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Marlatt built the cabinets in place from Russian Birch plywood, and the counters are a thin application of Neolith stone. The backsplash is glass, making for easy clean-up, and a few of the cabinet fronts are painted Masonite, for fun pops of color. The ceramics on the shelves are by Burgevin.

A built-in couch sits against birch plywood walls.

“The fireplace really turns out to be a focus of the deck and the house,” says Marlatt. “We use it a lot more than I ever thought we would, frankly.”

Now, large doors connect inside and out, as does the double-sided fireplace. Instead of installing a flat fascia board at the roof, Marlatt “went to a metal shop and had a stainless-steel V-shape fabricated. It gives us that sharp metal edge, almost like a wing of a plane.” The new deck is made of Pakari, a thermally modified pine that is chemical free, insect and rot resistant, renewable, and California fire-rated.

Marlatt designed and installed a built-in desk with a folding top to save space in the study room. “That's also something I'd like to build again,” says Marlatt. “Every time you do something that's a little bit experimental, you realize how much better it would be the next time. It's all prototyping.”

“Light from the skylight in the hallway passes into the room now,” says Marlatt. “In the morning, the light from the study room passes into the hallway and cast shadows through the polycarbonate.”

The perforated aluminum at the exterior forms a privacy screen for the bathroom.

The bold colors of the bathroom tiles and fixtures provide a bright contrast to the more subdued tones of the rest of the ADU.