How Ellery ADU Studio Pomona Was Born in Pomona
We remember the exact afternoon in 2015 when we knew Pomona needed something different. Nadia Ellery was walking a job site on a converted garage in the Mayfair neighborhood, watching a homeowner stand between two men who were shouting about whether a four-foot setback met code. The designer blamed the builder. The builder blamed the designer. The homeowner, a teacher who’d saved for six years, stood there with a permit folder in her hands and no idea who to believe.
That same week, California’s ADU law changed. The phones started ringing. But what we saw wasn’t opportunity, it was a mess. Homeowners were getting three bids for the build, a separate invoice for the drawings, and a permit expeditor who ghosted them at the planning counter. The product wasn’t the ADU. It was the queue, the blame, the surprise $14,000 change order for foundation work that “nobody could’ve known about.”
Nadia came back to the office and wrote four words on the whiteboard: One contract. One price. One throat to choke. That’s what we brought to Pomona. Not a new brand, not a new promise, but Ellery’s way of working, rooted in a city where homeowners were already getting squeezed by housing costs and couldn’t afford to get squeezed again by their contractor.
Nadia Ellery’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
Nadia didn’t start in ADUs. She started in the room that nobody wanted, the room that was too hot in July and too cold in January, the room with the low ceiling and the single window that faced a fence. She grew up in a converted garage herself, in a part of Los Angeles County where that was how families made space for grandparents, for returning kids, for rental income that kept the mortgage paid. She knew what it smelled like when the drywall got damp, knew the sound of a window unit rattling at 2 a.m., knew the shame of a bathroom that was really just a toilet behind a accordion door.
She got her first look at the trade side in her early twenties, working as an assistant to a draftsman who did permit sets for garage conversions. The office was in a strip mall near the 10 freeway, and it always smelled of the tradesman’s cigarettes and the thermal printer spitting out plan sets. She learned to read a plot plan there. Learned that a 220-square-foot studio and a 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom go through the same planning counter, same fee schedule, same inspector. Learned that most homeowners didn’t know that, and most contractors didn’t tell them.
The moment that hooked her wasn’t glamorous. It was a Tuesday in 2014, before Ellery existed, when a homeowner in West Covina called the office crying because her contractor had walked off the job with the second draw. Nadia spent three hours on the phone, then drove over with a notepad, then spent the next six weekends helping this woman document what had been done, what hadn’t, what it would actually cost to finish. She didn’t get paid for any of it. She got a casserole and a handwritten card that she still keeps in her desk drawer.
That’s what gets her out of bed. Not the architecture, though she loves that. Not the permit approval, though she’ll celebrate with a donut. It’s the homeowner who walks into a finished unit and doesn’t know what to say because they were expecting another fight and instead they’re holding keys. If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be teaching drafting at a community college, or volunteering at a housing clinic, or fixing up some terrible rental she bought too cheap. She can’t not do this work. It’s too personal.
Meet Nadia Ellery - The Person Behind Every Job
Nadia Ellery, Owner & Founder, Ellery ADU Studio Pomona
Nadia leads the Pomona branch of Ellery ADU Studio, bringing the brand’s design-build model to homeowners across the eastern San Gabriel Valley and western Inland Empire. Her background spans architectural drafting, permit expediting, and project management for residential additions. She holds the state licensing required for the work performed under her branch’s name, and every pro working under the Ellery name is required to hold the license and insurance their trade requires.
What separates Nadia from a corporate project manager is simple: she’s in the field. She’ll text you a photo of your footing inspection. She’ll meet the James Hardie rep at the supplier to check a siding batch. On weekends, she’s usually restoring vintage mid-century furniture she finds at Pomona’s antique fairs, a hobby that taught her patience and the value of doing a thing right rather than doing it fast.
Her commitment to you is direct: Every ADU job is quoted in writing before it starts and leaves a documented record, under The Haven Standard. That’s not a slogan. It’s how she sleeps at night.
Our Promise to Pomona Homeowners
We operate under the Haven Standard, a five-clause code that governs every job we take. Here’s what it means in practice:
Clause 1: Have it in writing. Before anyone breaks ground, you get a flat price, a written scope, and a written warranty. Not an estimate. A price. We learned this the hard way in our first year in Pomona, when a homeowner in the Lincoln Park neighborhood needed a soil correction that wasn’t in the original bid. We ate the cost. Now we probe every site before we quote.
Clause 2: Arrive on schedule. You get a real window, a named lead, and a text when we’re on the way. No “sometime Tuesday.” No waiting all morning for a crew that shows at 4 p.m.
Clause 3: Verified crews. Every pro on your property is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. License numbers are available on request.
Clause 4: Evidence on every job. Photos, moisture readings, permit sign-offs. You get the file. Not because you asked, because it’s part of the job.
Clause 5: No surprises. No door upsell. No “while we’re in here.” The price we wrote is the price you pay.
Our Credentials
State-licensed - We meet California’s licensing requirements for the work we perform. License numbers are available on request and posted where required by law.
Insured & bonded - Coverage is maintained for the protection of our customers and our crew. Policy details are available on request.
Years of local experience - Our Pomona branch has been serving the area since 2015, with deep familiarity in local soil conditions, planning department workflows, and the specific codes enforced by Los Angeles County and the cities we work in.
Strong local reputation - We maintain documented records of every job, and prospective customers are welcome to review our portfolio of completed ADUs in Pomona, Montclair, San Dimas, Diamond Bar, Upland, Covina, Glendora, Chino, Chino Hills, West Covina, Ontario, and Rowland Heights.
These credentials matter because an ADU is a six-figure project that lives in your backyard for decades. You’re not buying a product off a shelf. You’re trusting someone to design, permit, and build a structure that your family will sleep in, that a tenant will pay rent for, that a future buyer will inspect. State licensing means accountability. Insurance means protection if something goes wrong. Local experience means we know that Pomona’s clay soils shift, that Montclair’s planning counter has a specific checklist, that Diamond Bar’s hillside lots trigger extra geotech. And a strong local reputation means we have neighbors you can talk to, units you can walk through, records you can verify.
Rooted in Pomona
We’re not pretending to be from somewhere we’re not. Nadia lives here. Her trucks are parked here. She’s sat in the Pomona planning department waiting for sign-offs, bought coffee on Second Street, walked the Village during the Friday night art walk. We’ve built ADUs in the Mayfair historic district, in the Ganesha Hills hillside lots, in the compact yards off Holt Avenue where every square foot matters. We know the difference between a lot that drains toward the street and one that ponds in the backyard after a January storm. We know which neighborhoods in our service area have sewer laterals from the 1950s that can’t handle a second kitchen. That knowledge doesn’t come from a database. It comes from showing up, year after year, in the same place.
Call (657) 286-7915 to schedule your free estimate. We’ll bring the Haven Standard to your project, and we’ll put the price in writing before anyone picks up a hammer.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Pomona, serving Pomona and surrounding communities since 2015.