I know… I know… I’ve owed you this blog post for some time. However, I really wanted to give you all the details after we lived with the new facade and our amazing PINKYS IRON door. After all we live in one of the craziest climates in the United States. From hot to cold, rain to sunshine, and all the snowmageddon storms in between. I wanted to make sure that our Pinky’s Door withstood all the climate change, after all it is a glass door. I also wanted to make sure our brick didn’t fade, chip, etc.

Now that we are about 18 months into our entire outside remodel… I can tell you one thing. I LOVE IT! Look at the difference of the house when we purchased it, and wait till you see it today. For safety and privacy reasons I didn’t photograph the entire house, and what it looks like now. However… I think you will get the idea from the details that I will share with you.

In January 2021, while on vacation in Miami we started the remodeling. It was amazing, took about two weeks, the exact time we were away. After several quotes and considerations from different companies we decided to go with Nawkaw for the painting (it’s actually staining), part and used Hardie Board for all the siding. We had to change all the gutters, soffit and fascia to black as well. Along with some windows and of course our door. I’ll get to that shortly.

The process was actually easy and seamless. Especially since we weren’t there and I had a project manager supervising the entire thing. In fact the “work in progress” photos above are daily updates from him.

We decided to go with Nawkaw for the brick staining for several reasons. Painting brick is much cheaper but it can peel. chip and has to be retouched often. Especially from the brutal snow. Most of the painters I interviewed only gave me a one year guarantee, where Nawkaw gave me 10 years and free touch ups until then. They also stain the brick, because it’s porous and the longevity of this process is much longer. The company is also known for restoring historical buildings so in my eyes they were the perfect choice. Now… I will be fully transparent. This process cost about two times more than the other quotes I got. But after thinking about it, I knew it was the right decision since I wouldn’t have to pay for yearly touch ups and maintenance.

Holy difference a door makes!

Now let’s talk about the icing on the cake and by icing I mean my gorgeous, custom, thermally broken PINKYS IRON DOOR! Let’s me first start by saying that I’ve always been obsessed with white homes and black details. If you’ve followed me for a while you know this. I also love a ton of light…after all, my background is in photography which means drawing with light. I love light and I’ve always loved glass doors. You don’t see many iron doors in midwest at all. They’re more common in California and Arizona. I figured.. why not try? I did a ton of research, reached out to every iron window and door manufacturer in Chicago and midwest and everyone told me it was impossible. They said you can make a door inside the house out of glass but not on the outside since it wound’t withstand our brutal Chicago winters. Whenever I hear that, makes me want it even more. I knew that it wasn’t impossible and I was so lucky to find Pinky’s. Thanks to one of my followers that build a custom home in Naperville and installed one of these gorgeous doors.

Now that we’ve lived with this door for over a year, 14 months to be exact. I can tell you that it’s perfect. The house stayed warm, there was zero condensation, and the windows stayed crystal clear even in the freezing months. If you do live in a cold weather climate you have to get the thermablasted door or what they call the thermally broken cold weather door. It’s a double glass door and took about 17 weeks to make. It arrived on a truck, hand delivered from California and I had my installers install it. I also highly suggest buying the locks directly from Pinky’s We didn’t do it because we wanted digital locks but honestly, it was a very challenging experience. If you’re worried about privacy, Pinky’s Iron Doors also offers a variety of glass. We live in a private area so this wasn’t an issue for us. I can’t rave enough about this process and the difference it made in my home.

As you can see this door has become the focal point of so many events, memorable moments and photo ops!

Hope you guys enjoy this post and our home as much as we do… and if you’re thinking of changing things up, I say GO FOR IT!