A Canary Yellow ADU Brings a Sense of Community to a Saint Paul, Minnesota, Backyard

Questions about community played an important part in Sonja Batalden’s decision to buy her Saint Paul, Minnesota, home. "How can we continue to think differently about how we use space in the city?" the nurse-midwife says she asked herself before purchasing it. "And how can we create different ways of living together?" She thought the home’s driveway—shared with one of her best friends, right next door—could serve as a first step in connecting with her neighbors. And its deep yard offered space for her to explore new ideas about home life.

Little did Sonja know how quickly her ideas would take shape. "I closed on the house the week everything shut down because of the pandemic," she says. Soon after, sons Isaiah and Finn Scharen, along with their partners and many pets, moved home from college. "Suddenly this house—where I was going to live by myself—had five adults, three dogs, six rats, and six chickens," Sonja says with a laugh.

The tight-space situation proved serendipitous. "Isaiah is studying architecture, and his partner, Maura, is in landscape architecture, and they’re always looking for a challenge," Sonja says. In this case, it would involve her backyard. "Isaiah and Maura thought, Let’s try and design something that fits within the regulations and doesn’t require any variances," she explains. "It was almost like a game."