Let There Be Light in the Basement

Today we had the first of three home improve- ment projects done that we hope to take care of this fall. One of the least attractive features of our house was the "coal bin cover" that was a plywood board fastened over the opening for the former coal chute. It was warped and it leaked; it was insecure and that part of the basement was, well as dark as a coal bin. Workers removed the metal frame (my did those sparks fly) leaving us a good look at how our 16-inch thick stone basement wall meets the brick walls of the house.

The finished product from the outside. The mortar will lighten to almost white when it is completely dry. The workers smoothed everything off on the inside as well. The window was prefabricated at the shop and then installed by the same people who made it. We wanted a vent because this is a natural room for storage (it has shelves in it already) and also it's a natural tornado shelter as well.

From the inside view of our former coal bin, it's obvious that the blocks diffuse the light enough so that no one can see in to any great detail, yet the light is a bonus. We are really pleased.







We had all four windows on the north side of the basement converted to glass blocks, as well. The vented one is in the basement "bathroom" making that space more pleasant. In addition to looking better, these are more secure than the old casement windows with wood-framed storm windows. At least one of those storm windows was broken, by persons unknown, this spring.


Looking inside out from the basement, a warm glow from our neighbor's brick house will lighten the space especially during the winter. We got the estimate two weeks ago. The workers arrived at 8 this morning and were through by 2 p.m. They cleaned up and hauled everything away. They were pleasant and knew their job very well. We would recommend the company, Glass Blocks of St. Louis, to anyone interested in a quality glass block job. Theirs wasn't the lowest bid we got, but our gut instincts told us the man who did the measuring and estimating knew the business better than the other company's rep, and today's experience proved our judgment right, we think.