How Ellery ADU Studio Westchester Was Born in Westchester
We remember the exact afternoon in 2015 when we knew Westchester needed something different. Nadia Ellery was walking a job site on a flat, sun-baked lot near LAX, watching a homeowner stand between an architect’s rolled drawings and a concrete crew who had already poured the foundation six inches off the setback. The architect blamed the survey. The surveyor blamed the city planner. The homeowner, a retired teacher who had cashed out a pension, stood there with a coffee cup going cold in her hand, paying for all of them to argue.
That was the week California’s ADU law changed, and the permitting queue became the actual product. Nadia had spent the previous years watching the same pattern: designer and builder, separate contracts, each with an escape hatch when things went wrong. She drove home through Westchester that evening, past the postwar bungalows and the duplexes tucked behind main houses, and made a promise. This neighborhood, with its tight lots and its homeowners who actually read the fine print, deserved a studio where the drawings, the permit set, and the build were one contract with one price. No finger-pointing. No “that’s the other guy’s problem.” She called the parent company the next morning and asked what it would take to bring the Ellery standard here.
Nadia Ellery’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
Nadia didn’t stumble into this work. She was pulled into it by the smell of fresh lumber and the sound of a permit finally stamping clean.
She started in her mid-twenties, working for a general contractor who specialized in kitchen remodels in Culver City. The work was fine. But she kept getting sent to fix the jobs other companies had abandoned, and those were the ones that stayed with her. A garage conversion in Venice where the previous crew had framed a window directly into a load-bearing shear wall without engineering. A backyard cottage in Inglewood where the homeowner had paid for plans that the city never would have approved, because the designer had never pulled a permit in Los Angeles. Each one was a person who had trusted the process and been failed by the gap between design and build.
What got her out of bed then, and still does, was the moment of clarity when a homeowner finally understood their own project. Not the sales pitch, not the handshake, but the afternoon she would spread the permit set on a kitchen table and walk them through the shear wall schedule, the energy calculations, the exact square footage that triggered fire-sprinkler requirements. Their faces changed. They went from anxious to armed with information.
If she weren’t doing this, she’d probably be teaching. She almost did, once. But the classroom she found was a job site in Westchester, and the lesson is always the same: your ADU is a year-long relationship and a six-figure decision. You deserve to know whose practice it is.
Over ten years, that has meant learning every jurisdiction’s quirks by heart. Santa Monica’s design review board. Hawthorne’s parking replacement formulas. The way Westchester’s proximity to LAX triggers specific noise and height restrictions that don’t apply three blocks east. This work is personal because the setbacks are personal. Every inch matters on these lots.
Meet Nadia Ellery - The Person Behind Every Job
Nadia Ellery is the Owner and Founder of Ellery ADU Studio Westchester. She holds state licensure and has built her expertise through years of hands-on project management across Los Angeles County, from permit application to final inspection. Her training is in the field: reading structural calculations, negotiating with plan checkers, standing in a backyard with a homeowner who needs to understand why their foundation type just changed the timeline.
What separates Nadia from a corporate franchise technician is simple. She lives here. She runs the Sunday morning farmers market circuit from Westchester to Brentwood. She knows which Plant Prefab modules have actually passed L.A. Department of Building and Safety review, and which ones look good on a website but stall at plan check. She will tell you the truth about your lot before you sign anything, because Clause 1 of the Haven Standard - Have it in writing - means the written price comes before the commitment, not after.
Her personal commitment is direct: every homeowner who calls (213) 698-7591 speaks with someone who can explain their specific project, not just schedule an appointment.
Our Promise to Westchester Homeowners
Our values are not decoration. They are the Haven Standard, and we cite it by clause.
Have it in writing. Every ADU job is quoted in writing before it starts. Not an estimate. A fixed price with a written scope and a written warranty. We learned this the hard way, watching a homeowner in West Los Angeles absorb a change order that doubled her foundation cost because the original contractor had buried a soil contingency in fine print she never saw.
Arrive on schedule. A real window. A named technician. A text when they are on the way. No “sometime Tuesday morning” that stretches until dusk.
Verified crews. Every professional working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. Their license number is on the page. You can look it up.
Evidence on every job. Photos and readings of what we actually found. The moisture meter reading in your existing garage. The photo of the electrical panel we need to upgrade. Documentation, not memory.
No surprises. No door upsell. No scope creep. No “while we’re in here.” The price we write is the price you pay.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - We maintain active California contractor licensing. You can verify this directly with the Contractors State License Board. For homeowners, this means recourse if something goes wrong, and a standard of knowledge that unlicensed operators cannot meet.
- Insured & bonded - Coverage is in place for the protection of your property and the people working on it. This is not optional on a project that involves foundation work, electrical service upgrades, and workers on your lot for months.
- Years of local experience - Our team has managed ADU projects across Westchester, Culver City, Inglewood, Venice, Hawthorne, Santa Monica, West Los Angeles, Gardena, Redondo Beach, Brentwood, and Beverly Hills. We know which jurisdictions batch their plan checks, which ones require in-person submittal, and which ones have updated their ADU parking requirements in the last eighteen months.
- Strong local reputation - We are not new to this market. Our work is visible in completed projects you can drive past, and in the permit records that are public information.
These credentials matter because an ADU is not a weekend project. It is a structure that will stand for decades, that affects your property value, your tax assessment, and your relationship with your neighbors. You need someone who can prove they are qualified to carry that weight.
Rooted in Westchester
We are independently owned and operated. Nadia’s trucks roll from a yard near Manchester Avenue. Her crew knows the difference between a Westchester flat lot and a Venice walk-street access challenge. We have worked around the flight paths, the coastal zones, and the specific soil conditions that come with being this close to the Ballona Wetlands. This is not a branch office reading from a national playbook. It is a local practice working to a standard that travels well.
When you call (213) 698-7591, you reach our live coordinator, who connects you with the local team. The price range for your project will be on the page, in dollars, before anyone asks for a commitment. That is Clause 1. That is how we work.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Westchester, serving Westchester since 2015.