. So we track the dates and the ex expirations of the permits, especially when clients ask us to do this.
Sean Canning, Architect: So we, we have been doing this in the past where clients wanna wait for the right economical situation to build.
Bailey: Got it. So why don't we talk more about the design aspects here. So obviously I know you're a huge fan of minimalism when it comes to architecture. A fan of minimalism as well. Probably just not as much as you are, but I definitely do agree. I definitely like that design style and [00:09:00] back to your form, follows finance. Statement now be the time to embrace minimalism. Is that what you would recommend to clients in a tasteful way that is obviously maybe not going to be super austere, but is going to be minimalist in a way that reduces the construction costs to account for these tariffs?
Sean Canning, Architect: Y yes and no. If, if we're talking about the true style of minimalism like what John Paulson does for example, those projects are more expensive because it's harder to get. Things to look very, very minimalist. But if we're talking like more generally, could we take a craftsman home and design it in a more minimalist style, or could we do a modern home and design it closer to a minimalist style where we're reducing maybe extra ornament and extra trim.
Sean Canning, Architect: Maybe we're reducing the bathroom counts, or maybe we're planning for future [00:10:00] bathrooms, so the plumbing is already there. So I wouldn't say the the, the specific style of minimalism is less expensive, but I think you can apply the concepts of minimalism to your project.
Bailey: Got it. And I think it's important to say at this moment that just because there's less going on inherently with a more minimalist design, doesn't mean that it's going to look cheap or an IKEA sort of design. Even though I do like ikea, but I think, and this is like a interior design concept that actually, especially when you look at those like very. Curated Pinterest type posts of like very cool interiors, and maybe the lay person doesn't know exactly how that would be achieved. The, at least from what I have watched when it comes to YouTube videos about interior design, many people seem to believe that actually by having less going on, by having something that is more minimalist, you can actually achieve a more higher end, sophisticated, elegant type look. Something that you might see like on HDTV, for example. [00:11:00] easier than you would be with more going on. What do you think about that?
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, I, I mean I have kind of a theory about this. Basically you know, my mom is the type of person who would like buy the live laugh, love sign at Bed, bath and Beyond, and put it on the wall. And that's not really design that's decorating. And as an architect, I would consider decorating the lowest form of design.
Sean Canning, Architect: So then if you look at the other end of the spectrum, maybe that means the highest form of design is the res, the resisting the urge to decorate. Sometimes it's been described as like nesting. You buy a new home, you wanna like, put stuff all over the place. But I think like somewhere in the middle is really the correct answer.
Sean Canning, Architect: While minimalism is like the empty inbox. Of architectural styles. You know, maybe sometimes it's nice to have a couple emails that you need to get back to in the, in the inbox or something like that. But I would say in general, if you're gonna clutter a room, you're going [00:12:00] to detract from the focal points of the room.
Sean Canning, Architect: So if you have the right amounts of balance, I think then the attention goes on the areas of the room that, that, that you should have. I dunno. I hope that makes sense.
Bailey: No, it makes sense. I follow, so I. We're gonna show in a second a project. I think really EnCap encapsulates what you're talking about here. So you'll share your screen in a second. Is there anything though you wanna talk about before we jump into that, that could serve as better context?
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, there's two other points I wanna mention. I mean, we live in San Diego here, so getting the most usable space and the best bang for your buck. I really believe comes from using your exterior space in smart ways. It's much less expensive to have like an exterior patio or an exterior deck than it is to have a, a full extra room, like a bonus room.
Sean Canning, Architect: So it's dramatically less expensive to do this, and most people in San Diego want to have this interior exterior living [00:13:00] scenario. So I think maybe now we're kind of going more towards, more towards designing exterior spaces like courtyards or, or pocket courtyards, things like that. I think that's how you stretch your dollar in a construction scenario where you're not really sure how expensive things are gonna be.
Sean Canning, Architect: And the second thing I wanna mention is. There's a surefire way to beat these tariffs, and it would also be considered a sustainable design technique, and that would be to source locally locally, local materials. So we make concrete in Oceanside brick and block in San Marcos and within, within Southern California, we're also making natural stone drywall and metal framing.
