Design-build renovation and additions across Chicago and the North Shore. Fixed-price contracts, one lead carpenter, and a schedule in writing before we start.
Licensed, bonded, insured
IL general contractor #GC-104-8821 · $2M liability · certificates on request.
Fixed price before demolition
The contract number is the final number. Change orders only when you ask for one.
Chicago, the North Shore & Oak Park
Close enough that the lead carpenter is on site every day, not every Friday.
8 projects shown · every one on a signed fixed-price contract
Two kinds of job
One shop, two ways in. Interior work rebuilds what is already standing. Structural work changes the shape of the building — a different permit, a different crew, and a different set of things that can go wrong.
Interior renovation
Kitchens, baths, whole-floor gut renovations and built-in millwork. Nothing moves outside the existing envelope, so the permit is straightforward and the schedule is predictable.
Additions & structural
Second storeys, rear additions, two-flat conversions, coach houses and ADUs. Structural engineering and zoning are handled in-house before a price is quoted, not discovered afterwards.
Selected work
Chicago housing stock is old, and the interesting part of any job is what the previous four owners left behind the plaster. Each of these is written up as the problem it actually was.
Concept study — Merrow & Vale is a fictional company. Projects, figures and dates are invented for demonstration.
Whole-home gut renovation · Lincoln Park
An 1897 greystone with four layers of previous remodel between the plaster and the joists. We took it back to the brick, kept the staircase and the front bay, and rebuilt everything behind them.
$740k11 months
Fictional project — concept study
Two-flat to single family, rear addition · Bucktown
Removing a floor structure is the part most bids get wrong. This one needed a 28-foot steel beam through the middle of an occupied block, craned over the roof on a Sunday with the street permitted.
$610k9 months
Fictional project — concept study
How it works
Ninety minutes at the house. No charge, no drawings, no obligation.
$3,500, credited in full against the contract. Drawings, engineering, real allowances.
One lead carpenter on site daily. Photos and a schedule update every Friday.
Walkthrough, warranty documents, and every manual in one binder.
What you can hold us to
A change order exists only when you ask for one, and it is signed before the work happens. We eat our own estimating mistakes.
The same person every day, named in the contract. Not a rotating crew and not a project manager who visits on Fridays.
The completion date is in the contract with liquidated damages against it. Weather and your change orders extend it; nothing else does.
Anything we built, we come back and fix. Manufacturer warranties on top of that, registered in your name at handover.
Design and fixed bid
$3,500
credited in full against the build
Buys drawings, structural engineering, real material allowances and a fixed-price contract. If you take the bid elsewhere, the drawings are yours to take with it.
Recent builds have run $140k to $750k. Kitchens typically land between $150k and $220k; a whole-floor gut, $400k and up. The walkthrough is free and will tell you which half of that you are in.
Tell us what you are thinking about and when. We reply within one business day, and the walkthrough costs nothing either way.
