Saturday, July 8, 2017

Raising of the tower

So, we have continued to work on details of castle, inside and out, the past year and I apologize for my tardiness in blogging, but life happens. However, I couldn;t let this go by without sharing. So, Andy designed the tower and Brian built it on the ground in front of the castle as seen here.
this is a view from inside looking up the spiral stair already assembled in the tower. 
This is a view of the roof where the tower will be placed

                                        this is view on castle top before tower gets places.



Andy trimming trees before rising
patiently waiting to hook up the crane to the tower top
Auburn Crane Arrives right on time 

                                                  and the tower is up in about 30 minutes!
                                            Here is my stop motion video from the ground:
and the stop motion video from the princess turret

                                                                   and here is the drone video 


Todd, my high school friend and photographer /drone extraordinaire taking a break
taking advantage of crane and bringing extra turret pieces down 


and the new front view!

new view on roof with tower


door on roof to tower

Tower window

top of spiral stairs and tower walk around
one proud king that everything went as planned without any problems.
                                               
we also painted alot of things black
we trimmed the grass on the front entrance with quite the precision
 
                                                                New view above the trees







Pano
                                                                  Proud Castle Owners!

Sunday, September 11, 2016

2016 much needed update


Sorry for the long lapse in the blog. It was partly brcause we've been so busy and partly because the thought of bloggin overwhelmed me as I hadn't done it in so long, so I will do my best to share the finishing details we've, mostly Andy, Brian, and Dwayne, been working on.
I went up with my parents and sister for a family reunion and my Mom was driving me crazy, so into the stockade she went. Andy deisgned this, in this location, so people wouldn;t walk off the ledge. 
 Andy has been going up alot without us and these are the things I noticed he had done when I wasthere. It seems the fungeon is now a bt of a torture room & this is a torture chair.
                                         
                                          Looking down into the Fungeon with new rope railing
                                        
                            Andy hung some tapestries, this one is behind pew in main entrance
                                                                   The entrance area
 The first floor bathroom, along with the painting Rex had made of Addy, now has a urinal with a                                                    guillotine above it and the plaque aside it says........
                  Andy came up with the saying and made it with his 3 D Printer @ the office.
  the stairway as it opens to roof is being prepped for the 20 foot tower that is coming in a few weeks.  The tower will go right on the stairs with a door out to roof and a spiral stair inside it to the outlook                                                                            atop it.
                               The roof is secure with the parapit wall all the way around
 This is a shed atop roof. It is open on the outside and has a crane for lifting heavy things up. It also encloses the inside fire flume.
                                                             A viewing area atop the roof.

                                        The Knight room got some things hung and new furniture
 The knight room also got Andy's parent's old chairs from when he was a kid, with a new reupholstered castle flair.
 The Bishop's room has the completed stations of the cross, minus one. These came from Germany and were a great find on an antique trip last fall.
 A shot through the bed looking onto the Bishop room's dresser and new tapestry.
 the following week Andy and I went up for Labor Day & the Timberframer had gotten done what will be a small walkaround where tower will go.
           Looking through the center timberframe
 (place to hang out under in any type of weather) to the storage shed.
                                                   The tower will be this size, 20 feet up.
                                     
             Andrea and Tom came to visit and cook for us, We made them dress for the occasssion
                                                        Yes, the fireplace really works
                                                  and we had dinner in front of the fire.
      Andy thinks this ice pail is a big drinking mug and no one has the heart to tell him its not.
                    My sister found some nice silver pieces at a yard sale, now where to put them.
 We actually took an afternoon off and went kayaking on the Raquette River, It was a perfect day. Andrea was the Kayak godess
                       Not one of us tipped over either, but Andy did have us take a wrong turn.
 OK, so this is on the Raquette River, near the Wild Center. That white thing in the opening, in the distance, is the castle. It'll be easier to see when the tower is on.
                          Nothing like spending the evening on the roof looking at the stars.
                 More visitors. My college Roommate Lucy, from Albany, came up with her friend Yvette
                and Lucy's youngest daughter Olivia and her friend. They are  abit of Harry Potter fans.
 and yes, walked around all evening dressed like this and then retired to fungeon to watch some Harry Potter.
Alittle roof top fun waiting for sunset.
We had dinner on the roof this night.
 Here's the ladies, and the dogs, before this round of friends leave and the next ones come.
                                   (Yvetter - Lucy - Sherie - Andrea / Tosh and Addie)
                                              The girls saying goodbye to their new friends.
                      The kids fort has nicely grown into the folliage and can barely be seen.
                                                               The girls atop the fort
                                                                 backside of the fort
 walking back to castle on driveway. These big concrete thingys are going to be put on past and will be your guide along the driveway into the castle.
                                                      the spiral staircase awaits the tower.
                              Cidney came for a visit and met up with the target practice knight.
              One of my favorite views. Walking down to lower pond looking back up the hill.
                                                          Toshie takes a swim
 a view I might have never shown. this is from front pond, on driveway, with your first look at castle.
                                                           Cidney climbed the fort too
                                                           
                                                             another perfect sunset

                                                                  Me and my king!
My Breast friend Yvonne & her lovely hubby, came to visit from ALbany for the evening.
                                                
                     I awoke the next morning to Mark and Andy in deep conversation below me.
 So, Yvonne is an actress and acting teacher & she knows people. She is taking part in a friend's kickstart project. He is making an animated story set in medevil times & she is one of the characters. He happened to text her while she was visiting and said he needed her to stage a scene, so off go Andy and Yvonne. Will make sure to let you know when movie comes out.        

                                                           and then we put her to work.
 and Mark too. Andy built a cabinet to go above the frideges and Mark was helping with the install
                                 Andy also built and installed a cabinet in the laundry room.
                    Yvonne captured some different angles I thought would be fun to share with you.
 as I said before, Yvonne knows people and it just happens her previous director friend lives in Long Lake, so here they are trying on their best knight helmut face

                                I thought my pic was good, but I like it with the knight in it, damn Yvonne!
                                        Never got this one either, That Yvonne has the eye
                                        really, she is putting me to shame.love this one too
                      well she is definitely capturing the level of detail Andy has put into this place.
                                                             and the master himself
                        Had to move the puzzle to the fungeon room as it was a 3 ft. one. and its a strange one, but I can;t wait to get back there to work on it. 
Stay tuned for the tower!