Sean Canning, Architect: So. Depending on what happens with the cost of wood framing, for example you could see a shift towards metal framing. It's fire resistance. It's probably better for the environments. We would be doing less less logging, so it could be arguably better for the environment. You could see a shift to [00:14:00] more CMU block or concrete type structures depending on really how high how high construction cost goes.
Sean Canning, Architect: These are locally sourced materials, and I think this is a good start for a lot of projects.
Bailey: Got it. Got it, got it. And then you mentioned sustainability. Where does energy efficiency perhaps come into the picture? I.
Sean Canning, Architect: Good question. I guess that would be like an aside to this whole thing because the more you can save on your utility bills. The better off you would be. But that's in both economic scenarios. You know, if construction cost is high and you save money on your energy bills, that's good. But also, if construction cost is low and you save money on your energy bills, that's good.
Sean Canning, Architect: But you know the, the ways you're gonna do this is. Probably solar panels out here in Southern California. The code requires solar panels on any new home and most new ADUs. So most of these homes are gonna have solar panels anyway. And ba, we have like the highest electric rates in, I think in [00:15:00] the whole country here with SDGE.
Sean Canning, Architect: They just keep increasing their rates. So solar panels are a great idea. You can lease them, you know, purchase them right just outright. And we put some solar panels on our roof over here. And now our energy bill is basically zero and we have an electric car, so that's a good, I, I don't think it's specific, but it's something you can do additionally to these to, to help you combat construction costs.
Bailey: Got it. And the, the one thing I do where I've heard at least about the solar panels, especially in areas where the electricity is more expensive, like Southern California apparently, correct me if I'm wrong of course, but apparently it becomes much more cost effective if you actually have a battery versus not having a battery.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, you need the battery now, unfortunately, because of the way SDGE has set up their plans, if you don't have the battery, it, it's not worth the cost of the solar panels. And that's actually disappointing because I. The battery is expensive. I mean, we just spent $35,000 [00:16:00] on solar panels and a battery on a two bedroom H house, so it's not a inexpensive cost.
Sean Canning, Architect: It would be much less expensive if we didn't have to install the battery. But you, you're forced to do it just because of the electric plans that are offered by the utility company.
Bailey: Got it. Okay. That could be a, the solar discussion could be a totally different, you know, show in the future one day. So unless there's anything you want to talk about, I think we're ready to look at this project. So I think this is going to be a very good example for people to consider and follow in the projects they may be considering.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, let's take a look at it. Lemme share my screen here.
Bailey: Bless you. We'll, we'll cut that out.
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay. Okay. Let me know if you can see that.
Bailey: All right.
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay.
Bailey: yeah. Now I see the Prince House.
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay, so this is a good example of a project that is designed to be [00:17:00] very simple and very low cost. This was an A DU project and we built this in 2021. It's a one bedroom, one bath, and it's two stories. While it is in a DU, it's in the front of the property because the existing home was set back further than it needed to be.
Sean Canning, Architect: And this was a project that my wife and I designed, permitted, financed, built. And we even lived here for a little under a year. So we have a, basically a lot of experience around this project and I can really, I can really tell you a whole bunch about this thing. So the first thing you're gonna notice here is this is a minimalist home.
Sean Canning, Architect: You can do this with any style. It doesn't have to be minimalism. As you mentioned earlier, like, you know, I'm a fan of minimalism. And we built this at $250 a square foot, although that was 2021 prices. So today I think we'd probably be building this thing around 300 or three 50 a square foot. But I should mention that we have lots of upgraded [00:18:00] materials in this home.
Sean Canning, Architect: So I'll mention some of those. So the first thing you'll notice is this is a Santa Barbara stucco on the front. It's the most expensive stucco option you can have. You can do this with a sand, a fine sand stucco. It would look very similar and it would be a lot less expensive. The windows we have installed here, these are Marvin Marvin's fiberglass windows.
