Meet the Santa Ana Team Behind Ellery ADU Studio Santa Ana
Every ADU we’ve designed, permitted, or built in Santa Ana since 2015 has been handled by people who live here, work here, and know the difference between a Riverview West slab condition and a Floral Park setback. We’re not a dispatch service. We’re a crew that shows up in the same trucks, answers the same phone line, and signs the same written price before any work starts. Here’s who you’ll actually meet on your property.
Our People
Nadia Ellery, Owner
I started Ellery ADU Studio in 2015 after watching too many Santa Ana homeowners get passed between a designer who didn’t build and a builder who didn’t design. One-contract means one throat to choke, and I’m that throat. I hold a California contractor license and personally review every permit set before it hits the city. I live in Orange County, I know that Santa Ana’s Planning Division has specific parking relief rules that don’t apply two miles north in Tustin, and I’ll tell you straight when a prefab unit from Abodu or Cover makes sense versus a stick-built conversion. On weekends I’m usually at the Santa Ana Zoo with my kid, which is how I learned the parking lot there has better drainage than half the garage slabs I inspect.
Marcus T., Lead Technician
Marcus has been running job sites for Ellery since 2018, which means he’s shepherded roughly 200 ADUs from demo to final inspection. His specialty is foundation assessment, garage conversion ADUs in particular. He can walk a Santa Ana garage built in 1952, measure the existing slab with a laser, and tell you in ten minutes whether you’re looking at a $400 stem-wall retrofit or a full $3,200 replacement. Marcus is OSHA-30 certified and keeps a photo log on every visit, same as the rest of us. Off the clock, he restores vintage Honda motorcycles and has strong opinions about which taqueria on Bristol Street is actually the best. (It’s not the one with the line out the door.)
Daniela R., Senior Installer
Daniela handles the finish carpentry and weather-sealing on our detached ADU and garage conversion projects. She came up through residential framing in Anaheim, then spent four years with a modular manufacturer in Riverside, which is why she’s our go-to for prefab coordination with Mighty Buildings, Dvele, and Plant Prefab. She knows the James Hardie siding catalog by heart and can spot a moisture-barrier failure from across the room. Daniela is also the person who notices when a window rough opening is a quarter-inch off before the drywall goes up, which saves us the callback. She commutes from Santa Ana’s Washington Square neighborhood and grows tomatoes in her side yard that she refuses to share.
Jin K., Service Coordinator
Jin is the live voice you get when you call (949) 541-8498 at 7:00 PM on a Tuesday. He schedules site visits, tracks permit status with Santa Ana’s Community Development Agency, and makes sure every client gets their documented photo record within 24 hours of any crew visit. Before joining us in 2021, Jin worked in permit expediting for commercial projects in Irvine, so he knows exactly how to read a city planner’s silence. He speaks Korean and Spanish, which matters in Santa Ana more than most contractors acknowledge. Jin is the reason our average response time to a client question is under two hours, and he’s the one who will call you if your inspection gets bumped, not send a template email.
Tomas V., Apprentice
Tomas started with us in 2023 through a Santa Ana workforce development program. He’s currently logging hours toward his general contractor license while working full-time on our site prep and utilities crew. Right now he’s mastering trenching, sewer lateral connections, and the specific challenges of Santa Ana’s older clay sewer lines, which collapse if you look at them wrong. Tomas is background-checked and uniformed like everyone else, and he’s already completed manufacturer training with Tuff Shed and Boxabl. He asks more questions than some veterans, which is exactly what we want on your job. He lives with his grandmother in the Lacy neighborhood and is saving for his own ADU build on her property.
One Standard, Every Job
Every person on this page works under the same contract, the same written price, and the same Haven Standard. Clause 1 means your quote is locked before we touch dirt. Clause 5 means no scope creep when we’re already in the trench. The 365-Day Done Right Promise applies whether Marcus did your foundation or Daniela hung your siding. The photo record Jin sends you comes from Tomas’s phone or mine, timestamped, geotagged, and stored for the full warranty period. We’ve done this for 900-plus ADUs across California, and the Santa Ana crew is the team that handles the work from Artesia Pilar to Madison Park. No handoffs to a subcontractor you’ve never met. No designer blaming the builder, or vice versa. One standard. One phone number. One written price.
Call (949) 541-8498 to schedule your free estimate. A live person answers, 24/7.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Santa Ana, serving Santa Ana since 2015.