Have you been thinking about adding an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) to your property? For many homeowners, the idea comes up when they need additional space for aging parents, adult children, or want to create a source of rental income.
In Connecticut, a proposed update to state zoning law, a substitute version of H.B. No. 5507, could change how ADUs are regulated if it moves forward.
According to the Connecticut General Assembly’s bill analysis, the proposal would update statutory language from “accessory apartments” to “accessory dwelling units,” apply more uniform statewide standards for ADUs, limit certain local zoning restrictions, and establish a program for preapproved ADU designs. (cga.ct.gov)
Right now, ADUs are permitted in many Connecticut towns, but the rules vary significantly from one municipality to another. Some towns allow them with a relatively straightforward approval process, while others impose stricter zoning requirements or additional review steps that can make projects more difficult to move forward.
If enacted, the intent of the bill is to create more consistency statewide. Municipalities would be required to allow ADUs on residential lots, including those that previously opted out. The legislation would also limit certain zoning restrictions that can act as barriers to development, such as strict occupancy requirements, parking mandates, and other procedural hurdles that vary by town.
Detached ADUs would be more clearly recognized as well, including backyard cottages and garage conversions, which in many cases are currently subject to more restrictive local interpretation.
For homeowners, the broader takeaway is that ADUs are becoming a more central part of Connecticut’s housing conversation, and the regulatory landscape is likely to continue evolving.
At Hudson Valley Preservation, we help clients evaluate what is possible on their property and how design decisions align with both existing zoning and potential changes in regulation. If you are considering an ADU project and would like to discuss feasibility or design direction, we would be glad to connect.
In the trades, learning is built over time through repetition, observation, and experience. These reflections from Ian Schwandt come from years spent on job sites, working alongside crews, and learning the craft the long way. They are lessons that continue to hold true—we still remember and apply these principles today.
Nothing is learned from constant success. Try it, mess it up, think about it, repeat. After 30 or 40 years of this, retire.
Ask every silly question you think of. But never ask more questions than you can give considerate thought to the answers.
Show up early. Learn how to set the job up. Better yet, ask at the end of the day how to set the job for tomorrow.
Watch how the experienced people in your trade set up their work. How they store their tools, set up their workstation, and arrange their material. If you cannot figure out why, ask. Most people would love to tell you.
Understand that you will likely be seeing and experiencing things out of sequence. Until proven otherwise, you are viewed as cheap labor and will get bounced around. Reading, watching videos, and helping someone from the crew on a weekend project will begin to fill in much of the rest.
Make peace with the following. If you learn how to build a shed, then you know how to build a shed. If you learn how to cut straight and square, read a tape measure and a level, use a square, make accurate marks, and apply right triangle trigonometry (easier than it sounds), then you will possess the foundation needed to build anything.
The correct answer to “how much lumber can you carry?” is “two more sticks than the boss.”
If an employer or a crew is not giving you what you need to learn, find one that will. It is okay to move around when you are learning this business (IMHO).
These reflections highlight something that is often overlooked in the trades. Progress is not immediate, and it is not linear. It is built slowly through repetition, curiosity, and a willingness to stay engaged even when things are difficult.
At Hudson Valley Preservation, this kind of thinking continues to shape our work. The people we work with on job sites and through programs like TradesUp still carry these lessons forward, passing knowledge on in ways that leave a lasting impact and help ensure the next generation has the opportunity to learn, grow, and build with confidence.
Hudson Valley Preservation’s path toward better building was reinforced in an unexpected place, not on a jobsite, but sitting in a lecture hall.
In 2018, Tedd Benson spoke at the Timber Framers Guild conference that I attended. Tedd is a timber framer, builder, and educator, and the founder of Bensonwood. For decades, his work has focused on advancing high performance residential construction by combining traditional craft with factory based design, engineering, and fabrication.
Bensonwood is a design and build company specializing in energy efficient and sustainable homes. Based in New Hampshire, the company uses a manufacturing driven approach to resolve complex building systems early, allowing projects to be executed with a high level of precision in the field. Bensonwood works on both fully custom homes and standardized models, with a focus on durability, energy performance, and long term building quality.
During that talk, Tedd described how LEAN thinking could be applied to building. At its core, LEAN is about reducing waste, improving flow, and making critical decisions earlier so problems are solved upstream rather than on the jobsite. That way of thinking stayed with me, not because it was entirely new, but because it clarified and strengthened how we already approached our work at HVP.
Later that year, in November of 2018, I bought a piece of land with the intention of building my own home. I knew what I wanted to avoid. Endless design decisions. Uncertainty during construction. Risk concentrated in the wrong places. In residential building, the highest risk is in the shell, especially the frame and water management. Those are the hardest problems to fix once construction is underway.
I decided to build a Unity Zum. Unity is a brand of Bensonwood that focuses on standardized, high performance homes. The Unity system allowed the most critical decisions to be made early and executed in a controlled factory environment, reducing uncertainty in the field.
Because I had committed to building a Unity Zum, I visited Bensonwood in December of 2019 to better understand how the system was designed, engineered, and produced. Seeing the operation in person made it clear how tightly coordinated the process was between design, engineering, and manufacturing. The work was precise, repeatable, and clearly informed by years of refinement.
My house was raised in August of 2020. Tedd came shortly after to the site to see the project. During that visit, he asked if HVP might consider becoming a building partner with Bensonwood. He explained that if so, they had a client nearby who would soon be building a new home.
Tedd and I during his visit to my home in September 2020.
What stood out to me was not just the opportunity, but the way it was framed. It was not about installing a product or simply executing a set of drawings. It was about shared responsibility for the outcome.
At the time, HVP was not building new homes, and I was not sure what that path would look like. After further discussion, HVP agreed to work with Bensonwood on that nearby project. In this partnership, Bensonwood supplies the shell of the house, including the structural frame and enclosure system. As the general contractor, HVP is responsible for the site work, foundation, mechanical systems, and interior and exterior finishes. This division of work allows each team to focus on what they do best, while maintaining clear accountability for performance and quality.
Sitework began in early spring of 2021, and by early summer of 2022, the process felt clear and workable.
The first Unity home we built in partnership with Bensonwood.
For context, Bensonwood has long been known for its custom timber frame homes, work that’s careful, deliberate, and rooted in a deep understanding of how buildings perform over time. More recently, they’ve taken what they’ve learned over decades of one-off projects and built systems around it. Through their Unity and OpenHome programs, they’re applying the same thinking, attention to detail, and performance standards to homes that are more repeatable, predictable, and attainable, without giving up the qualities that matter most.
In the winter of 2025, Bensonwood formally invited HVP into a partnership.
As we continue to build more sustainable homes, our work with Bensonwood remains focused on the same priorities that guided my own project. Making decisions early. Reducing risk where it matters most. Using systems that support consistent outcomes. We recently completed an OpenHome together and currently have two Unity projects moving through our upfront pre construction services phase. We look forward to continuing to partner with Bensonwood as we take on future projects together.
Looking back, I am glad I took the time to attend Tedd’s lecture all those years ago.