Sean Canning, Architect: These are a mid price point window. They're not a vinyl window. So we could have saved some money on there on that. If you're wondering about the Prince mural, this was a mural done by a local artist, Mario Torero. He's the artist who's responsible for like 90% of the murals at Chicano Park, and we saved the mural and mounted it over here.
Sean Canning, Architect: Over here we have a electric car charger, and you can see all of the runoff from the roof actually comes down this pipe here, and waters a olive tree in the front. And we've maintained two parking spaces. Okay, let me show you here. So the entrance to this A DU is actually just around the side over here.[00:19:00]
Sean Canning, Architect: Excuse me. So if you were to come around the side and enter, you have this little overhang here. So it's weatherproof. You enter here, you have this tiny foyer space where we have a little coat closet. And you can go upstairs here, or you can go into the bedroom to the left over here. And behind this photo is the bathroom.
Sean Canning, Architect: I'll show you the floor plan in one second. So the materials here are, it's a concrete slab, which we've refinished, and that's the finished floor. The stairs are linoleum. Which is a very easy material to install. So it's very cost efficient. You could actually install this yourself. You, you don't necessarily need a contractor to do it all the lighting is LED.
Sean Canning, Architect: So it's very simple, very cost effective. So here's a view just kind of turned to the left. You can see the bedroom. This is a reverse floor plan because there's only one bathroom in the house. So you have to make a decision whether the bathroom is gonna be on the same level as the [00:20:00] bedroom or the same level as the living room.
Sean Canning, Architect: So it was our opinion that the. Bathroom should be on the same level as the bedroom. And then the second thing that pushed us to do this reverse floor plan where the living room is upstairs, is that we had a view of the Coronado Bridge since this home is in Logan Heights. So those two decisions led us to this reverse floor plan where the downstairs is bedroom.
Sean Canning, Architect: Bathroom and the upstairs is kitchen, living room. So you can see this is a level four drywall, that's also an upgraded finish. We didn't have to use the level four drywall and we have luron switches. You could have actually used Levitton switches and saved some money there. And we have a frameless doors also.
Sean Canning, Architect: That's an upgrade as well. This is the bedroom. So talking about using exterior spaces, this bedroom, oops. This bedroom has a five foot by 10 foot courtyard, and this door system here is actually a nine foot wide by eight foot tall door system. It's the higher end of a Marvin door [00:21:00] system, so it's a French door with a fixed panel, and I think that door alone cost about $12,000.
Sean Canning, Architect: It's probably the most expensive component. Of the house, we could have gotten a six or seven foot wide patio slider for about 1500 or $2,000. So there'd be like 80% savings on that system. And then this is just corrugated roofing that we use to create a privacy in this courtyard, since we have actually have two other units on this, on this lot.
Sean Canning, Architect: And then this is just a oval shout oval clothes bar closet, a hanging bar. And we've mounted these blackout curtains on, on this wall. So if you were to come back in the, in the hallway and go into the bathroom, we have an Ikea an IKEA cabinet. Here we have the top mount sink, which is usually your least expensive way to do a sink.
Sean Canning, Architect: This is a Kohler medicine cabinet, which goes wall to wall. He could have saved some money and used the IKEA version of this. And then this is a [00:22:00] Corian countertop. So basically we could have saved money on the countertop. We could have saved money on the, on the medicine cabinet here. There's a lot of areas where we could have saved some money.
Sean Canning, Architect: Lemme show you what the upstairs looks like. So if you were to come up the stairs this is that window that you see at the front. We didn't want the window to face the. The driveway because that would be awkward. So we face the window towards the palm trees that we have in the front and also the, you can see the flight path here.
Sean Canning, Architect: So you can see airplanes coming in about every 10 or 15 minutes.
Sean Canning, Architect: So we have the living room upstairs. The kitchen is to the right. We have a mini split here, which is also a cost. Save the ceiling here. While it looks really cool, there's less expensive ways to do it. We actually used a finished grade plywood and then finished grade two by twelves. And then we have rigid foam on top of this with solar panels on top of that.
