Service areas · Chicago
Kitchen and bathroom remodeling in Portage Park.
Portage Park is bungalow country, and a Portage Park kitchen is usually a narrow room at the back of a brick bungalow or a two-flat with the dining room a wall away. We remodel those kitchens and the small bathrooms beside them for the way the house is actually used, and we have completed work in the neighborhood.
Serving Portage Park, Chicago, ZIP 60641, 60634. Every Chicago ZIP code is inside our service area.
Kitchens in Portage Park
Getting more kitchen out of a Portage Park bungalow.
The area’s building stock is mostly bungalows and two-flats. A bungalow kitchen sits toward the back of a long, narrow plan, often with a window on one wall, a door to the rear porch on another and a pantry or enclosed porch behind it. The common moves are widening the opening to the dining room, absorbing that pantry or porch into the kitchen, and planning storage carefully in a room that will still be compact when it is done.
Two-flats stack a kitchen over a kitchen, with the plumbing between floors, so the sink usually stays near the stack while cabinets, lighting and the connection to the dining room change. In both house types we measure at the in-home consultation, draw two or three layouts with costs, and price from a written scope.
Local context
Planning a remodel in Portage Park.
The Portage Park Bungalow Historic District
Part of the neighborhood, roughly bounded by Pensacola, Lockwood, Central and Hutchinson, is a National Register bungalow historic district, listed in 2014 and one of the fifteen bungalow districts the Chicago Bungalow Association counts. National Register listing brings recognition and, for owners who rehabilitate, potential eligibility for a property tax assessment freeze program; it does not add a City permit review of its own. 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.
Commission on Chicago Landmarks permit reviewCity 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 ProgramBungalow resources
The Chicago Bungalow Association, created in 2000, cites 80,000 one and one-half story bungalows in the city and offers free membership, seminars, a contractor directory and how-to resources on adapting a bungalow, including space expansion. Its energy programs offer free home energy services to income-qualified households in ComEd territory. It is a useful first stop before a bungalow kitchen is redesigned.
Chicago Bungalow AssociationMunicipal 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 Portage Park projects we take on.
Every project uses the same design and build team. These pages explain the scope in more depth.
- Small kitchen remodelingBungalow kitchens that stay compact and work harder.
- Open concept remodelingWidening the wall to the dining room, engineered and permitted.
- Custom cabinet designDrawer banks and tall units sized to a narrow plan.
- Chicago kitchen ideas by home typeBungalows and two-flats, with recent projects.
Recent work
Recent work in Portage Park and nearby.
Recent projects completed by the contractors on our team, each labeled with its own location and its contractor.
- 2 photosStreeterville Navy Island Condo Kitchenby MariusSee the project
Bathrooms in Portage Park
Bathroom remodeling in Portage Park.
The original bungalow bathroom is a small room off the hall with a tub, a pedestal sink and the house’s one plumbing stack behind it. A complete remodel keeps the toilet and tub near the stack, rebuilds the floor, which is rarely level after a century, waterproofs a new tub or walk-in shower, and adds the vanity storage, ventilation and lighting the room never had. Heated tile floors are one of the most requested additions in these houses.
Where a family wants a second bathroom, the attic or basement conversions common to bungalows raise plumbing and headroom questions we look at during the consultation. In a two-flat the bathroom shares its stack with the other unit, so the fixtures usually stay put while everything around them is rebuilt.
Investment
Budget considerations in Portage Park.
Bungalow kitchens are small, which keeps cabinetry and countertop quantities down, but the houses are old enough that galvanized supply lines, cast-iron drains, plaster and knob-and-tube remnants are common finds once the walls open. Proposals here usually include more plumbing and electrical updating than a kitchen of the same size in a newer house, and Chicago’s conduit wiring rule applies to every new circuit.
Opening the dining room wall adds engineering and a plan-based permit. 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.
Questions
Questions from Portage Park homeowners.
Can a Portage Park bungalow kitchen be opened to the dining room?
Usually, yes. The wall between them is often load-bearing, so the opening is engineered, permitted through the City’s standard process and built with a beam. It is the most common change we make in these houses, and it is priced as its own line so you can weigh it.
Does the bungalow historic district affect an interior remodel?
National Register listing on its own does not add a City review. Chicago Landmark review applies to designated landmarks and landmark districts, and the City says the features it reviews are typically street-facing exteriors. Interior work is generally outside it; we confirm anything exterior for your address.
Have you worked in Portage Park?
Yes. A compact bungalow kitchen in Portage Park with cream uppers, navy lowers and the original window trim kept is in our gallery, and projects nearby on the Northwest Side are shown on this page.
Do you remodel bathrooms in Portage Park too?
Yes. Complete bathroom remodels in bungalows and two-flats follow the same process as our kitchens, with the plumbing planned around the house’s stack and the floor leveled before tile.
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.
Nearby and related
- All service areasChicago, the North Shore and the western suburbs.
- Remodeling in Jefferson ParkCompact kitchens in solid brick houses.
- Remodeling in Irving ParkKitchens that respect a house with a date on it.
- Remodeling in Albany ParkKitchens in two-flats and river-side bungalows.
- Remodeling in Logan SquareGreystone and two-flat kitchens along the boulevards.
- Remodeling in Lincoln SquareHouses and small buildings between the river and the Brown Line.
- Remodeling in Lincoln ParkKitchens in rowhouses, greystones and condominiums.
- Remodeling in LakeviewCondo galleys, courtyard buildings and three-flats.
- Bathroom remodelingPrimary baths, condo baths, showers and wet rooms.