What Upland Homeowners Say About Ellery ADU Studio Upland
We’ve been designing and building ADUs in Upland since 2015, and the feedback we value most comes from neighbors who’ve lived through the process. A review matters when it names the specific problem, the specific fix, and whether we’d do it the same way again. Here’s what homeowners in Upland and nearby neighborhoods have told us after their projects wrapped.
Recent Reviews
“We bought our place in Upland’s San Antonio Heights area specifically for the detached garage, but we didn’t know if the slab was thick enough for a conversion. Nadia Ellery walked it with us, measured the existing foundation at four inches, and explained exactly what that meant for our foundation line item. The written price came back at $127,000 all-in, drawings through final inspection, and the final invoice matched it to the dollar. The photo record from every visit was useful when we refinanced - the lender actually asked for documentation of the work stages.”
Hector R., San Antonio Heights, Upland
“Our Junior ADU in downtown Upland started as a back-porch enclosure that my uncle had built in the nineties. The city flagged it as unpermitted during a routine sale inspection. Ellery ADU Studio came in, did the as-built survey, and worked backward through Title 24 compliance for the energy calculations. What I appreciated was that Nadia didn’t sugarcoat the timeline - she told us San Bernardino County’s plan check was running fourteen weeks that season, and she was right within four days. The 365-Day Done Right Promise gave our buyer confidence to close.”
Adriana F., Downtown Upland
“We looked at prefab options for a detached ADU in our North Upland backyard, and Nadia Ellery laid out the real numbers on three systems - Abodu, Mighty Buildings, and a site-built stick frame for comparison. She didn’t push one over the other. What sold us was the single-contract design-build model: one written price, one point of contact, and no finger-pointing if the panel installation didn’t line up with the foundation pour. The photo record showed us the crane day, the utility trench, and the final punch list. Everything was documented.”
Nadia M., North Upland
“My garage conversion in Upland’s Magnolia Park area had a weird roofline that another contractor said would need engineered trusses and a $40,000 change order mid-project. I brought Ellery in for a Free Second Opinion on that written estimate. Nadia found that the existing ridge height actually cleared the four-foot rear yard setback variance once we reoriented the bedroom layout. She rewrote the scope, kept the original foundation and roof structure, and the final price came in $23,000 below the other quote. Under Clause 5, the scope was locked at signing - no surprises, no upsells.”
Malik P., Magnolia Park, Upland
“We’re on a corner lot near Upland High School with an alley access that the city wasn’t sure how to classify for fire department access. Nadia Ellery met with the fire marshal herself, got the alley width confirmed at twenty-two feet, and built that determination into the permit set before we paid for the full design. That’s the difference with a design-build studio - she had to live with her own permitting call when construction started. The ADU rents for $1,850 now, and the tenant moved in eleven days after final inspection.”
Hector R., Upland
“My mother needed a Junior ADU for accessibility, and we were worried about the step-down from our main house in Upland’s Euclid corridor. Nadia specified a zero-threshold transition and coordinated the sewer lateral slope with the existing main line, which ran deeper than code minimum. She explained the grade calculation in plain terms - ‘one-quarter inch per foot over forty feet gets us there’ - and the photo record showed the laser level readings at each stage. The 365-Day Done Right Promise meant something to us because my mother can’t navigate a trip hazard, and Nadia knew that.”
Adriana F., Euclid Corridor, Upland
Why Customers Trust Us
These reviews point to the same pattern we’ve seen across 900-plus ADUs since 2015. Homeowners in Upland don’t want enthusiasm - they want a written price before work starts, a documented photo record when it’s done, and someone who answers the phone when the inspector has a question. The Haven Standard governs every project: Clause 1 locks your price in writing, Clause 5 locks the scope at signing, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise backs the workmanship in writing before the first tool comes out.
Nadia Ellery runs this as an independently owned and operated design-build studio, not a referral network. That means the person who measures your slab writes your scope, pulls your permit, and coordinates your prefab delivery if you go that route. One contract. One written price. No one to point at when something needs adjusting.
Whether you’re converting a garage in San Antonio Heights, building new in North Upland, or sorting out a compliance issue downtown, we’ll give you the same direct assessment we’d want ourselves. Call (840) 212-3065 to schedule your free estimate, or bring us a written estimate from another contractor for a Free Second Opinion.
Written by Nadia Ellery, Owner at Ellery ADU Studio Upland, serving Upland since 2015.