Sean Canning, Architect: And the lighting here is also fairly expensive. So we could have cut costs on all of these things. But yet we [00:23:00] were still able to hit a price point of $250 a square foot, which again, would be a little bit more today. Lemme show you the floor plan here. And by the way, this floor up here is also a linoleum floor.
Sean Canning, Architect: We just changed the, the color. So here's the floor plan, and when I talk about efficiency, I wanna explain a couple things about this floor plan. So the first thing you're gonna notice is the first floor plan here on the left. And in comparison with the second floor plan here on the right, there's basically no articulation.
Sean Canning, Architect: The building is built on a slab. We're 13 six across here and 21 feet across in this di dimension here. And the only exception is this entry, which is a little bit lower so that we don't have any water getting in here. But the walls basically go up two stories. The roof is pitched towards the back. We have lined this nine foot wide door system that I showed you in the photo earlier with this nine foot.
Sean Canning, Architect: Wide window system, and that's where you're gonna get the view out to the Coronado Bridge in the living room. This bathroom window here aligns with the kitchen window. [00:24:00] And then we have this window here in the front. So all in all, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 windows, and then this door system. And you could argue that this is like one win.
Sean Canning, Architect: It's all these windows are, they come factory malt. So you're really trimming out your contractor's trimming out 1, 2, 3, 4 windows and one door. So very efficient. Now let's take a look at the plumbing. So here's the kitchen. So we have our sink here. All the plumbing is tied right in here, and there's a dishwasher here, and then the bathroom is directly below that.
Sean Canning, Architect: So it's very efficient from a plumbing standpoint. We had originally designed this with the kitchenette in the bedroom. We actually ended up mixing that midway through construction, which is also another way you can save construction. You can have construction cost. You can start to like, make decisions in construction that would not affect your permit if you need to.
Sean Canning, Architect: Excuse me. A [00:25:00] couple other things that I wanna point out here is the stair is a straight run, so this is gonna be your most efficient stair staircase. And the joists just go from left to right one span. There's a beam in here, but other than that, no. No other beams, oh, we do have a header over this door system, I should mention that.
Sean Canning, Architect: And we do have a nine foot header over this window. But other than that, it's very simple to build. There's really no articulation in the roof. It just goes from left to right. And and that's it. And you can see that here. So the, that's, it's a very simple design, and I think that's what makes it really economic.
Bailey: And so in your opinion is this, minimalism as you view it, this design style?
Sean Canning, Architect: I would call this, it's like minimalism. Minimalism on a budget. It, yeah, it's like a cost-effective minimalism or maybe a cost-effective modernism.
Bailey: Got it. And just so to be clear, that was, that was like ground up new construction, even though it's technically an A DU. Right. But before that, there no [00:26:00] structure in place.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yes, we just demolished a shed to do this, but it's ground up new construction, which in most scenarios is gonna be your best bet. A, aside from maybe like a garage conversion. But those can be challenging because you never quite know what you're gonna. Get into, but the principles are the same for an A DU, whether it's a small A DU or a 1200 square foot a DU or or a custom home or a new home.
Sean Canning, Architect: It's the same principle. You, if you can keep the framing simple and condense the plumbing and mechanical systems, then everything's gonna be easier to build, and that's gonna drive cost down.
Bailey: Well, from an interior design perspective, I like, I like the all white walls, although a lot of people might not. But I think that automatically makes it look a lot higher end. And then also, I, I hadn't noticed it, although I had seen this before. I hadn't noticed it until you were just screen sharing, but the yellow staircase, I think adds a very nice accent.
Bailey: So I think that's cool.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, so I guess one challenge we have as architects is like color is really [00:27:00] not our expertise. So most of the time I'm trying to just use the color of the material. So the concrete floor. It's gonna be gray. We're gonna go with a white or black trim window in most scenarios. These are all neutral colors.
Sean Canning, Architect: So far. We had the concrete floor, so we went with the concrete vessel sink to kind of match. And then there was some really cool details, which I didn't have in the photos, but I. The shower, for example, is actually a solid surface or, or a Corian wall. And then it's the same color as the drywall paint.
