"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about." Angela Schwindt

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Let there be light!!

Phase 2 is almost complete! The holes are cut and the windows are in. Matt still needs to do some more sealing and trimming of the windows. He also needs to put the window wells in and make sure the water in the window wells drains away from the windows. I love the new windows in the basement. It does not feel like a basement anymore. There is so much light coming in.
We did learn a few lessons during this two week process. Sometimes it pays to pay a little more. Out of about ten places that Matt called to come cut the concrete he only found two companies that would do it. One estimate was really high and the other estimate was really low. Of course we are trying to do this project on a budget so we had the lower priced company come out. Let's just say that this guy finally admitted after cutting the first hole that he had never done this before and it would cost us a lot more to get him to come out and do the second. Well, if we would have known that he had never done that kind of cutting before he would not have done it in the first place. So we immediately called the company that had given us the higher estimate and they came out and you could immediately tell that these were professionals. The first time we ended up with tons of water in our basement (the saws use water) and exhaust fumes throughout the house because the first guy wanted to cut it from the inside. The second guy worked on the outside. We had very little water in the basement and no horrible exhaust fumes. Where the first guy took a day and a half, the second guy took a few hours. The difference in the experiences was amazing. This was definitely one of those "You get what you pay for" jobs.
Well, the drama is over and we are happy with the end result.
I am posting some before and after pics for you to see.






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