How Ellery ADU Studio Was Born
Ellery ADU Studio started in 2015, the year California rewrote its accessory dwelling unit laws and suddenly every homeowner with a backyard became a potential developer. The timing mattered, but it wasn’t what started this. What started this was watching a homeowner in Los Angeles hand over a deposit to a design firm, wait four months for drawings, then hand those drawings to a contractor who immediately blamed the drawings. The designer blamed the builder. The homeowner was standing in the middle, holding a set of plans nobody would stand behind, out thousands of dollars and still no ADU.
That was the moment Nadia Ellery decided the industry needed a different model. No separate designer and builder pointing fingers. No deposit disappearing into a void. No permit set that mysteriously didn’t match what the contractor wanted to build. The permit itself was the product. The drawings, the permit set, and the build would be one contract, one price, one team accountable from the first sketch to the final inspection. Eleven years later, that model now operates across multiple states, with local teams in Los Angeles, Houston, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Austin, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Fort Worth, Fresno, and Sacramento. The problem we saw in 2015 did not get better on its own. We built the fix.
Nadia Ellery’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
Nadia came up through architecture school with a drafting table habit that never left. The first time she saw a set of framing plans executed correctly on a job site, the smell of fresh lumber and the sound of a level tapping against a stud, something clicked. Here was a discipline where precision was not aesthetic. It was structural. A drawing was either right or it was not, and the building would prove it either way. That clarity appealed to her more than any design award ever could.
What kept her in the ADU trade specifically was the scale. A single-family home addition forces a family to live through the chaos. A ground-up house is a two-year commitment most people only survive once. But an ADU is a project a homeowner can actually hold in their head. They can walk the footprint before the forms are poured. They can touch the window schedule and understand it. Nadia has spent more than a decade in this trade because the decision is large enough to matter and small enough to do well. She would rather hand a worried homeowner a set of drawings with a fixed price attached than win any commission for a building nobody will ever build. If she were not doing this, she would still be drawing, maybe teaching, maybe working on her own small structure somewhere with better weather and worse permitting. But the work would look the same: measure twice, document everything, no surprises.
Meet Nadia Ellery - The Person Behind Every Job
Nadia Ellery is the Owner and Founder of Ellery ADU Studio. She leads the design-build practice from Los Angeles, where she started, and she holds every project across the network to the same standard: a written scope, a flat price, and a documented record of what was found and what was built. Her background is in architecture and construction documentation, with years spent on residential projects before narrowing her focus to accessory dwelling units.
She is not a franchise technician running a route. She is the person whose name is on the practice, which is why the name is on the practice. An ADU is a six-figure decision and often a year-long relationship. People want to know whose practice it is. Nadia keeps a small notebook in her bag with dimensions and site observations from every project visit. She writes things down because memory is not documentation. That habit, more than any credential, tells you how she works. Her commitment to every homeowner is the same one she made in 2015: if it is not in writing, it does not count.
Our Promise to Homeowners
We work under a values code we call H.A.V.E.N., and each letter means something specific. Have it in writing: a flat price, a written scope, a written warranty, all before anyone starts. Arrive on schedule: a real arrival window, a named tech, and a text when they are on the way. Verified crews: every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires, and their license number appears on the page. Evidence on every job: photos and documentation of what we actually found, not a verbal summary. No surprises: no upsell at the door, no scope creep, no “while we are in here” additions.
Each of those exists because a specific failure made it necessary. Flat pricing exists because homeowners kept asking “what will this actually cost” and getting answers that shifted weekly. Documented evidence exists because memory is not a record. We hold every location to The Haven Standard, and we put it in writing because a promise you cannot produce is not a promise.
Our Credentials
Ellery ADU Studio is a design-build practice with licensed and insured operations across every market we serve.
- State-licensed – every location operates under the license required by its state. We do not work around permitting; we pull permits and pass inspections as part of the job.
- Insured and bonded – coverage is a requirement for every pro working under our name, not an optional add-on.
- Founded 2015 – we have been working through the changing ADU codes since the California law rewrite, and the documentation system we built then now supports locations in every market we serve.
- 900+ ADUs designed, permitted, and built since 2015 – every one with a written price before it started and a documented record when it left.
A license matters because it means the work gets inspected by someone whose interest is safety, not speed. Insurance matters because a homeowner should never have to wonder who pays if something goes wrong. And a documented record matters because, years later, when you sell the house or question a wall, the answer should be in the file, not in someone’s memory.
Rooted in the Communities We Serve
Ellery ADU Studio does not pretend to be from every town. We are not. What we are is a network of local teams, each one licensed in its own state, serving its own neighbors. The local team nearest you holds the license, runs the job, and knows the inspectors and the soil conditions and the permit office quirks that no national marketing site can teach. Our locations serve homeowners across metro Los Angeles, the Bay Area and San Diego in California, the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth metros in Texas, and markets including Jacksonville, Fresno, and Sacramento. When you call, a live coordinator answers and connects you with the location that covers your address. Simple as that.
What we contribute to every community we work in is a standard. The Haven Standard means you get a written price before work starts, a named professional on your job, evidence of what was found, and no surprise charges at the end. The local team brings the neighbors, the trucks, and the reputation. We bring the documentation system that proves the work was done right.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner & Founder at Ellery ADU Studio, serving homeowners across Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, Jacksonville, Fresno, and Sacramento since 2015.