Kitchens
Ranges designed first, islands that earn their keep — built for people who cook.
Design-build studio · Birchwood Hills, Ill.
The Orchard Court TudorKitchen + butler's pantry, done right.View project →
Crafting modern homes with Purpose.
Kitchens, additions, and whole-house remodels for the older streets of Birchwood Hills — one studio, one contract, one number you can trust before demolition day.
41Houses since 2013
1 crewOurs, not a rotation
0Change-order surprises
96%Came by referral
Approach
Your vision, our build.
Most remodels go wrong in the gap — the architect draws, the builder bids, and nobody owns the number in between. We closed the gap: the person who designs your kitchen prices it, and the person who prices it builds it.
Listen & measure
We walk the house with you and measure everything — including how you actually live in it.
Design & price together
Drawings and dollars move in step. You never fall in love with something you can't afford.
Build with our own crew
Same lead carpenter from demo to doorknobs. It's a jobsite for a while; it's still your house.
The walkthrough
We're done when you say we're done. The punch list is ours to chase, not yours to nag about.
What we do.
Design and build, under one roof.
When the drawing says three-piece crown, the invoice already knew. We take on eight projects a year — that's not scarcity marketing; that's how many a studio can do carefully.
Additions
Garden rooms and bump-outs that look like the house always had them.
Whole-house remodels
Opened end to end — without losing the character that made you buy it.
Millwork & character
We match profiles; we don't erase them. Quarter-sawn oak, three-piece crown.
The studio
Three people own your project.
Nora Ashby
Principal · DesignerTwenty-two years drawing old houses. Nora designs every project, prices every project, and signs every number before a client sees it. That last part is policy, not personality.
Dan Kessler
Project ManagerDan runs the schedule, the subs, and the Friday note that tells you exactly where your house stands. He reads every word of it before it goes out, because his name is on it.
Marcus Vail
Lead CarpenterMarcus has hung doors in half the pre-war houses in Birchwood Hills. He's on your job from demo to doorknobs, and he sweeps the site every night. Ask our clients; they mention the sweeping.
the 1926 Tudor on Orchard Court
the Linden Avenue four-square, garden room added
the Waverly Lane colonial, suite over the garage
the Hemlock Road ranch, opened end to end
The workflow
The Studio Desk.
Two drawers from our project desk: the brief that starts every job, and the selections board that keeps one on schedule. The AI reads, sorts, and drafts. Nora approves every scope and every dollar; Dan approves every client note. Nothing reaches a client unsigned.
Demo data — nothing here is realDrawer 1
What the desk read — then the drafted scope
Read — nothing drafted yet
Budget banda band, not a bid — the fixed price comes out of design
Selections board — Orchard Court kitchen
Every tile, fixture, and finish decision on one board, each with its decide-by date and its real lead time. The desk flags anything that could sink the schedule. Mark a decision made and watch the board settle.
The Friday note
Every Friday the desk reads the site log and the selections board and drafts the client update. Dan reads it, fixes what's off, and sends it. Clients say the Friday note is why they hired us twice.
Draft — Dan reads it before it sends
The human gate
Scopes, budget bands, and client notes all pause at a person — Nora on every number, Dan on every note. Nothing reaches a client unsigned.
AI may
Read a brief and pull out the house, rooms, and how you live; assemble a phased scope from the studio playbook; watch lead times against the schedule; draft every update.
AI may not
Quote a price on its own, promise a start date, order a faucet, or email a client. It drafts; the studio decides.
Data boundary
Everything here is invented and stays in your browser. No brief, name, or number is uploaded or stored anywhere.
How this demo works
Honest about the machine.
The Studio Desk is a working demonstration, not a picture of one. It genuinely parses whatever you type into the brief — "1926 Tudor," "kitchen and butler's pantry," "we cook seriously" — then assembles a phased scope and a budget band from the studio's playbook. In production those steps run through a small language model behind DID's demo backend; here, rule-based versions answer so the page works anywhere, with no keys and no account.
What stays with a person: every decision. The principal approves every scope and every dollar figure before a client sees it, and the project manager signs every Friday note. And to say it plainly — the studio, the houses, the people, and every number on this page are fictional.