it’s a pretty solid foundation circling the house doubt that cutting a hole will have much impact on the rest of the house.
yea a small amount of dirt will need to be dug.
it’s my moms house that has a 10 year old apartment addition built on the second floor and a small in-law apartment in the basement.
I want to move in upstairs to help my mom with the mortgage and save some $$$ myself.
my 18 yr old niece has been hogging the upstairs for a while now and my plan is to ship her down to the basement apartment but the one prob is that the bedroom has no window and it can get pretty stuffy down there.
Another FReeper had a point about finding some Mexicans...
Around here you cannot have a legal bedroom without window egress that a nice big adult can leave.
Does the house already have access to the outside from the basement? Isn’t that common in New England? If the real/only issue is stuffiness and not view or escape, you might want to look at having an exhaust type fan put in, instead of the window. Depending on the home’s layout for the basement and first floor, you might be able to have a fan put in the lower first floor, which is vented to/from the basement. Just another thought.
You may also need a closet (not that expensive if you have space) for code. You probably need to start by looking for what the inspectors will require, and work backwards toward what it is going to cost.
A lot of time you can do interior work without bothering code enforcement, but when you start digging out below grade and cutting through structural concrete, you are a lot more likely to have interactions with them.
I would recommend getting a legitimate licensed contractor, not some day laborers from outside of Home Depot.
I think it is important to get a good job done, otherwise you will regret, have problems and will cost you more later.
If you have full access to the house now, get some estimates from legitimate local contractors.