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Built this last summer (2012).

At the time my daughter was still just one and my son was 4. This window well is just feet from from the front door and is a good 5 feet deep with no way out. So easily enough it was something to worry about with those kids running around. Also i did have a few chickens stuck down there before it was built.

I built it entirely out of cedar. I used three lag screws for the two, front 4×4 posts. Against the house i just used 2×4s with some decking screws. The right side of the railing is actually a gate to be used as a fire escape or just getting in the well to clean out the leaves and such. When it's closed you really can't tell at all that it is a gate and i'm very happy with how easily it opens even in the winter with a lot of snow. The design spacing of the spindles was pretty easy. I used one of the 2×2 post scraps for the narrow spacing and the 4×4 post scraps for the wide spacing.

Only took us the day to complete. This summer I will be applying some sealer. I still need to figure out what to use as a fixed ladder that won't degrade over time.

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Looks like you have an egress window there, 5 feet deep well and a railing will need a ladder. What I did for my daughters house, I found an aluminum ladder on CL for el-cheapo and painted it to match… worked out well.
 

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I like that idea! I will keep my eye open. Thanks.
 

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After having one of our daughters freinds run off the retaining wall down by the basement and scaring the crap out of us….can tell you this is a excellent idea…lol Good looking build Josh.
 

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Looks good, well made, sturdy and safe fence for the kids. Great work!
 

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Really nice. This is the sort of thing that someone else might have just nailed together some boards in a functional way and call it good enough. I really appreciate the care in design that you took. I like the way you spaced the ballisters in pairs and way you did the rail on top is the icing on the cake! Keep up the good work. I once had a skunk in my somewhat-deep window well. That was fun!
 
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