Meet the San Bernardino Team Behind Ellery ADU Studio San Bernardino
We’re the crew that shows up in San Bernardino, Redlands, and Highland with the same license number on every truck and the same rule on every clipboard: written price first, photo record always, done right or made right. Nadia Ellery built this studio in 2015 because she was tired of watching homeowners get passed between a designer who blamed the builder and a builder who blamed the designer. Our team is small enough to know your project by address, large enough to handle the full design-build cycle from setback survey to final inspection.
Our People
Nadia Ellery, Owner
I started Ellery ADU Studio in 2015 after spending six years on commercial sites where “design intent” and “field conditions” were daily arguments. I wanted one contract, one throat to choke, and one written price that didn’t move. I hold a California B-General Contractor license and spent my first two years in San Bernardino pulling permits myself so I’d know every counter clerk and every common rejection reason. I still review every permit set before submission because the city rejected a set of mine in 2017 for a 4-inch setback miscalculation that cost a client three weeks, and I still remember the client’s face. I live in the foothills above San Bernardino with two dogs who have no respect for my schedule. I answer calls when they come in, including the one at 10:47 PM from a homeowner in Muscoy who couldn’t sleep because they didn’t understand their foundation line item.
Marcus T., Lead Technician
Marcus has been with us since 2019 and runs our site-prep and utility-tie crews across San Bernardino County. He’s the person who determines whether your existing garage slab can carry a conversion load or whether we’re cutting and pouring new footings. He holds a C-36 Plumbing license and a C-10 Electrical certification, which means he can read the utility maps and coordinate with Southern California Edison without calling in a separate subcontractor who bills by the hour. Before Ellery, he spent eight years on municipal sewer projects in Colton, so he knows the difference between city main capacity in the 92404 zip versus 92407, and he’ll tell you straight if your kitchenette grease line needs a pump or gravity flow. He rebuilds vintage motorcycles and brings the same patience to both hobbies: measure twice, cut once, swear never.
Diana R., Senior Installer
Diana handles our prefab and modular coordination, which means she’s the one who speaks fluent Abodu, Cover, Dvele, Mighty Buildings, Boxabl, Plant Prefab, Tuff Shed, and James Hardie. She joined us in 2021 after four years as a project manager for a regional modular builder in Riverside County where she learned that “factory precision” still requires a site crew who knows how to shim a foundation that’s 3/8 inch out of level. She verifies every module delivery against the approved permit set before the crane shows up, because once that unit is airborne, the cost of a mismatch is measured in thousands per hour. She lives in Highland and runs a small vegetable garden that she treats with the same intolerance for variance: if the tomatoes don’t match the drawing, they don’t ship. She once caught a Boxabl module with an interior wall placed 6 inches off the approved plan, rejected the delivery, and had the factory re-cut before our crane window expired.
James K., Service Coordinator
James is the voice you hear when you call (909) 359-6463, and the reason it’s a live person 24/7, not a voicemail queue with a callback promise that evaporates. He’s been with Ellery since 2018 and schedules every site visit, permit submission, and inspection window across our San Bernardino projects. He knows which San Bernardino building inspector prefers morning appointments and which one will fail a framing inspection for a missing hurricane strap that another inspector walked past last week. He maintains our documented photo record system, so when he says you’ll receive evidence of what was found and what was done, he’s the one uploading the timestamped images and linking them to your project file. He grew up in Rialto, still lives there, and has a memory for addresses that borders on concerning: he can tell you the setback variance we negotiated on a 2021 project in Del Rosa without opening the file.
Elena V., Apprentice
Elena joined us in 2023 through the San Bernardino County apprenticeship pipeline and splits her time between Marcus’s site-prep crew and Diana’s modular installs. She’s working toward her B-license and currently holds her C-31 Construction Zone Traffic Control certification, which matters more than people think when you’re delivering a 14-foot-wide module through San Bernardino’s older neighborhoods with street parking on both sides. She’s the one who measures existing structures with a laser level and a notebook, not a phone app that rounds to the nearest inch. She asks questions that remind the rest of us what we stopped explaining, which improves our documentation. She commutes from Loma Linda and is quietly building a spreadsheet of every permit rejection reason she’s witnessed, categorized by inspector, because she intends to never repeat one.
One Standard, Every Job
Every person on this team works under the same Haven Standard that governs all ten Ellery ADU Studio locations across California. Clause 1 means you get a written price before any work starts, not a ballpark that balloons. Clause 5 means the scope is locked at signing, no door-side upsells, no scope creep. The documented photo record on every visit means you see what we found, not a summary of how it felt. And the 365-Day Done Right Promise means if the finished ADU doesn’t match the permitted drawings, we make it right, in writing, before the project starts.
We’ve designed, permitted, and built more than 900 ADUs since 2015. Every one had a written price up front. Every one had a photo record at completion. We’re not a franchise, we’re independently owned and operated right here in San Bernardino, and the license number on every page is verified, not just claimed. If you have a written estimate from another builder and want a Free Second Opinion, call (909) 359-6463. A live person will answer.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio San Bernardino, serving San Bernardino since 2015.