Sunday, May 26, 2013

Friends who lay together, stay together

Finally, we had a few days to get up to the castle. Our goal was to work on the wine racks for the wine room/fungeon. Andy was up late the night before we left making form work that would make our work easier. Maria and Dave were back for more fun too. Since everyone is asking for more pictures I have a bunch and they are in the order of us getting there and seeing all the progress since we were last there. Brian and Marc, Jerry the Plumber, and the Electrician have been busy as you will see.
This is Rex's room on the fourth floor. As you can see, it is almost all paneled in and looks awesome! 

 This is Rex's bathroom. Straight ahead is where the toliet will be, the shower is to the left.

 This is the view as you come up the stairs on the fourth floor. There is a short hallway with paneling on both sides. The laundry will be directly ahead. Rex's room to the right, Ruby's room to the left.

Ruby's room is a storage area right now.
 
This is the turret bathroom on 2nd floor getting ready for flooring.

Lots of infloor heating tubes

the grand stair looking down  and looking up
                                                           
                                        Lots of lumber in the game room/tool room right now.
The Corona's backdoor stained glass looked awesome in the afternoon light
                                                  
My sweet cousin, Nancy came over and cleaned up a bit for us and she left some nice wild flowers on picnic table for us.
Still have a few palettes of stone to use

The lions remain on guard
                                                 
                                
                                 Andy talking with Brain and Marc on what is in store for the summer
 
 This piece Andy found at an antique store looks so good above the grand stair
 

Now we have to get to work. These are the form works andy built that we will be using to put brick around and create the wine cellar.

                                                           
              Andy and Rex put a bed together. Andy designed them, Matteo Bartolotta made them. Same bed in every room, but each will have a different color drapery that encloses it.
 Rex is holding up a carving that will go where he is holding it. Those were all hand done and are different for each room too.


                                                   
                                     Again we move the pile of bricks. from entry room to fungeon.
                                           

                                  
                                                    Ruby brought her friend from the gym, Abby!
                                    
                    The girls walked to the big rock and did gymnastic poses on it! Thanks for not falling off girls!
The wine room is a buzz with form work, the concrete mixer and workers.
Maria, Dave, and Rex get laying the bricks around the framework.
                                     
                                                 Rex inspects his work. Looks good to me.
                                          
                                             Dave brought his own knee pads, he was ready to work.
                                         
Close up! Andy is going for the sloppy look which is good because none of us had every done this before. The wooden arches will be removed once the morter is set and then we will place wine bottles in the arch, alot of wine bottles!
Mari also came prepared with her working overalls. She was confused at first, but once we told her it was like frosting a cake she was golden.
                                          
Chris the Mason is back and will be putting stones on this wall in the entry. He cleaned the area out to begin.
                                      
 Everyone is busy laying bricks, well Maria and Dave are busy, Rex and Andy seem to just be watching.
Chris preparing rocks to go on wall and his apprentice.

                                                                  A very wet, dirty dog.
Maria frosting the cake in what we now call the "Maria technique"
                                         

 These crazy kids. What good energy they bring with them. Here they are laying the last of the bricks until the next shipment!



                                        Andy are Tosh are tired and dirty and taking a break!
 
                            Our finished product. It is about half done, we ran out of  brick, thank god!

                                                              Sweet Dreams everyone!