One wall changes the whole house
In a brick ranch, removing the kitchen wall does more than any other single move. It is a beam and a permit, and it is worth doing properly.
Morton Grove, Illinois
Remodeling in Morton Grove, Illinois
Morton Grove is where Revive 360 Renovations keeps its second office, so it is a village we are in constantly. The housing is largely post-war — ranches, split-levels and Cape Cods — and most of the work here is about making those plans feel open without rebuilding the house.
Licensed, Bonded & Insured
Suburb
Morton Grove, IL
Typical housing
Post-war brick ranches & bungalows
Permits issued by
Village of Morton Grove
Nearest office
N. Halsted St., Chicago
Morton Grove, Illinois
Renovating Homes in Morton Grove
Morton Grove filled in mostly after the Second World War, and the housing shows it. Brick ranches, split-levels, Cape Cods and Georgians built between the late 1940s and the 1960s, on regular lots along quiet residential streets, with forest preserve and the North Branch corridor along the western edge.
Those houses were built solidly, but to a plan that separated everything. A kitchen closed off from the dining room, a living room walled away from both, bedrooms sized for the era, and one or one-and-a-half bathrooms serving the whole house. Basements are usually full but unfinished or finished decades ago in a way nobody wants now.
So the work is fairly consistent: taking down the wall between kitchen and dining room, rebuilding kitchens and bathrooms that are original or close to it, finishing the lower level into genuine living space, and adding a second full bathroom where the house only has one. It is unglamorous work that changes how a house feels more than a cosmetic refresh ever does.
Your Building
Find your building, and you will find your project
Morton Grove is mostly solid post-war brick on regular lots. The houses are sound; it is the plans and the services that have dated.
| Era and building type | What you find inside | What a whole-home project becomes |
|---|---|---|
| 1920–1945 — early bungalows | Rooms in a line, a small rear kitchen, a single bathroom, and an attic left unfinished. | Opening the rear and adding a second bathroom, with the attic brought into use where the roof allows. |
| 1950–1970 — brick ranches | A single floor, a wide but shallow plan, a kitchen closed off from the living room, and a full basement underneath all of it. | Removing the kitchen wall and using the basement properly. The most common Morton Grove project by some distance. |
| 1960–1980 — split-levels | Half-flights between living space, bedrooms and a lower family room, with services threaded between the levels. | A plan that works better than it looks, provided the service routes between levels are understood before anything is moved. |
| 1990–today — rebuilds and extensions | Modern structure and service added to an older brick core. | Finish-led, with the junction between the original house and the addition needing the most attention. |
Inside The Building
What you are actually working inside
Cut through a typical Morton Grove house and the six things that decide a whole-home project are visible at once. Red marks what is shared or fixed.
Scroll the drawing sideways →
- 1
A single wet core
Kitchen and bathrooms sit close together and share one route. Keeping them near it is what keeps a ranch remodel proportionate.
- 2
The wall between kitchen and living room
In a brick ranch it is usually the one that matters. Taking it out is the change that transforms the house.
- 3
Panel, furnace and water heater
All in the basement, all competing for the same corner. Their positions decide where a basement bathroom or laundry can go.
- 4
The driveway and the garage
Regular lots with real off-street space. It is why work here stages easily and stays tidy.
- 5
A full basement under everything
Services rerun from below rather than through finished ceilings, and the obvious place for the extra living space.
- 6
A shallow roof void
A low ranch pitch leaves little depth for new ventilation runs. It is designed around early.
In Morton Grove
Room-by-Room in Morton Grove
What the work actually involves here: the housing stock, who issues the permit, and what the budget turns on.
Bathroom Remodeling in Morton Grove
Morton Grove is one of the most consistent housing stocks we work in — brick ranches and Georgians from the 1950s. That consistency is why the prices here are the most predictable on our list.
Read more →Kitchen Remodeling in Morton Grove
A Morton Grove ranch kitchen is closed off from the rest of the house by a wall that almost never carries anything. Opening it is the cheapest transformation available in this housing.
Read more →
What We Do
Remodeling Services for Morton Grove Homes
Most projects here combine more than one of these. Each links through to the full service page.
