How Lodgewick ADU Orange County Was Born in Orange County
When we opened our Orange County branch, the ADU conversation here had already shifted. Sacramento passed the big ADU reforms years earlier, and Orange County homeowners had started asking real questions about backyard homes. But what we kept hearing from people in Anaheim, Fullerton, and Santa Ana was the same frustrated story: a contractor would show up, walk the lot, promise a number, and then the number would change once the project started. Or a company would sell the dream of a rental unit and disappear when the permits got complicated. Russ Delmar saw this pattern over and over. Homeowners across Orange County were trying to do something smart with their property, and they were getting burned by vague estimates and disappearing contractors. So when the opportunity came to bring Lodgewick ADU Builders to this market, Russ took it. The pitch was simple: bring the Kingswell way of doing things, a written price before any work starts, a real arrival window, a clean job site, and a written guarantee, to every ADU project in Orange County. That was the whole idea. No mystery pricing, no vanishing act.
Russ Delmar’s Personal Connection to the ADU Trade
Russ Delmar got into this work the way a lot of people do: by watching how badly it could be done and deciding he could do better. Early in his career, he worked alongside tradespeople who took pride in the small things, the way a wall was framed, the way a roofline tied into an existing house, the way a job site looked at the end of the day. But he also saw the other side. He saw crews that rushed. He saw corners cut. He saw homeowners standing in their backyards, confused, holding invoices they did not understand. That bothered him. It stayed with him. What got him out of bed then, and what still gets him out of bed now, is the moment when a homeowner looks at a finished ADU and sees it clearly for the first time: the extra bedroom for an aging parent, the rental income that changes a monthly budget, the studio where a kid can practice music without driving everyone crazy. That moment is the point. The sawdust, the concrete, the framing inspections, all of it exists to get to that moment. If Russ were not doing this, he would probably be building something else, furniture, small structures, anything that starts as a pile of material and becomes a place where someone lives. The ADU trade just happens to be where that instinct meets a real need for Orange County families.
Meet Russ Delmar – The Person Behind Every Job
Russ Delmar is the Owner and Founder of Lodgewick ADU Orange County. He leads the local team that designs, permits, and builds accessory dwelling units across Orange County, from Costa Mesa to Lake Forest to Coto de Caza. Russ came up through the construction trades, learning the work hands-on before he ever managed a project. That background matters. It means he can walk a backyard in Laguna Niguel and read the drainage before anyone digs. It means he understands what a realistic timeline looks like in Fullerton versus San Juan Capistrano. It also means he does not ask his crew to do anything he has not done himself. Off the job site, Russ is a person who likes things done right the first time, which is less a hobby and more a way of being. He brings that to every project. His commitment is personal: if a family in Orange County hires this company, Russ wants them to feel good about that decision ten years from now.
Our Promise to Orange County Homeowners
We work to the Kingswell Guarantee, and we do not treat it like fine print. Here is what that means in practice. Before any work starts, you get a written price. Not a ballpark, not a rough idea. A number on paper. We show up in the window we gave you, because a homeowner who takes a day off work deserves better than a no-show. We leave the job site cleaner than we found it, which means you are not raking nails out of your lawn for the next six months. And if something fails inside the guarantee period, we come back and fix it at no charge. That last part is the one people have the hardest time believing, because so many Orange County homeowners have been burned before. But it is the whole reason we operate this way.
Our Credentials
Here is what you should know before you invite anyone to build on your property:
- State-licensed. Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. We do not cut corners here.
- Insured and bonded. The coverage is in place before the first truck rolls up. You should never have to wonder about this.
- Years of local experience. Our Orange County team has worked in this market long enough to know the difference between a straightforward project and one that is going to fight you.
- Strong local reputation. Ask around. The best advertising for an ADU builder in Orange County is a finished backyard home in a neighborhood where people talk.
Why do these matter? Because you are letting people onto your property, next to where your family sleeps. The license means the state has verified the baseline competence. The insurance means you are protected if something goes wrong. The local experience means someone knows how Anaheim’s permitting process differs from Lake Forest’s. And the reputation means enough homeowners before you have had a good enough experience to keep this company busy.
Rooted in Orange County
We work in the neighborhoods we know. The compact lots of Costa Mesa, where a detached ADU has to be placed carefully. The hillside backyards of Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel, where drainage changes everything. The established streets of North Tustin and Coto de Caza, where homeowners want an ADU that looks like it was always there. We know the planning departments, the soil, the way fog sits in the canyons in the morning. This is not a territory to us. It is home.
Written by Russ Delmar, Owner at Lodgewick ADU Orange County. Room to grow, right on your lot.