Sean Canning, Architect: So you can't really tell where the shower starts and where the shower stops, but that's an expensive way to do a shower. If you were to be on a budget, you'd be looking at a fiberglass shower.
Bailey: Got it. And then one last thing I noticed is that the vanity, I feel like that is a good example of how less, something less, something more simplistic and minimalist can actually look more expensive in that case. I know you said like it was, I think you might've said the vanity was Ikea. Kind of looks like something that's like [00:28:00] a less expensive version of something that's very expensive.
Bailey: But still, I would say it looks a lot more expensive than it is that gray vanity thing on the countertop.
Sean Canning, Architect: Well, so the, the actual cabinet is ikea. It used to be considered the, it was called the God Morgan. Bathroom vanity. I think that they've actually changed it now to, they have a different version of that, and then the counter, the, the top, the counter is not ikea. That's a solid surface, and we use the same solid surface in the shower.
Sean Canning, Architect: So there was an efficiency. Of material because that comes in like a four by eight sheet and you pay per sheet and then we are able to make the the countertop in the bathroom outta the same material as the shower. So it, there's an efficiency there. And then the vessel, I think I ordered that on Etsy or something because they didn't have anything that was concrete like that on at IKEA or anywhere else I could find.
Sean Canning, Architect: So I think it was just an Etsy order.
Bailey: Cool. And then I also thought the courtyard was a very nice touch. Like if I had been [00:29:00] living there, if that would be my bedroom, I would much rather have the courtyard, especially in San Diego. But really any climate, even if it's like the Northeast with the Four Seasons as opposed to having more room, but no outdoor space, if that makes sense.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, and five feet I would say is the minimum size courtyard. That you'd want. I mean, six would be much better. And if you had like eight or 10 or 12, I mean, it's, it's much better. But this was a very, very tight lot it the lot for just to like set the context here. The lot is 25 feet wide, a hundred feet deep.
Sean Canning, Architect: So it's 2,500 square feet, which is considered a substandard lot. It's a multi-family lot. And we actually have three units. So there's two dwelling units. One A DU, which is the one I just showed you, and we also have room for two parking spaces, so the lot could not be designed anymore efficiently.
Bailey: Definitely. And I just lost my train of thought. We'll have to cut this out here. There was one last thing I wanted to say about it. Oh, we'll resume. [00:30:00] So in total, how much was it to build and construct this project? If you don't mind sharing that. And well, let's start there because I have some follow up questions after that.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah. Well, I think the design was about 580 square feet When we completed the project. We built it at two 50 a square foot. The goal was $200 a square foot, which was, would've been like a. Comp comparable to probably like a 325 to $350 square foot today. It cost us about eight to $10,000 to permit the project in, in different fees.
Sean Canning, Architect: All those fees have gone up. So the city, yeah, the city's increased their fees like probably eight times since we completed that project. And then of course, since we're designing it for ourself we don't pay for the architecture or the permit facilitation 'cause we do that in-house. [00:31:00] Mm-hmm.
Bailey: think you could have saved in that scenario?
Sean Canning, Architect: I think probably 20%.
Bailey: Okay. Percentage is helpful considering the costs are all relative. Considering it was built a
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah.
Bailey: at this point.
Sean Canning, Architect: And Bailey let's just stop on Windows here. Windows and doors. So I would say windows and doors are the first thing you're gonna wanna upgrade. If you wanna spend more than like the bottom price point. The, your first upgrade is your windows and doors. If you were to permit a project, expecting to have like a higher end or mid price point, window and door in, in your design, and then all of a sudden you end up in, in the construction phase and construction costs are higher than you expected, you can value engineer the project without affecting the permit.
Sean Canning, Architect: And you can shift [00:32:00] from an aluminum window down to a fiberglass window or even down to a vinyl window, and that does not affect the permit. So there's like wiggle room after the permit is issued to adjust the construction cost, you just have to really work with your contractor to like dial in those numbers.
