Susan’s story begins like that of many Northbrook homeowners. Her house, a charming but aging split-level built in 1978, had original single-pane aluminum windows. In summer, the AC ran endlessly. In winter, she could feel cold air rolling off the glass like a waterfall. Worse, the master bedroom’s sliding patio door had become so stubborn that she needed both hands and a hip-check to open it.
“I thought all windows were the same,” Susan admits. “I almost bought from a big-box store. But then my neighbor, a retired architect, said: ‘Don’t buy a window. Invest in an assembly —frame, glass, gas fill, and installation. Go see Optimum in Northbrook.’” optimum windows and doors northbrook
Susan chose —double-hung with foam-filled frames and a composite reinforcement that prevents warping. For her patio door, she selected a Soft-Lite sliding glass door with a fiberglass-reinforced sill, designed to withstand Northbrook’s freeze-thaw cycles. Susan’s story begins like that of many Northbrook
When Optimum’s lead installer, Mike Cerone, ran the test on Susan’s house, the results were sobering: her home’s air changes per hour (ACH) was 0.85—far above the recommended 0.35 for energy efficiency. “You’re heating the outdoors,” Mike told her. “But we can fix that.” In winter, she could feel cold air rolling
For Northbrook homeowners facing the same drafty windows or stubborn doors, Optimum Windows and Doors offers a path forward: not as the cheapest option, but as the most rational. In a town where homes are long-term investments and winter is a relentless teacher, that’s a story worth remembering.
By appointment only, with virtual and in-home consultations. Specializing in high-efficiency, triple-pane, and custom-fit solutions for North Shore homes.
On a biting January morning in Northbrook, Illinois, Susan Mikos poured her coffee and did something she’d avoided for five winters: she stood next to her living room window without shivering. The draft was gone. The thin layer of frost that used to creep along the sill like a silent intruder had vanished. The change wasn’t magic—it was the result of a careful decision she’d made the previous fall, a decision that led her to a modest showroom off Skokie Boulevard called Optimum Windows and Doors .
