Thursday, May 31, 2012

Stained Glass Windows

I came up with an idea to get all the stained glass windows in the castle done and have others do the work, have a party!  So, on Memorial Day, we invited the some friends and family over, gave them drinks and food and let them design a window that will be a permanent part of the castle. Here is what they came up with.



Andy and Rex built frames for the windows that people would simple place the glass in. Here are the framse set up and ready for people to get to work. Andy has some of his big pieces of glass that broke on the corners cut into diamonds and triangles and then tumbled them so the edges weren't too sharp.

We laid out all the pieces for people to choose from and let them put them anywhere, they wanted within a structural capability. Andy did give a lesson or too on certain rules, I never listened to know what they were except they had to lay the first few rows horizontally fr structural reasons.










As the lessons went on and Andy supervised everyone was getting the idea, I just drank my summer cocktail and took pictures.









The Aspengard's took part early on and finished with a nice design 




The Pirro girls took part and took it serious, Jess wasn't happy with the design at first, but she came around! 



Jack wasn't liking Aunt Ann's and Julie's, but it is hard to please Jack.

                             
The Nye girls took control and combed out colors early on to get this nice design.

 Ms. Bev took a smaller, pool room window and came up with a nice pool room design, Pat handed her the glass she asked for.Nice tea work! 


The Baldwin's have a nice X pattern going on here!  
                                                                 


The Danaher's  had a similar X pattern with a fly off variation, very nice


The Glowacki's were missing Helen and Phoebe, but did their best without them. the G's were going for a ting yang in the middle, but I kinda see a G now.

The Corona girls, I swear I got their picture, but they were working so hard on the Corona sun while their parents drank that I never got their picture.
 
Not that I am bias or anything, but I think Rex did the best with his window after watching everyone else. It'll be in the fungeon!  Legos paid off with him and his design!


So those are our new windows for the castle. Sorry if I mixed them up on the blog. There will be plaques next to them at the castle to denote the family who created them


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Antique Road Trip to Tupper


We took a road trip to Saratoga to reclaim some old chairs and found some other treasures along the way.  These new lions are ours! (Rex & Ruby) and they will great you on your way down the driveway when we get a big heavy truck to go pick them up! . This fountain, also ours. Andy is thinking of putting it on face of front of castle to deter people from leaning against the stucco. We got lots of other trickets along the way too, but I don't know what Andy has done with them all. We found a great bookstore and got a bunch of books for the library, all very medevil!                                                                                                                             











Here is the trailer with the chairs and a church pew we got, we look like the Tupper Lake hillbillies!   


We also found these chairs in Watertown on the way home, a set of four that we will castle down a bit.
                   
I know people were worried about me travelling, so I rested when I could.






So, We took the back back way from Saratoga to Tupper and found a great Monument in Newcomb! It is a glass range of the high peaks and it kinda lines up with them, the boys were trying to be their own High Peak!




Work has been going on with Brian and Mark there, even though we haven't been doing much.  Andy is still doing as much planning, preparing, and fabrication as he can from home and he is so good about keeping it all on line and on track for completion.
Anyways, we didn't plan on working a lot this weekend, just clean up, meet with workers and make sure everyone is on the same page.

Brian and Mark are:
1. preparing the walls on the fourth floor for bathrooms and bedrooms.
2. They are also working on the raised floors as we will be laying In floor heating tubes soon.
3. they are also working on finishing the cuts in the concrete block in the kitchen, in the dungeon, and the hallway to the new bedrooms.
4. They will also be trimming the exteriors of the two large bay windows in the great hall.
5. They are finishing the queens' s balcony floor.
6. Trimming out interior of windows.
7. They are installing the final pieces of the waterproofing on exterior of turret in preparation for mason to start.
8, A few issues with the Mason, didn't start when suppose to last fall, didn't start in April, and now still hasn't started. Any Mason who wants to work, let us know, we are in need of a new one. to [put              block on turret. Already have the block, just need timely worker!







Andy and Rex inspecting the Queens Balcony and build out to second floor.







Build our for kitchen. This is one of the concrete walls the boys will be cutting.








Rex looking out on 2nd floor platform


                               looking up at the ceiling/2nd floor with all my glorious stenciling






 The two big opening are left to hoist big furniture
up through onto top floors.


Looking down from 2nd floor, it is so weird to have a 2nd floor there now! 


and the turrert waiting for a reliable Mason! 

An old friend, Greg Ruppert, I use to babysit his children, is going to work on spray foam insulation on the interior of the roof, and the interior of the turret as it has been condensating.  Greg is also going to hit the interior of the doors with the spray foam.  Basically, he is going to hit all the stuff I gapped and cracked last fall for permanency of insulation.

Patti came with her mom and daughters on the way to their mother's day celebration. She was very excited to walk on the new floor and to see the big holes in the ceiling where the big furniture will be going up.

Walked property with Rex. It was set and muddy, but all the ponds are doing well and holding their water well. Lower pond first picture. Upper Pond second picture


Thank you to maggie & Jerry at the park motel for my antioxidant gift basket . Loved everything in it.

Andy headed up again on his own on Friday June 8th & 9th is anyone wants to go work some.