We have been reviewing egress options for our basement also. We do not have room to put in larger window wells on the walls where there are windows due to setback issues. Instead we will be adding a door and stairs at the back of the house with the door entering a room that will be used as a bedroom. The VERY rough quote we got for this was in the 10K ballpark due to needing a drain at the bottom and the concrete work. This is in the Seattle area. That seems to line up with the OP's quote of 10.7K. It is frustrating to me overall because our house is the only house on our street that does not have direct egress to the outside from the basement. I cannot understand why the original owner (who we bought from and who built the house himself) did not add a door, especially because they used the basement a lot. One thing to add to the above post is that I was told that egress requirements are not just so you can get out, but also so that a firefighter can get in with all the gear on his back. That cleared things up for me a lot because IMO the requirements make for pretty large openings for your average person to get out.

If the wall is not leaking now, dampproofing or waterproofing a two-foot section won't make any difference. Portland cement parging followed by asphalt cutback is a typical dampproofing. If the cracks are more than surface imperfections, you can patch them with polyurethane injections. In addition or instead, you can use sections of bubble membrane such as Delta MS over the exposed areas. The sand there now is the perfect drainage material. Moisture doesn't linger on that wall looking for the path of least resistance into your basement. This post was edited by worthy on Wed, Oct 9, 13 at 8:44

There are many houses in my neighborhood with lookout windows. We purchased our lot before selecting a builder, but the person who showed us the lot told us we would be able to build a house with lookout windows. When we started talking to builders, it became clear that lookout windows were not an option. I was very disappointed that our windows would all be below grade with window wells, but the lot was still great for us. We ended up with larger than standard windows - 20" instead of 16"??? I can't remember exactly. We also added a larger egress window so that we can add a bedroom when we finish our basement. Lookout windows are definitely more desirable. I would expect some type of compensation if you had agreed to that in the plans. However, for us it was certainly not a deal breaker. I hope you can find a resolution.

Cutting holes in masonry walls seems to be a very high priced business. I got an estimate for cutting a hole in the brick wall of my garage to add a side door, and the estimate was about $8k, which included the lintel, but did not include actually installing a door. Cutting out for the egress window usually involves digging a large trench in front of the wall, and installing a concrete well that is sealed to the wall. I assume they can buy precast wells, but it is still a large structure that may be expensive to purchase and hard to move into place. I know there are specs for how deep and wide it needs to be to meet code. They also need to use a concrete saw to the cut the wall, which is probably at least 8 inches thick. It is very physical labor, and making cuts in concrete walls is not easy because you have to hold a very heavy saw vertically or horizontally while cutting, and you don't want it to get away from you and cut the wrong thing (like yourself). Bruce