Investing in a basement window well is one way to look after your loved ones.

2008 was a rough year for a lot of Americans – but for Dave Buchanan, it was harder than most.

That was the year he was due to retire, and unfortunately cashing in his 401k coincided with one of the worst stock market crashes in American history.

“I ended up getting less out of my 401k than what I’d paid into it,” Dave explains. “I was gutted.”

Fortunately, Dave’s canny financial planning meant that he and his wife weren’t reduced to eating Ramen noodles as a result of their altered financial circumstances – but it did change a lot of the plans Dave had for the future.

“We’d hoped to travel more, maybe buy an RV,” Dave admits, “but those plans got shelved.” Another ambition they’d had was also impacted.

“We’d hoped to leave a good inheritance for the kids,” Dave explains. “But that also didn’t turn out the way we’d planned.”

Dave and his wife had paid off their home a few years earlier, but even the value of that was hit hard by the recession. However, it was through their home that Dave planned to recoup some of their devastating losses.

“After speaking to a few financial advisers, I developed a plan,” Dave explains. “Instead of saving up my money to leave as an inheritance, I thought it would be smarter to reinvest it.”

And that reinvestment took the form of a basement remodel.

“We had a large basement in our home,” Dave explains, “but it was unfinished. After talking to a few people, we figured that a great way to get a return on the cash we did have was to spend it on finishing up the basement.”

Refurbishing the basement promised to add another 650 square feet to Dave’s house; and that translated to a major bump in their property value.

“The only challenge was that we needed the basement to be up to code.” Originally built in the 1940s, Dave’s house had a basement that lacked the safety basics modern homes get built with. One such essential was a “means of egress” – an emergency exit in the event of a fire or disaster.

“We were daunted at the cost of putting in a basement window well and egress window,” Dave admits. “It looked like an awful lot of expense and work.”

Fortunately, that’s where we came in. Our Complete Egress Kits include everything needed to complete an egress window installation – and are guaranteed to be code compliant.