How Ellery ADU Studio Chino Hills Was Born in Chino Hills
We opened this branch in 2015, the same year California rewrote its ADU laws and the permit queue became the real product. The moment we knew Chino Hills needed us came that November. A homeowner on Eucalyptus Avenue had hired a designer for the drawings, then a separate contractor for the build. The designer blamed the contractor for pouring a slab that didn’t match the foundation plan. The contractor blamed the designer for dimensions that didn’t work in the field. The homeowner was six months in, forty thousand dollars down, and sleeping in a guest room while the garage sat half-framed and open to the weather. We walked the site on a Tuesday morning. The smell of wet lumber and the sound of a generator running nothing. That afternoon we made a promise: in Chino Hills, the drawings, the permit set, and the build would be one contract with one price. No finger-pointing. No “that’s the other guy’s scope.” Ellery ADU Studio came to Chino Hills because the projects that go wrong are almost always the ones where the designer and the builder can each blame the other.
Nadia Ellery’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
We got into this work because we couldn’t stop taking things apart. As a kid it was clocks, then bicycles, then the neighbor’s broken fence gate after a windstorm. The smell of fresh lumber at the hardware store on Grand Avenue still stops us in our tracks. Sawdust and coffee. That’s the smell of a Saturday morning that turns into something useful.
The defining moment came in our early twenties. A tradesman who trained us let us frame a small addition from the slab up. We remember the weight of the first wall panel, the way it wanted to fall until we braced it true. The afternoon light through the studs. The quiet after the compressor shut off. We’d been in offices before that. The work felt like a language we already spoke but had never been taught.
Over the last eleven years, that feeling hasn’t faded. What gets us out of bed is the same thing: a homeowner who walks into their finished ADU and stands there silent for a moment, seeing space they didn’t have before. A kitchen where there was storage. A bedroom where there was concrete. If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be building furniture in a small shop somewhere, making things that outlast us. The ADU trade lets us do that at a scale that matters to families. A mother who can now live near her daughter in Sleepy Hollow. A teacher renting the unit at a rate they can afford. That’s the work.
We don’t talk about “passion” much. It’s more like a habit of attention. Noticing whether a header is carrying load it wasn’t drawn for. Catching a grade issue before the slab goes in. The permit examiner in Chino Hills knowing your drawings are complete before they open the set. That’s the craft. That’s what we do.
Meet Nadia Ellery - The Person Behind Every Job
Nadia Ellery is the Owner and Founder of Ellery ADU Studio Chino Hills. She has spent eleven years in the design-build trade, starting with hands-on framing and finish work before moving into project management and studio leadership. Her training came from experienced tradesmen in the field, supplemented by ongoing education in California’s evolving ADU codes and energy standards.
What separates Nadia from a corporate franchise technician is simple: she’s the one who answers when something goes sideways. Not a regional manager. Not a customer service line. She reviews every permit set before submission, walks every job site before the slab pour, and signs every written estimate that goes out under our name. On weekends you’ll find her on the trails in Chino Hills State Park, usually with a camera, usually early. That habit of showing up before dawn carries over to how she runs this studio. She is personally committed to every homeowner who invites us onto their property: you will know the price before we start, you will know who is on your site, and you will have a documented record of what we found and what we did.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Chino Hills Homeowners
Our values live under the Haven Standard. We don’t call them “core values” in meetings. We call them by name, and we hold to them.
Have it in writing. Every ADU job is quoted in writing before it starts. The scope, the price, the warranty. Clause 1 of the Haven Standard. We learned this the hard way: the Eucalyptus Avenue job had a handshake agreement and a nightmare outcome. We won’t do that to a homeowner.
Arrive on schedule. A real window, a named crew lead, a text when we’re on the way. Not “sometime Tuesday.” Not a four-hour black hole.
Verified crews. Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. License numbers on the page, not hidden.
Evidence on every job. Photos and readings of what we actually found. The moisture meter reading before we open a wall. The level photo on the foundation. Documentation that outlasts the build.
No surprises. No door upsell. No “while we’re in here.” The price we write is the price you pay.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - required for all ADU construction in California; our license status is current and verifiable
- Insured & bonded - protection for homeowners against property damage and incomplete work
- Years of local experience - serving Chino Hills and surrounding communities since 2015
- Strong local reputation - built on documented completion of permitted ADU projects across the region
These credentials matter because an ADU is a six-figure project that lives inside your property line for months. State licensing means we meet California’s minimum competency and financial stability requirements. Insurance and bonding means you’re not left holding the bag if something goes wrong. Local experience means we know the Chino Hills planning department’s specific requirements, the soils common to the area, and the neighborhood contexts from Sleepy Hollow to Oak Tree Downs. Reputation means you can verify our work by address, not just by star rating.
Rooted in Chino Hills
We’re based here. Our projects run from the hillside lots near Vellano Country Club to the flatter parcels off Pipeline Avenue. We know the difference between the wind exposure up near the 71 and the drainage patterns down toward Soquel Canyon. We’ve pulled permits at City Hall on Grand Avenue enough times to know the staff by face. When we specify James Hardie siding for a Chino Hills ADU, it’s because we’ve seen how it handles the Santa Ana wind cycles and the summer thermal expansion that cracks lesser materials. This isn’t a market we fly into. It’s where we work, where we live, and where we stand behind every job we finish.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Chino Hills, serving Chino Hills since 2015.