How Ellery ADU Studio Anaheim Was Born in Anaheim
We remember the exact afternoon in late 2015 when we knew this city needed something different. Nadia Ellery had been working with a homeowner near the Platinum Triangle, a couple who had already paid another firm $14,000 for architectural drawings that the city of Anaheim wouldn’t approve. The plans were beautiful, honestly. But they showed a 12-foot height that violated the utility easement behind the property, and the designer had never walked the alley. The couple was six months behind, sleeping in their guest room while their daughter’s family waited in Oregon for a place to land.
Nadia sat in their kitchen with the rejected permit set spread across a table still sticky from the morning’s orange juice. The husband kept apologizing, as if he’d done something wrong. He hadn’t. He’d hired someone who sold him a drawing without selling him a path through the building department. That was the moment. Not anger at the other firm, exactly, but clarity about what was missing in Anaheim’s ADU market: a practice that treated the permit queue as the actual product, not an afterthought.
We opened our Anaheim branch of Ellery ADU Studio that winter with one commitment: every homeowner would see their complete permit path before anyone picked up a hammer. The Haven Standard, Clause 1 - have it in writing - wasn’t a slogan yet. It was just the only way we could imagine working.
Nadia Ellery’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
Nadia didn’t start in ADUs. She started in a drafting room in Costa Mesa, tracing redlines for a commercial architect who designed strip malls with the same enthusiasm most people reserve for dental appointments. The work was precise, and precision mattered to her, but the buildings didn’t matter to anyone. They were placeholders for capital, structures designed to be obsolete in fifteen years.
The shift happened gradually, then suddenly. A friend in Fullerton asked Nadia to draw a garage conversion for her mother, who was selling her Riverside condo and needed somewhere to go. Nadia walked the property on a Saturday morning in February, the kind of morning where Anaheim’s marine layer hasn’t burned off yet and everything smells like wet concrete and citrus from the packing houses near the 57. She measured the garage herself, noted the sewer lateral location, called the planning counter to confirm the setback. The permit took four weeks. The build took eight. The mother moved in before Memorial Day.
What struck Nadia wasn’t the construction. It was the kitchen table conversation after, three generations eating tamales in a space that hadn’t existed six months before. She had built something that would outlast the mortgage. That became the addiction: the specificity of each problem, the documentary evidence of each solution, the permanence of the result.
If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be restoring vintage motorcycles or teaching technical drawing somewhere. The same patience, the same tolerance for repetitive precision. But ADUs have something motorcycles don’t: at the end of the project, a family has a home. That’s what gets her out of bed. Not the design awards no one in this office has ever pursued. The text message from a homeowner whose tenant just signed a lease, whose parent just moved in, whose property tax bill just became manageable because the unit is rented.
She’s been at this over a decade now. The work has changed - California’s ADU laws rewritten three times, Anaheim’s zoning code updated, the state density bonus programs layered on top. The core hasn’t. Walk the property. Document what you find. Build what you promised.
Meet Nadia Ellery - The Person Behind Every Job
Nadia Ellery is Owner and Founder of Ellery ADU Studio Anaheim. She holds a California contractor’s license and has completed the specialized training in ADU-specific code compliance that the state began requiring in 2020. Before bringing the Ellery brand to Anaheim, she spent years managing permit-heavy projects across Orange County, learning which details the building department flags and which ones they don’t.
What separates Nadia from a corporate project manager is simple: she still walks every initial site visit herself. Not a sales representative. Not a drone photographer. Her boots on your driveway, her tape measure on your garage slab, her notes on whether your sewer line can handle a second kitchen. She lives in Anaheim Hills, runs the Santa Ana River trail on weekend mornings, and has a standing order at a coffee shop on State College Boulevard where the barista knows her drink.
Her commitment to you is direct and specific: Nadia personally reviews every permit set before it leaves this office, and her phone number is on your contract.
Our Promise to Anaheim Homeowners
We operate under The Haven Standard, five clauses that govern every job we take. Clause 1 - Have it in writing - means your price is fixed before we start, with line-item costs for foundation, framing, electrical, plumbing, and finish. No “while we’re in here” surprises. We learned this the hard way early on, watching other firms use low initial bids to secure jobs, then discover “unforeseen conditions” that doubled the final invoice.
Clause 4 - Evidence on every job - means you receive dated photos and inspection records at completion, documenting what we found and what we did. Not because we expect dispute, but because a six-figure project deserves a paper trail. And Clause 5 - No surprises - is our operational religion. If we find dry rot in your garage wall during demo, we stop, photograph, and write a change order with a price before we proceed. You sign or you don’t. The choice is yours.
Our Credentials
Every professional working under the Ellery ADU Studio name in Anaheim is required to hold the state license and insurance their trade requires. We maintain general liability and workers’ compensation coverage, and we are bonded for the contractual work we perform. Our local team has deep experience navigating Anaheim’s specific permitting environment, including the city’s ADU pre-approved plan program and its utility connection requirements.
We have built a strong local reputation through documented, permitted work that passes inspection. Our portfolio includes completed ADUs across Anaheim’s varied neighborhoods, from the flat lots of the Colony to the hillside grades of Anaheim Hills.
Why this matters to you: an unlicensed operator who disappears mid-project leaves you with no recourse. An uninsured worker injured on your property can place a lien against your home. The credentials we maintain aren’t bureaucratic box-checking - they’re the minimum threshold for a professional who will still be reachable when you need your final inspection signed off.
Rooted in Anaheim
We work where we live. Nadia’s kids attended school in the Orange Unified district. We’ve pulled permits at Anaheim’s One Stop Center on Anaheim Boulevard enough times to know which planners ask about energy compliance first and which ones start with parking calculations. We’ve built ADUs near the Packing District, near Disneyland’s employee housing zone, and in the unincorporated pockets off Crescent Avenue where county rules apply instead of city ones.
We don’t sponsor Little League teams or pretend to be something we’re not. We’re a design-build studio with a local license and a national standard, serving homeowners in Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Villa Park, Orange, Chino Hills, Tustin, Fullerton, Chino, Diamond Bar, Santa Ana, Rowland Heights, and Corona. If you’re considering an ADU, call (657) 366-5740 to schedule your free estimate.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Anaheim, serving Anaheim and surrounding communities since 2015.