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Kitchen and bathroom remodeling in Irving Park.

Irving Park mixes Queen Anne, Victorian and Italianate houses in Old Irving Park with Craftsman and Prairie houses in the Villa District and bungalows nearly everywhere else. Each one puts the kitchen in a different place and asks a different first question, and we answer it at your home before the layout is drawn.

Serving Irving Park, Chicago, ZIP 60618, 60641. Every Chicago ZIP code is inside our service area.

White Shaker kitchen with a thick-edged veined island, crystal pendants, a paneled refrigerator and dark wood floors

Kitchens in Irving Park

Kitchens that respect a house with a date on it.

Old Irving Park, bounded by Montrose, Pulaski, Addison and Cicero, holds some of the oldest houses on the Northwest Side, and their kitchens were built as service rooms: small, separate and at the back. A remodel there is usually about connecting the kitchen to the dining room and finding storage without losing the trim, doors and proportions that make the house what it is.

In the Villa District and the bungalow blocks around it, the questions are more like a bungalow’s: whether to open the dining room wall, whether to absorb the rear porch, and how to plan a compact room. Everywhere in the neighborhood the Blue Line and the Kennedy make deliveries and parking a planning item we settle before demolition.

Local context

Planning a remodel in Irving Park.

The Villa District

The Villa District, the 3600 through 3800 blocks of North Avers, Hamlin, Harding and Springfield, is a Chicago Landmark district designated in 1983 and also a National Register district, with Prairie, Craftsman and American Four-Square houses built under rules that required the bungalow mode. For a designated Chicago Landmark or a building in a landmark district, the Historic Preservation Division reviews permit applications so the work does not affect the significant historical or architectural features named in the designation ordinance. The City says those features are typically the exterior elevations visible from the street, and that no additional permits are required for landmark buildings. A kitchen or bathroom remodel inside the walls is therefore usually outside that review; a new window, vent or rear opening on a designated building may not be, and we confirm it for the address before drawing it.

Villa District, Chicago Landmarks

City permits

The Department of Buildings’ Express Permit Program covers building repairs and a limited range of small improvement projects through an online platform, with guided worktypes that include electrical work, plumbing work, nonstructural interior alteration and mechanical work. A kitchen or bathroom remodel that alters plumbing or opens a wall goes through the standard permit process instead. We file whichever applies and schedule inspections before the walls close.

Chicago Express Permit Program

Older systems behind the walls

Kitchens in Victorian and early 1900s Irving Park houses frequently reveal knob-and-tube remnants, galvanized supply lines, plaster over lath and joists notched by earlier plumbers once the cabinets come off. Chicago requires new wiring in conduit. We look for all of it during the visit, price what we can see, and the proposal explains how anything hidden is handled.

Municipal requirements change and depend on the property. We confirm what applies to your address during planning rather than assuming from the neighborhood.

What we do here

The kind of Irving Park projects we take on.

Every project uses the same design and build team. These pages explain the scope in more depth.

Everything a kitchen remodel involves

Recent work

Recent work near Irving Park.

Recent projects completed by the contractors on our team, each labeled with its own location and its contractor.

See all recent work

Bathrooms in Irving Park

Bathroom remodeling in Irving Park.

Bathrooms in the older Irving Park houses were added or rebuilt more than once over a century, which means a remodel often finds two generations of plumbing behind the wall and a floor built up in layers. A complete remodel takes the room to the studs, replaces the exposed old supply and drain, keeps the toilet and tub near the stack, and rebuilds the floor level before a new tub, walk-in shower or heated tile goes in.

In a landmark district house the bathroom work stays inside the walls and outside landmark review; a new window or exhaust vent through a street-facing elevation is confirmed with the City first. Vanities, lighting and ventilation are drawn on one elevation so the small room reads as one design.

Bathroom with black hexagon tile on the wall and floor, a black veined vanity top and a glass walk-in shower
Bathroom remodels in Irving Park follow the same process as our kitchens: measured at the visit, priced from a written scope, permitted and inspected.

Investment

Budget considerations in Irving Park.

Older houses carry more unknowns behind the walls than newer ones, so proposals for Irving Park houses tend to include more electrical and plumbing updating than a kitchen of the same size in a postwar house, and Chicago’s conduit requirement adds labor to every circuit. Structural openings and any exterior change on a landmark-district house add engineering, permit and review time.

We do not publish a price per square foot. The Investment page explains what moves the number, and your priced proposal follows the in-home visit.

What a kitchen remodel costs in ChicagoWhat shapes bathroom remodel cost

Questions

Questions from Irving Park homeowners.

Does a Villa District house need landmark approval for a kitchen remodel?

For interior work, usually not. The City reviews permits for landmark-district properties against the significant features in the designation ordinance, which it says are typically the exterior elevations visible from the street. Exterior changes may need review, and we confirm them for your address before designing them in.

Can you keep the original trim and doors in an Old Irving Park kitchen?

Yes, and we usually recommend it. Casings and doors are protected during construction, and the new cabinetry, crown and trim are drawn to meet them. Where a casing has to move for a wider opening, it is reset rather than replaced.

Who handles the City permit and inspections?

We do. Lakefront prepares the drawings, files the permit and schedules rough inspections for plumbing and electrical before anything is covered.

Do you remodel bathrooms in Irving Park as well?

Yes. Complete bathroom remodels in the neighborhood’s Victorian, Craftsman and bungalow houses follow the same process as our kitchens.

Let’s plan your kitchen or bathroom.

Have kitchen or bathroom photos? Include them with your inquiry for complimentary render previews within minutes. Photos are optional.

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