Kitchen Remodeling
Full kitchen remodels, from opening up a closed-off layout to cabinetry, countertops, tile and the plumbing and electrical work behind them.
View service →Bathroom Remodeling
Bathroom remodels that make small, older layouts work harder: waterproofing, tile, vanities, fixtures and shower or tub replacement.
View service →Custom Kitchen Cabinets
Cabinetry built and fitted to the room rather than the other way round, including scribing to walls that are rarely square.
View service →Walk-In Shower Installation
Replacing an unused tub or a dated enclosure with a level-access shower, properly waterproofed and tiled.
View service →On Site
What makes remodeling here different
These are the conditions that decide the sequence and the contingency on a whole-home job in Morton Grove. We plan around them rather than discover them.
The basement is the second house
Full basements under almost everything here. Most of the added living space in a Morton Grove project comes from below grade rather than from an addition.
A low roof over a wide plan
Ranch pitches leave little room for ductwork. Where ventilation can run often decides the bathroom layout rather than the other way round.
Sized for a smaller life
A 1950s service was not planned around a modern kitchen plus a finished basement. It is upgraded once, at the start.
Village review, prepared once
Morton Grove reviews the scope before work begins. A complete first submission saves more time than anything else in the programme.
Easy site, occupied house
The logistics here are simple. The real constraint is that the family is usually still living in the house, on one floor.
Permits
Which permit does your project need?
The question every Morton Grove homeowner asks first, answered before you commit to anything. Follow your own project across.
Scroll the chart sideways →
This is the route, not a ruling. Scope decides it and the village has the final say, so we confirm which branch your project sits on in writing before any money is committed.
Where It Goes
Where the money actually goes
No two Morton Grove houses price the same, so this is an order rather than a number: the lines that pull hardest on a whole-home budget here, largest first.
Cabinetry and built-in joinery
The largest line, and in a ranch with a newly opened plan it is also what gives the single space its structure.
Labour and project management
Trades, supervision and sequencing around a family living on one floor throughout.
Structural work and the basement
The beam where the kitchen wall comes out, and the framing, egress and damp work that turn a basement into living space.
Surfaces: stone, tile and flooring
Countertops, tile and flooring run continuously across an open plan, so quantity rises with the openness.
Fixtures, appliances and lighting
The widest spread on the list, and the easiest to settle last.
Permits, protection and insurance
Village permits, floor protection and dust containment. The smallest line and never worth cutting.
This is the order these lines typically fall in on a whole-home project in Morton Grove, not a breakdown of your project. Your figures come from a site visit and a scope, and nowhere else.
Coverage
Where we work in Morton Grove
Morton Grove is not one place. These are the parts of it we are in most often.
Downtown Morton GroveEast Morton GroveWest Morton GroveThe Harrer Park areaThe Dempster Street corridor
Planning a Renovation in Morton Grove?
Tell us about the property and what you want to change. We will set up a consultation, walk the space, and come back with a scope, a schedule and a price.
FAQ
Morton Grove Remodeling FAQs
Is Revive 360 Renovations based in Morton Grove?
We keep a second office in Morton Grove alongside our Chicago office on N. Halsted Street. It puts us close to most of the Northwest suburbs we serve, which makes site visits, walkthroughs and day-to-day supervision on projects in this area straightforward.
Can the kitchen wall be removed in a ranch or split-level?
Often yes, but it depends on whether that wall carries load. Many do in houses of this type. Removing one means installing a correctly sized beam and pulling a permit, which affects both cost and schedule. We confirm the structure before the layout is finalised.
What does it cost to finish a Morton Grove basement?
It depends mostly on what is already there: ceiling height, whether the space is dry, where the mechanicals sit, and whether a bathroom is part of the plan. We look at drainage and any water history first, because framing and finishing over an unresolved moisture problem is money spent twice.
Do 1950s and 60s houses need electrical upgrades?
Frequently. Panels and service from that era were sized for a very different set of appliances and loads. It does not always require a full rewire, but a kitchen or bathroom renovation is the sensible point to bring service capacity up while everything is accessible.
How do I get a project started in Morton Grove?
Tell us the address and what you want to change. Being close by, we can usually walk the house quickly, check the structure and systems that will drive scope, confirm what permits apply, and come back with a plan, schedule and price before you commit to anything.