Projects
8 jobs, and what each one actually cost.
Most contractor portfolios are photographs of finished rooms with no number attached, which tells you nothing you can plan against. Each of these says what the house turned out to be hiding, what it came to, and how long you would have been living around it.
This is a concept study. Merrow & Vale is not a real company — the projects, figures, dates and licence numbers on this site are invented to demonstrate what a design-build contractor’s website can do. Nothing here is an offer, and the contact form delivers nowhere.
Webster Greystone
Whole-home gut renovation · Lincoln Park
- Contract value
- $740k
- Duration
- 11 months
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.
Fictional project — concept study
Hoyne Two-Flat
Two-flat to single family, rear addition · Bucktown
- Contract value
- $610k
- Duration
- 9 months
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.
Fictional project — concept study
Kenilworth Kitchen
Kitchen, pantry and mudroom · Kenilworth
- Contract value
- $185k
- Duration
- 4 months
The owners had been quoted a gut of the whole first floor. The problem was one bearing wall and a badly placed chimney chase — moving those two things solved the plan without touching the rest.
Fictional project — concept study
Fulton Facade
Landmark facade restoration · West Loop
- Contract value
- $295k
- Duration
- 18 months
A landmarked storefront where the original limestone had been stuccoed over in the 1970s. Eleven months of it was the Commission on Chicago Landmarks; the masonry itself took seven weeks.
Fictional project — concept study
Ridge Avenue Addition
Second-storey addition · Evanston
- Contract value
- $430k
- Duration
- 7 months
A 1950s ranch that had to gain three bedrooms without losing the mature oak in the side yard. The foundation took the load; the tree set the footprint.
Fictional project — concept study
Wicker Park Loft
Timber loft conversion · Wicker Park
- Contract value
- $320k
- Duration
- 6 months
Heavy-timber warehouse loft where every partition had to be free-standing — nothing could touch the original columns. Mechanicals run in a raised floor rather than a dropped ceiling.
Fictional project — concept study
Humboldt Coach House
Coach house rebuild, ADU · Humboldt Park
- Contract value
- $265k
- Duration
- 8 months
Built under Chicago's ADU ordinance. The existing coach house was past saving, so this is new construction on the old footprint — which is what kept it permittable.
Fictional project — concept study
Sheridan Road Baths
Three bathrooms, vintage co-op · Rogers Park
- Contract value
- $140k
- Duration
- 5 months
A 1926 co-op with a board, a hard 3pm noise cutoff and no freight elevator. Sequencing was the whole job — the tile and the tubs went up a stairwell over four weekends.
Fictional project — concept study
Yours would be written up the same way.
The walkthrough is free and ends with a range. Everything after that is in writing before anyone picks up a hammer.
Book a walkthroughDesign-build renovation
The craftsmanship is the easy part to promise.
Every contractor in this city will show you a finished kitchen. What separates them is what happens in month four, when the wall is open and the number has to hold. That is the whole brief.
- 01
You know the number before demolition
Drawings, engineering and supplier-priced allowances come first. The contract number is the number, and a change order happens only when you ask for one.
- 02
Surprises are priced, not argued
Every old house hides something. The contract carries a named contingency line and we show you what opened the wall, what it costs, and what it does to the date.
- 03
The same person is there every day
One lead carpenter, named in the contract, from demolition to punch list. You have their mobile number rather than an office line.
What you receive
Measured drawings you own, a fixed-price contract with a completion date and liquidated damages against it, weekly photographs, and a two-year workmanship warranty at handover.
How it works
Four steps. The first one is free, so the walkthrough has to do the convincing.
You get a number at the walkthrough, before anyone is paid anything. If the range is wrong for you, that is where it ends — no drawings, no deposit, no follow-up calls.
Walkthrough
$0Ninety minutes at the house. We look at what you want, what the building will allow, and give you a range before we leave. No charge and no drawings yet.
Design and fixed bid
Measured drawings, structural review, allowances priced against real suppliers, and a fixed-price contract with a completion date in it. $3,500, credited against the build.
Build
One lead carpenter on site daily. Photographs and a schedule update every Friday, and a running log of every allowance you have spent against.
Punch list and handover
We walk it with you and fix the list before the final invoice. Warranty documents, registered manufacturer warranties and every manual in one binder.
How a job is priced
Two numbers, and you see the first one early.
The walkthrough is free and ends with a range. The design phase is $3,500 and ends with a fixed price — no hourly meter, no allowance you cannot trace to a supplier.
Design and fixed bid
$3,500
credited against the build
Recent builds have run $140k to $750k. The design phase is what turns that range into one number, and that number is written into the contract before demolition starts.
What the design phase produces
- Measured existing-conditions drawings and a proposed plan set
- Structural engineering where the job touches load, stamped
- Allowances priced against named suppliers, not round numbers
- A fixed-price contract with a completion date and damages against it
- The drawings, yours to keep even if you build with someone else
Booked eight to fourteen weeks out. Questions? Call (312) 555-0148.
Book a walkthroughQuestions owners actually ask
Why does the bid cost $3,500 when everyone else quotes free?
Because a free quote is a guess, and a guess has to be padded or revised. The $3,500 buys measured drawings, a structural review, and allowances priced against real suppliers — which is what makes the contract number hold. It is credited in full against the build, and if you take the drawings to another contractor instead, they are yours to take.
What actually makes the price change after we sign?
Three things, and they are named in the contract: you ask for something different, we open a wall and find something that was not visible or accessible during the survey, or the city requires work no one could have anticipated. Concealed conditions are the honest risk in a hundred-year-old building — we carry a contingency line for it and show you what it is spent on.
How long before you can start?
Typically eight to fourteen weeks from a signed contract, and the design phase runs inside that window. We take eight to ten projects a year, which is what lets the same lead carpenter stay on your job to the end.
Can we live in the house during the work?
For a kitchen or a bath, usually yes, with a temporary setup we build for you. For a whole-floor gut or anything structural, no — and any contractor who says otherwise has not sequenced the work yet. We say which it is at the walkthrough, before it becomes your problem.
Who is actually on site every day?
One lead carpenter, named in the contract, on site daily from demolition to punch list. Trades come and go around them. You have their mobile number, not a general office line.
What does the two-year warranty cover?
Anything we built or installed. Manufacturer warranties on appliances, fixtures and roofing sit on top of that and are registered in your name at handover. Normal settling and anything a later contractor touched are excluded.
Do you do design, or do we need our own architect?
We do both. In-house design covers most renovations and additions. If the project needs a licensed architect — landmark work, or anything that changes the street elevation in a historic district — we bring one in and manage them, and you see their fee as a line item rather than a markup.
What happens to the schedule if you run late?
The completion date is in the contract with $500 a day in liquidated damages against it. Weather and your own change orders extend the date; our subcontractor problems do not.
Start with ninety minutes and no invoice.
Tell us what you are thinking about and when. We reply within one business day, and the walkthrough costs nothing either way.
- Phone
- (312) 555-0148
- Service area
- Chicago, the North Shore & Oak Park · within 25 miles of the shop