Bailey: Got it. And wouldn't you say those decisions though, come back to the project goals? So for example, if you just wanna rent it out, I know a lot of people will probably like, you know, go with the lower quality, but if you're gonna live there, you wanna invest more.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, this is a good point. I mean, designing a home or an A DU for rental purposes is just like categorically different than if you were going to design a home or an A DU for yourself to live because. You, you need to design you. The price point has to reflect the neighborhood. So when we're designing ADUs in Logan Heights, we're gonna use vinyl windows.
Sean Canning, Architect: And if you were to design an A DU in La Jolla to rent, there [00:33:00] needs to be some consideration about the quality of the windows, because maybe a higher end window could command more rent. In some cases it can't. So you may end up with the vinyl windows, even in La Jolla. But if you're designing a home for you to live, you may want to consider aluminum windows because they're gonna be naturally fire resistant.
Sean Canning, Architect: Hang on a sec. And then one more point on windows and doors, those big door systems that everybody wants, those things are really expensive. So you, while they're really cool, if you're looking to build something at like a lower price point, I, I think maybe you would consider avoiding those, but you could also go through the whole permit process with like a 20 foot wide.
Sean Canning, Architect: Door system, and then in construction, you can dial that back to a 10 foot wide door system, and that does not affect your permit because less glass means the home is gonna be more efficient and more wall means the home is gonna be more structural, so you're not really affecting the structure or the energy calculations.
Sean Canning, Architect: So you can still make [00:34:00] adjustments all the way into the construction phase.
Bailey: Got it. And then lastly, in here, I know obviously on that lot there's that Casitas Harrison home, which you were living in for a while.
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: I know there are some regulations you talked about, I don't know if they're still current, but how you can build an A DU taller than your primary dwelling unit. was that what happened here?
Bailey: Because I know the Harrison home is just one, one level. I believe so.
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: But this one we just looked at is obviously two floors.
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah. So I guess we can dispel this myth. Myth right now. The A DU can be. Taller, larger, closer to the side yard setback, closer to the street, or even now in the front yard setback. In comparison to the dwelling unit. So we have two dwelling units there. I think they're both about 500 one's, 525 square feet, one's 575 square feet, and the A DU is 580 square feet.
Sean Canning, Architect: The dwelling units are three feet [00:35:00] from the side property line. The A DU is two inches from the side property line. They don't allow you to do this anymore with a two story a DU, but you could still do it with a one story, a DU. And then this a DU is about 22 feet high, and I think the other structures are about 16, 17 feet high.
Sean Canning, Architect: And as you can see, we put it right in front of the. Of both of those dwelling units. It, you know, also, I guess while we're talking about ADUs, there's maybe one more point I would like to make. If you are in a circumstance where you own a property that has an existing dwelling unit and you're considering remodel major, a major remodel, or maybe scraping and building a new home, you may want to consider just building an A DU instead because the fees are drastically.
Sean Canning, Architect: Lower for an A DU, so you can build a 1200 square foot a DU, which could be a three bedroom, two bath home, and you're gonna save. I mean, probably at [00:36:00] least 50% of the fees that the city would charge you. So in some circumstances that could be $15,000 or maybe even $20,000. So I guess that's another way you can save cost on, it's not saving cons cost on construction, but you're saving cost on your construction project by reducing administrative fees.
Bailey: Interesting. And then you could perhaps get even like, you know, you talk about there being many different creative use cases of the A DU, but that perhaps you could adaptively reuse your current home, the primary dwelling unit. For example, they could Cita Harrison home is, you know, pretty small. I would say it's one level, but for example, someone like you, you could build, you could live in the Prince House and then maybe, you know, you own a business, of course you could just convert. The Cas Harrison home into like the office space, and that would work so
Sean Canning, Architect: You, you could do that. Yeah, you definitely could do this. You could. So I like that train of thought. You could use the primary dwelling unit as a, as a guest house. You could [00:37:00] use it as a home office. You could rent it out, you could maybe Airbnb it, if you get an Airbnb license. Although the, in, in most cases, the most financially viable option is to rent it out as, as a as a dwelling unit rather than an office.
