Let me take you along to show you how we demoed an old well house shed to expose a beautiful vintage brick well.
If you read my last blog post, you will know we just took down a big albatross of a cabinet on our back porch. It opened the whole thing up and changed the entire look and view of the porch. Now it’s time to remove this well house. Come see how exposing this vintage brick well brings so much charm to a once drab space.
Oh, but first, if you haven’t read my last post yet, pause, and head over and read that first…. Back Porch Makeover-Part 1
follow me along…
This well house was attached to the back side of the above mentioned cabinet. Both were major eye sores to us and had to go.
Let me take you inside and show you what we were working with.
Inside the metal and lattice covered frumpy shed was this beauty.
The first time we came to look at this house and we peeked inside, I knew we had to highlight the beauty of this thing.
I am obsessed with old brick. The look, the texture, the history. Not much gets better than old brick. It might not look like much to some, but I see the history and the charm of a time before running water was a thing.
Let’s Demo
It’s time to take this ugly shed apart and get this brick beauty into the light. Let’s Go!
My boys wanted to get in on the action and help out. They hadn’t really been able to help too much with the renovations of our house thus far. Sanding and carrying scraps isn’t all that fun. It’s a major drag and accompanied by a lot of grunts and deep breathes. So this was the perfect time for them to help out.
We got them some screw guns and off they went.
Do you recall me saying how they used about 100,000 and 1 nails on the porch cabinet? Well there’s a running theme going on here. All the lattice was held up with about 90,000 and 1 screws, so not quite as many as the cabinets.
We wanted to save all the sheet metal since it was in really good shape. We have another project in mind that it would be perfect for. After we got the lattice down, we were then able start to unscrewing the metal.
While we were taking the metal down we noticed we had missed a few screws. My husband being the he-man he is, decided to just give a good yank on the metal to release the remaining screws from the wood frame. The process was working with no problems, until we heard my oldest son yell “There’s a snake by your hand!!” My husband let go and slowly peeled back the half loose metal to find a pissed off baby snake. Where the snake was located, would have placed my husband’s hand about an inch at most away from it. Right up in that snake’s grill. The project had a slight delay while we tracked down the snake and sent it on its way.
A nice Little Discovery
After the snake hoopla, we finally got back to work. Once the sheet metal was off we noticed it had some old tongue and groove wood walls.
They were white and chippy, which I thought was super cute. We assume the original well house was made of wood. Delicious! Somewhere down the line, they covered it with metal to keep it from deteriorating more. Of course, we took the wood slats off carefully, so I could use them somewhere else.
The First look
After we got everything removed from around the well, we were finally able to fully see it in all its glory.
I absolutely love the brick on this well! There are some spots we will have to repair the mortar at, but overall it’s in great shape.
There was a piece of metal on top that covered the opening down into the well. We removed it to peek inside and we spotted some names and a date carved into the concrete top.
Can you believe it says 1955? That is so amazing. I just love it.
We don’t know if 1955 is when they redid the well or when the well was built. I believe it was when the well was redone. We do know that the Lawlis family lived here for quite some time and were the owners prior to the 1960’s. The Lawlis mother lived here until right before her death and this well was her only water source. She did not have any plumbing coming into the house.
A Nice suprise… Reusing the white tongue and groove
In order to wrap this project up, I had needed to run to town to grab some supplies. I came back to my husband and my youngest son hard at work hanging the old chippy white wood we have saved off the well house. They hung it up behind the well as a nice weathered wood backdrop.
He attached them to the studs we had left to make up his grilling station. I think he made the right decision doing this. I can see that helping to add character to what I have planned for this well area.
Exposed! We have a Vintage Brick Well
I’m so glad to have that well house taken down. It opens up this area and makes such a difference. I am most excited about finding those dates on the well. Since we don’t know when this house was built, this gives us an idea of how old the original part of the house might be. Now we know we are looking at 1955 or earlier.
Once again we aren’t fully done with this project. We have plans on how we are going to style this whole well area after we get the porch painted. It’s too damn hot in this Texas heat to be doing any projects outside right now. Stay tuned for when we do get this area all prettified!
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