Meet the Santa Clarita Team Behind Ellery ADU Studio Santa Clarita
Every ADU we’ve designed, permitted, and built in Santa Clarita since 2015 has been handled by people who live here, work here, and understand how the city reviews foundation plans differently than Los Angeles County does. Our crew isn’t rotated in from out of state. We’re the same faces from the first site measure through final inspection, and we answer to one written price, one contract, and one standard: The Haven Standard.
Our People
Nadia Ellery, Owner & Principal Designer
I started Ellery ADU Studio in 2015 after watching too many Santa Clarita homeowners get handed off between an architect who didn’t understand construction costs and a builder who couldn’t read a reflected ceiling plan. I hold a California contractor’s license and spent my first six years in the field before moving into design-build management. My job now is making sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, which means I review every permit set before it goes to the city and I’m on-site for the pre-construction walkthrough myself. I keep a set of the original 2015 Santa Clarita ADU zoning guidelines in my truck, mostly for reference, partly because the paper has coffee stains from a meeting that lasted three hours longer than planned.
Marcus T., Lead Technician & Site Supervisor
Marcus has been running our Santa Clarita job sites since 2019, which means he’s shepherded garage conversions through the city’s fire-sprinkler equivalency process more times than he can count. He’s ICC-certified for residential building inspection and holds a CAL-OSHA 30-hour certification, though he’ll tell you the real credential is knowing which Santa Clarita plan checker will flag a 4-inch slab versus a 6-inch slab for a detached ADU foundation. Marcus lives in Canyon Country and commutes on a motorcycle that he’s rebuilt twice. He sends clients photo updates at 6:30 AM, which is either dedication or insomnia, and we don’t ask which.
Denise R., Senior Installer & Systems Specialist
Denise joined us in 2021 with a background in modular construction and a specific fluency in prefab systems that most stick-frame crews don’t have. She’s our point person when a Santa Clarita client wants an Abodu, Cover, or Mighty Buildings unit, which means she coordinates crane access in neighborhoods where the streets were laid out in the 1970s and the utility lines haven’t moved since. Denise is certified in James Hardie siding installation and holds a manufacturer’s credential for Dvele’s smart-home integration package. She keeps a spreadsheet of every Santa Clarita cul-de-sac she’s backed a delivery truck out of, rated by difficulty, and she’s not sharing it.
Javier M., Service Coordinator & Permit Runner
Javier handles the paperwork that makes or breaks an ADU timeline, which in Santa Clarita means knowing the difference between a planning counter submittal and a building counter correction, and which one takes fourteen business days versus three. He’s been with Ellery ADU Studio since 2017 and has personally delivered over 400 permit sets to the city. Javier speaks with the Santa Clarita building department often enough that he knows when the senior plan checker is back from vacation, and he uses this information for the good of the project, never for gambling purposes. He grew up in Valencia and still lives ten minutes from the office, which explains why he’s the one who catches last-minute corrections at 4:45 PM.
Tess K., Apprentice Carpenter & Finish Specialist
Tess came to us in 2023 through a Santa Clarita workforce development program and is completing her carpentry apprenticeship while working full-time on our crew. She’s already developed a specialty in interior conversions and Junior ADUs, where the tolerances are tighter and the existing conditions less forgiving. Tess is certified in EPA lead-safe renovation practices and has become our go-to for 1920s and 1930s Santa Clarita bungalows where the original lath-and-plaster walls have opinions about being opened up. She owns a dog named Permit, which was funny until she had to explain it to an actual plan checker.
One Standard, Every Job
The Haven Standard isn’t a slogan we print on hats. It’s five clauses that govern how this team operates, whether the job is a garage conversion on Soledad Canyon Road or a new detached ADU in Saugus. Clause 1 means every client gets a written price before any work starts, and that price is built from actual Santa Clarita material costs and labor rates, not a national average. Clause 3 means Marcus, Denise, or Tess documents every visit with a photo record that the client receives, not a summary of how the visit felt. Clause 5 locks the scope at signing, so there’s no door-side upsell when the foundation’s already open.
We don’t rotate crews. We don’t subcontract the design to someone who won’t return the builder’s calls. When Nadia Ellery signs a contract, she’s signing it with the same people who will be on-site, and they’re accountable to the same written standard that we’ve upheld across 900 ADUs since 2015. If you want to know how that works in practice, call (747) 294-4817. A live person answers, and if you already have a written estimate from another Santa Clarita ADU company, we’ll give you a free second opinion on what’s actually in it.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Santa Clarita, serving Santa Clarita since 2015.