The first time we showed our parents the picture of the ranch, they offered nothing but support, encouragement and endless joy for us. Of course this was not a beautiful and flawless new construction they wish we had bought, but being house owners themselves, our parents understood the value of a well-built old home. Their eyes were all on the positive features about our ranch (and also because they love us).
But one thing both side of our parents asked (with reasonable amount of the hesitation), was “what are these rusted metal thingy sticking out of the ground? ”
It took us a while to realize that they were asking about the window wells. It made us realize that how quickly we got used to these window wells. The questions from our folks reminded us (very much needed) how these window wells stood out to us when we first laid our eyes on this house, and to other people who see the house for the first time.
With all the other high-priority to-dos in the store, something cosmetic like window wells just have to take a back seat. But we did not forgot them. These rusty wells are on our minds every task we tackle. We lowered the soil around them when we removed the front flower bed, we demo-ed the sagging front porch in order to replace one of them properly, and we cleared out vegetation during the HVAC installation. Hey, we even replaced one ourselves during the construction of our new back patio!
Successfully replaced a window well ourselves really taught us a lot. We are now fully confidence that we could do a good job replacing them ourselves, and we are now sure that the 24″ plastic well and the ridge, plastic cover are perfect fits for our basement windows.
We also realized that replacing these wells is a task we need to complete before grading around our foundations. Since we need to finish the grading before winter, which can be early as October for Colorado, replacing window wells floats right on top of our to-do list.
Besides the one for basement utility room, which we replaced a few weeks ago, there are six more we need to tackle:
Above are the two window wells on the northern side of the house. The two windows you are looking at are for the two bedrooms in the basement. We would like to get as much sunlight from these windows as possible, so the goal is to put the wells as low as possible into the ground.
And then we realized – these two window wells are not functional! They sat directly ON the soil. All the water came in the well directly flew out of the well from the bottom to the surface of the lawn, which does not make much sense. You know what this means – what if we just do not use window wells on these two windows?
It sounded scary at the beginning, but after thought it through, we could see no harm done. So Slav removed the wells and we were sooo pleased that how much natural light streamed into these windows! And the best part? The cost of dealing with these two window wells is ZERO!
So on this side of the yard, we went from this:
to this:
This left us four more windows to deal with – the one used to be buried in the old flower bed:
The one used to sit in the old front porch:
And two at the back of the house:
Yeah. They look baaaaad…
The two wells at the back are almost sitting above the soil as well. But the difference between these wells and the ones on the northern side, is that the soil level on the northern side is already near where they should be for adequate drainage, but the soil near the back of the house needs to be built up. So the two back wells cannot be eliminated. However, we can set them a bit lower into the ground, which allows more light into these windows.
Once the plan is set, I went to the Home Depot and got four sets of window wells and covers, and Slav started digging the old ones out:
It took him about 4 hours to remove the old wells and dig out these big enough area for the new wells:
So. Rusty!
When we replaced our patio window well last time, the most time consuming part is to drill holes into the concrete foundations. We just do not have the right drill for it and it took forever. So this time, with four wells for installation, we decided to pick up a hammer drill for the job. While Slav was in the store picking up the drill, I cleaned the windows and marked the drill holes with measuring square and levels.
With the new drill, Slav was able to put on all four wells in just an hour:
Then we back-filled, again, with me supporting the wells from the inside just like last time. It took us a few more hours to level the ground, until it was dark. But the result was well worth it!
It was pretty dusty during our work. Charlie boy was happy to enjoy a drink after the dust had settled:
These window wells really look good! By burying three out of four wells deeper, the basement bedrooms became so much brighter. The next step is to finish grading around the house perimeters and use pretty gravel to dress up the bare ground around the house. And guess what? Dirt and gravel will be delivered to our door tomorrow morning! Our curb appeal is about to get reaaaaaal-good!
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