HI, I dont know what is on the rim, unfortunately. There is a modest amount of heat coming from a single vent near the ceiling. It is inadequate to heat the room. I had hoped that the wall and foundation insulation would be better at keeping the heat that does come into the room. I'll try to dig up what I can at the foundation. It goes down about 4 feet. What kind of waterproofing do you recommend? And what kind of rigid do you recommend? I see some corning drain-mat in another post. Should I add that and backfill w/ gravel? I appreciate the helpful comments. Thanks a bunch. This is not a good situation to be in.

Don't feel bad about calling too many contractors. You want to have 3 good bids. That means the bids you consider are from contractors that you would really want to work with. If you take away 2 of the 3 bids because you don't feel the contractor is right for you, make more calls until you have at least 2 solid, comparable bids. To find these good contractors, you will need to actively seek recommendations from friends, neighbors, church people, or some sort of community support network that you belong to. To call blindly, or by looking for advertisements, listings, etc., will not get you in contact with the right contractor. The best quality contractors with the most competitive prices do not spend money on advertising, or try to solicit for bids. This would raise their cost of business significantly. Instead, they have a steady supply of work lined up from referrals. For that they can offer a very competitive price. Best indication of quality is to check on some work the guy did a couple of years back. That is why referrals are the best. The person referring you can show you something the contractor did.

It isn't "getting busted" by the inspector you need to worry about either, its the liability factor, the LONG TERM liability factor! If you sell that home in say 10 years and another 10 go by and God forbid there's a fire and someone dies, THAT is a multi-million dollar lawsuit then and NO your homeowners usually will not cover unpermitted and thus illegal work done, which will then wipe you out financially, unless you have a few mil laying around to pay off the plaintiffs! Even if an electrician does the job right, there is still a chance things can go wrong. Nothing in life is guaranteed. If you know what you are doing and do the job right, it is not any different than an electrician. You have to know your limits though (installing a new panel for example). That being said, permits are there to protect the homeowner and to ensure the contractor (or the homeowner) does the job correctly. So they are a good thing. In general, when a contractor does not want to apply for permit that is a big red flag because they may try to do shoddy work and there is no one to check on it. As far as safety goes, the contractor could probably wire it fine, he simply is not licensed so an inspector in your location might not look at it even if the wiring was good. Wiring a new addition is not rocket science btw (make a plan, run the wire, finishing). Many places dont require a licensed electrician for remodels, but with a permit, it is still inspected whether you or a contractor did the work. Even if you did the electrical and something failed on the next homeowner, houses are for sale as-is. If the job was done correctly they wont be able to come after you unless you did something intentionally to damage the house before the closing AND they can prove that it was your intent to do the damage. Stop fear mongering.

meaning, it's not his fault the tiles were glued on the mesh incorrectly. everyone that commented up top said what a horrible job he did installing them because they were crooked. that's why I said, "Hang on". I was letting everyone know that these sheets of mosaics often come crooked. that's what I meant by not his fault. and for the fourth damn time, yes, the installer should have done a few of them by hand. However, should he have taken each and every tile off the sheet and done them one by one??? uh, no. That's the meaning of, "not his fault". Do you actually expect him to do that? Who is in charge of this project? Why didn't they pay attention to how screwed up the tiles were on the sheet? why didn't that person know enough to catch it, advise the homeowner or give instructions to the installer to do what needed to be done?? You're faulting the wrong person. OP hired a company to do the entire kitchen. they are using one of their 'tile guys' on staff. Sometimes you luck out and get someone who's good. Most times you get someone who doesn't speak English and only installs what they're given, without thinking outside the box. they just figure, "this is what boss gave me to put up, i put it up. not my fault if they were crooked". OP said this was a 25K job. how much of that went to the tile install, I do not know. I also think, overall, it's a decent job. there are a few tiles that are off and should be fixed, but if that's all there is, then I wouldn't do a tear out. The way everyone was acting about his install was a bit much. We've all seen horrible tile jobs on here and this is not one of them.