500-ton crane carries home-unit through the Palo Alto skies to deliver in family's backyard
PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- If neighbors in Palo Alto looked at the skies Tuesday afternoon, they were in for quite a surprise. A family had a brand-new living unit delivered by a 500-ton crane right into their backyard.
The South Bay-based company, Abodu, installed a two bedroom, one bath detached accessory dwelling unit today to a family home in Palo Alto, Calif.
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The entire structure was built off site using a factory-built process while the foundation and utility connections were taken care of on-property.
The final step? Literally dropping in the unit from the street into the Galbraith's backyard.
"We're doing this because we have a big family," Homeowner Ben Galbraith said. "We have eight kids and we want to have a home for the kids to start to just visit when they come home from college. We want to have a space for relatives when they come over and visit, and our house just isn't big enough for all that."
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The project details are coordinated ahead of time, and it has become a simplified process for the company.
"The unit was picked up by a crane, moved over the house, boomed into the backyard, lowered down to the foundation and it's done in a jiffy," Abodu CEO and co-founder John Geary said. "It sounds easy because we've made it easy. There's a lot of complexity in background to make one of these projects work, but we've built a process that's very easy and approachable for homeowners across the state of California. It's the fastest way to add livable space to your home without having to open up the walls of your existing home. Street level to backyard, that'll take about two minutes."
Neighbors and local elementary school students stood in amazement of the project, which ended up taking around 30 minutes in total by the time connections were made.
From purchase to today, it has taken the Galbraith family about six months in total.
In San Jose, a similar home can be purchased and installed in less than 30 days.
The two-bedroom, one-bath unit featured a kitchen and bathroom, a living room and hook-ups for water and power.
After inspections, it will be move-in time for the family.
"It's something that blew my mind to begin with," Galbraith said. "Just the idea that they would crane it over and seeing the scale and scope of the equipment and the project, it is incredibly impressive. I wasn't sure if we were actually going to make it over the house and everything but I'm glad it made it okay. This looks really good. It looks fantastic and I'm really happy with it. I'm excited and I can't wait."
For more information on Adobu, visit their website here.