Sean Canning, Architect: 'cause office space is less, rents for less per square foot.
Bailey: Got it. Alright. Makes sense to me. So we're running up on time here. What do you want to say to wrap up here, just in conclusion, and then also looking forward how you're gonna be advising clients to deal with this. Situation and how that's gonna impact projects in San Diego.
Sean Canning, Architect: Okay, well, I guess inclu in conclusion, I would say, you know, we still don't understand how these cards are gonna fall. We don't know. If there are going to be tariffs, if there's not going to be tariffs, we don't know when they're gonna happen. We don't know what materials or what countries they're gonna affect at the moment.
Sean Canning, Architect: So I think it's [00:38:00] just like a safe bet to plan for increased construction costs. I. For the next you know, maybe one year, maybe two years or three years. But I don't think this should be a deterrent from starting your project today because I, as I mentioned earlier in the video, if you were to start your project today, submit your project for permitting in six months, get your permit in a year to a year and a half, or at least complete the complete all of the permitting in about a year and a half.
Sean Canning, Architect: We can just drag out that permit issuance until you're ready to start construction, and then you're really doing it on your time. You're doing it leisurely and avoiding str the stress of the pro process, which is in inevitably stressful.
Bailey: Got it. Okay. This is sidebar, we'll cut this out. Do you want to mention the fact that the Prince House, I believe is the one where you have the pre-approved A DU plans for, or are you not looking to mention that anymore? Really?
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, I can mention that. Sure. So can I, should I just go into [00:39:00] it?
Bailey: No, I'll ask you the question, but that could also be a good way to save money perhaps, right? The pre-approved
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: All right. restart. And so I know you also have these based on the print house layout and designs and floor plan. You also have a pre-approved A DU option based on the design we were just looking at.
Bailey: So can you talk a little bit more about what that features and how this could be beneficial from a financial perspective as well?
Sean Canning, Architect: Yeah, well, I guess we mentioned like, you know, saving money on the overall project doesn't just include saving money on construction, but also saving money on the permitting, but we could save money. On the design, if you were to look at, if you look at my portfolio and you find a project that you like, particularly the Prince House.
Sean Canning, Architect: 'cause the Prince House was designed to be a universal design to fit most lots in San Diego. We can. Skip the design phase and go right into construction drawings and then right into permitting. So that's gonna save you a lot of cost of cost [00:40:00] and time in the design phase and probably cost in engineering phase as well.
Sean Canning, Architect: So if you look at the print house on the website and you like it shoot me an email and we can discuss how much it would be to use that for your project.
Bailey: Yeah, we'll link the portfolio and then I know you also had a couple other videos produced of the property. So we'll also have that if people are interested, but you can also use that layout as a starting point for other, you know, revisions or other, you know, different design considerations based on people's wants, needs, property layout.
Bailey: So it's not like you just need to purchase that. They can be customized to a certain extent.
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: Alright. Awesome. So Sean. Is there anything you wanna say before we wrap up today?
Sean Canning, Architect: Just in general start your projects. I mean, don't wait. Start the projects and then we'll figure out when to build the projects later on.
Bailey: Yeah. I think the thing to realize or to internalize is that with challenges come opportunities I. You know, so there's
Sean Canning, Architect: That's right.
Bailey: there's [00:41:00] always something that can be done, especially when it comes to property. I mean, even like if you were to start a project in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis. You know, fast forward today, 2025, you would've still made a ton of money
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: in terms of like net worth, at least in this particular scenario. So in the long run, I think everything will be fantastic, quite honestly. So I think we're all optimistic. It's just the short term. Might have some turbulence for sure, but
Sean Canning, Architect: Mm-hmm.
Bailey: I mean, that's just life.
Bailey: So what can you do, but. Alright, thanks for watching everyone. Subscribe to the channel if you're enjoying these chats. And we'll be back in like another two weeks or so with another topic to discuss. But until then, take it easy. Alright, I'm gonna hit the stop recording button. I.