Andy's latest find

A couple Saturdays ago, it was a nice day out and Andy said he was taking a drive towards Ithaca to see if this place he passes all the time was open. He'd seen some big pieces outside the building and was eager to get inside. He gets there and it is not open, so he looks around and by the time he is done, the owner shows up and he gets inside, he is in heaven, it's the day before his birthday and you know he isn't coming home without something.
So, it turns out, it is a "picker" place. That's right, Anthony Ferro is a true blue picker (someone who travels around and finds treasures for other people) & Andy has instantly found a new friend. The more they talk, the more Andy finds out that Anthony knows alot of the people Andy knows & the new friendship is sealed with a purchase! A 10ft x 6 ft. window and an old mantle piece. The pieces were delivered this week

Andy stopping traffic for his delivery

Our first look at the purchase

Anthony & his guy helped us unload, Ruby is on camera duty and I must say, she is getting pretty darn good.

We tipped it and slide it off the truck onto a heavy duty dollie

Now we just have to get over all the little ruts in the brick sidewalk without losing it

This mantle piece is of unknown origin, but the saying on it is French, used by the British Monarchy, and means "divine right to govern". It is believed to have come from a court or school in Canada and is definitely regal enough for an Adirondack Castle!

Eric, from the office, was fortunate to be working and got enlisted to come up and help unload the window, he is shy, so he kept trying to hide behind the window.




Easing it down the driveway. I have one foot on the piece, so I am hopping backwards, pretty talented I know!



and now it is resting against the old basketball post. I knew that post would come in handy someday!
Guess we'll be renting another big truck to get this one to Tupper!
Anthony was already trying to sell Andy another window he found, a 16 ft. one, bu the time we set this one down.
Andy actually said no.

April showers, snow, & sun, yup got it all in one weekend

We headed to Tupper this past weekend for the first time since last November to get started for the season and we were welcomed to a true Adirondack Spring weekend with a varitable potpourri of weather conditions.
Yes, there was still snow on the ground and friends were still skiing on Whiteface Mountain.
Yes, it was only in the 30's & 40's.
Yes, it rained, it snowed, the sun shined, and then it did that all over again, and
Yes, we made the best of it and did what we set out to do & we had fun doing it, for the most part!
First things first, get that fire started. Unfortunately, the wood we stored under a tarp to keep dry for when we wanted to start a fire ended up under 3 feet of water. We had the wood pile on the bottom of this picture and you can see the moot filled more than we expected, which is good, but it made starting the fire harder!

The Marshall Family came up for a few days and the girls worked very hard collecting down trees, branches, and brush for the fire!

All the Marshall girls worked hard, but it was little Elsa's first time and she worked very hard, look how big this log is! I think we owe Elsa a thank you too because it was under her urging that the Marshalls came up this past weekend, she wanted to work on a castle and work she did!

We had to rent a very big truck to bring up some heavy, large, odd shaped metal pieces for the roof. you can't really see them in this pictures, but there are two stacks of them in the truck. Rex is getting things ready to unload.

In November, we brought home a bunch of smaller trees we cut down so Andy could
shape them to use on the kids fort. Since we had the big truck, we brought those back up. Here are Rex, Jill, and I unloading those logs for the fort.

Like her daughter, Jill is very strong and insisted on carrying 4 logs at a time. If you look behind her you can see the tree line where we cut these smaller ones down.

Here is all the logs and timber we brought and unloaded at the fort site, ready to finish it up!

My friend Patti and her kids came and helped. Here is Jack helping with the fort

Here is the fort with the logs on. The logs are actually a railing so the kids can walk on the top of the fort.

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we brought up the concrete chess pieces, which you can see to the right of this picture, leaning against the castle. You can also see the pile of the roof pieces we unloaded, I guess I was off doing something else and didn't get any pictures of them unloading those, but having had to move them around afterwards, I can tell you they were heavy. We have now pulled the truck in to unload the Sodus pieces, also mentioned in a previous post, Andy got really good at drivig the truck!

Here is Daddy Marshall, Todd, carrying in a cast iron screen Andy found for one of the fireplaces. he is very strong too, He is training for the Ironman already and thought the castle workout would jump start that training!

Marshall girls take a break from the snow and rain and watch a movie in my nice warm car.

This is some bricks we had leftover from our driveway at home, so Rex & Andy loaded those up on the truck and we unloaded those into the castle. they will be used in the wine cellar.

Obviously, with all the rain & snow melting, there was alot of water everywhere. This is a small stream that was trickling down the side of the property, it sounded so soothing and relaxing, all I need to bring next time is a lounge chair.

The upper pond filled so much, the big boulders that use to be the upper edge of the pond are now a rock crossing acrossed two ponds.

and that's about it. We got truck unloaded and almost got the fort done.

Monday we woke to the ground being covered by snow and very cold temperatures, so we just packed up and headed home, or so we tried. The rental truck wouldn't start and Andy had to stay behind and wait two hours for a repair truck, it is always something!

Happy April!

Sherie

Resurrecting a Landmark

So Andy travels alot for his work and he isn't very good at passing Antique stores, although I have to give him credit, he passed the one in Auburn alot before he finally found it open and was able to get his hands on these pieces. I forgot my camera the day we were loading them up, but here is one my mom took of one of the concrete pieces, it had been here so long, the trees were growing around it and holding it in place. There were 2 pieces like this one, a center arch pieces, a few base pieces and a few columns.

Here is the back story. The pieces have been at this store for over 20 years, but they origionally came from The Custom House & Post Office in Sodus Bay. Here is a picture of that historic building we found:

This is the information found online with this picture
"Formerly on the south side of Sentell Street, this building was once used as the United States Custom House and Post Office. The building was a long, narrow masonry block, with stone trimmed front and baroque bracketed wood cornice. It was built as part of the boom that occurred from the building of the railroad in the mid-1870s. The building is no longer standing"

Well in swoops Andy, defender of historical monuments, & he buys the pieces for the castle.

Here we are loading them into a rental truck last week to bring them to the castle. Thanks to Betsy & Roger, as they were are only helpers and I bet they are glad they answered the phone that day!

and they are on the truck. They were heavy, but we finally got the hang of moving them.

Our friends, The Marshalls, who are from Sodus & Sodus Bay, came up to help oversee the unloading of the pieces.

They came off truck alot easier than they went on. We pulled truck right up to front door of castle, made a bit of a ramp, loaded them onto a dolly, and rolled them right in.

and they find their new home, for now, inside the entrance of the front door!

and that is how renovating a castle becomes even more special.

We are proud and privledged to have historical pieces like this as a part of our project. We hope to find a nice picture of the Custom House and hang it right next to these pieces once they are in place.

Thanks to the Mom & Dad & the Marshalls for their help on this special project

Sherie

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

On this Earth Day, we thought that was a perfect title for this post. How so, you say? well, on a recent shopping excursion to NYC, Andy & I bought these wooden chest pieces @ ABC furniture

When they were delivered they camp tightly packed in a styrofoam mold,

so when we took them out, of course, my ever thinking husband said, "we should pour concrete in these and make some concrete chest pieces"

So, the next week, here we are, we can mix concrete pretty much anywhere now.

Filling the molds:

Rex did most of the work on this one, so here is the proof!

and here they are out of the molds after we delivereed them to the castle this past weekend.

What are we going to do with them? I don't know, maybe door stops, but it is just another fine example of how you can recycle packing material and create something fun and unique!

Happy Earth Day