How to read this. Planning-grade 2026 estimates at Morris County labor — not bids.
Unlike a finishes-only project, this is a build: a full second story over the family-room
wing (the new primary suite), the attic finished as a half-story under a new, steeper roof, a whole-house
re-clad in the style's envelope, and the interiors brought to the vision. Everything visible in the
renderings is here except movable furniture; contractor overhead is embedded in the line
pricing (they're priced as contractor-quoted jobs), with design, permits and contingency stacked separately.
All four visions share the identical structural program — same footprint, same new floor area — and price
from the same zoning math, done and as-of-right: no variances
(§165-14; ≈2,850 countable sf of 3,764 allowed).
The $800K governor. The owner's Phase-1 budget is $800K all-in, then pause and
save. The tables below price the FULL Phase-1 vision honestly — the low band is a well-bid project,
the high band is bids running hot. To govern to $800K: every vision already defers the garage, window
treatments, basement, the rear-yard restyle and the true premium roof finish (slate for II, zinc
standing-seam for IV — Phase 1 builds both roof shapes in ordinary architectural shingle from the start) to
Phase 2 (tabled below); the next lever is the attic finish — the new roof structure gets built
regardless (the addition demands it), but the studio's interior fit-out can wait a season
(−$35–50k all-in) since the walk-up stair already exists. Two styles also carry one small
signature structural line that is its own next deferral if bids still run hot: III's is the
widow's-walk rail — already close to target even fully built; IV's is the
mansard's flat-topped dormers, landing it ≈$805–830K. I clears the
target outright at the low band; II is the stucco-and-slate, brick-and-limestone finish
level itself that carries the cost (no single line item to cut) — the standard attic deferral lands its low
band ≈$826K, with the rest of the gap closed by ordinary bid negotiation rather than a scope cut.
I · Shingle Style
Weathered cedar · white trim · fieldstone · forever-summer
II · French Normandy
Stucco · brick & limestone · slate · wood door
III · Victorian Contemporary
Charcoal board-and-batten · black steel · the widow's walk
IV · French Contemporary
Pale limestone · black steel · the zinc mansard
Soft costs — the stack on top of construction
Phase 2 — the pause-and-save list (not in the totals above)
Wing roof off, new second-story plate and roof, attic roof rebuild with dormers (mansard framing for IV), chimney extension, weather-in. Family moves out for this stretch.
Walk, beds, lamp post; the rear-yard restyle is Phase 2 by design.
Front landscape
2–4 weeks
3–5 weeks
2–4 weeks
3–5 weeks
Realistic calendar, overlapped
8–11 months
10–14 months
8–11 months
10–14 months
Where each vision lands. The house is bought at $1.2M with ~1,900 sf; the program delivers
~2,900 sf above grade (plus the finished basement ≈ 3,530 sf of living space), 4 bedrooms + attic studio,
3½ baths and a primary suite. Renovated 3,000+ sf colonials within walking distance of Chatham's
Midtown Direct station have been trading around $550–$650/sf — call it $1.75–2.1M
for the finished article. Basis after Phase 1: $1.2M + (Shingle),
(Normandy), (Victorian Contemp.) or
(French Contemp.). Shingle and Victorian Contemporary are inside-the-band plays
with room to spare — the pared-back materials of III price closest to I despite the dramatic silhouette;
Normandy and French Contemporary run to the top of the band and past it — the stucco, brick, limestone and
slate finish level (and, for IV, the mansard roof form) price like the love-letter versions they are. All
four keep the 2021 kitchen, the 2019 porch and the 2020 outdoor room doing exactly what they were built to
do.