Boys Weekend

Andy & Rex went up to the castle without Ruby & I last weekend. They got alot done, but they work so hard they forget to take pictures. They came back with a few this time, at my urging, so I will try and piece together what they did.

Some windows got even bigger. They cut out the lower portion of this window.
They got stuck on the other great room window, so the concrete company was going to come back and help them with that.

Some new windows were created. The two upper windows that will be on the fourth floor were knocked out. Andy had been cutting them all along on previous visits. This picture shows one of the new windows. This doesn't look like alot, but once all the cuts are made through the concrete for the window, you get the center piece out by sledge hammering it, ALOT! It is very hard work and very tiring. ALl the while they are doing this remember they are on a 30 ft. high scaffolding, which is scary in and of it self.

When the boys got to the castle it was all wrapped up in this white cover. The Stucco people were there durning the week starting the stucco process and apparently this is part of it. The stucco company also left their lift which Rex became pretty good at operating, so much so, that he had to help Andy use!

You can just barely see that the boys also put a safety fence around the roof for safety reasons of course. You can actuall see the fence better in the previous pictures.
No castle this weekend, I think it is the first weekend ANdy is missing all summer, hope the withdrawls aren't too bad for him. Rex & I are headed to Lake Placid to camp and hike a high peak with the boyscouts. Andy & Ruby are hom working on Rex's birthday present. I am sure Andy will use the time to plan a busy work schedule for us next weekend..

Laboring on Labor Day

So Rex, Andy, & I were at the castle all Labor Day weekend. Andy took the weekend term literally and said we'd be working very long, hard days, so Ruby opted to stay home with the cousins & go to the town carnival.
So we started off with an inspection of the newly poured concrete roof.

Here's the boys inspecting it up and down.

Heres a close up to try and capture the texture. it's a bit rough and very medievil. This will be the same concrete and texture of all the floors on the inside of the castle.

This is a pic looking down into the turret roof which was also poured with the concrete and same texture.

and I as said in the last blog, last weekend the boys stayed and the two of them hung all the brackets on the external wall, here's a picture of them. It is pretty incredible that the two of them could do this, but Andy spends alot of time when he is not at the castle planning and figuring out how to do these sorts of things so when we get to the castle we are very efficient. If he wasn't such a great Architect I would say he could be a great project manager, but I guess that is what makes him so great at it all.

Of course, we had to take a walk to the new lower pnd to see how much it filled in after Irene. Here's the boys inspecting that.

and here is Tosh inspecting the depth of the pond.

Yup, we moved the scaffolding again. This time we set it up outside in preparation for Andy to cut the big new window in the great room. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem with that as the concrete chain saw wouldn't start, so we ended up just taking it down after two days and resetting it up inside the great room. Gotta say, we are pretty good at setting up scaffolding now.

I got a pair of big scissors and was given the task of cutting down all the black waterproofing material so it was at grade level. sounds easy enough, but it was this hard plastic stuff with a cloth material on the other side, so you had to get the scissors just right. I felt like a hair sylist giving the castle a trim. I ended up with 3 blisters and a sore back!

This is a sample of the stucco colors for the exterior of the castle. It looks like we have three shades of grey. The stucco guys actually started this week and should be done in a week or two depending on the weather.

Our very close friend, Ms. Bev surprised us with a visit on Saturday. She said she just woke up and decided to come see the castle. here she is getting her tour of the property.

and her dog Max came to play with Tosh. here they are running on the trail around the property that is now done.

These are the crates that use to have piles of sand in them.Last year when we started the clean up of the castle we found buckets of sand everywhere that Edward was using for the concrete. Andy wanted it all in one place, so we got these crates and carried sand from every floor up to the fourth floor and put it here. Today, Andy had Ms. Bev and I take the last of the sand and we carried it to various floors and filled in concrete holes in window openings.

These were the last five pails of sand that we used up. I have carried that sand in these buckets far too much up and down and all around and I am glad for it to now be inside the walls where I don't have to see it again!

The red cement mixer in the back of this photo was here when we bought the property. Rex, Andy, and I carried it to the 4th floor and used it once or twice before it broke. We got a new one and Rex was given the task of putting it together. This is before.

and here it is done. he did it all himself, no questions asked.

Andy is getting the harness on here as he is going up high on the ladders today.

Here he is climbing up the back face of the castle to tighten in the brackets from the outside. About 2-3 inches of the brackets he and Rex hung last week come out through the exterior of the wall, it will be covered by the stucco, so that is why it was a priority to get the external wall brackets in place and get them tighten before the stucco guys started.

Andy had to go a little higher as he moved down the back face of the castle wall towards the other side.

I was inside hammer drilled this old vent Edward had put in out so we could put our new kitchen fan vent in. This is a picture of the vent gone and the opening.

Patti, Chris, and jack came with Lunch on Sunday and Patti brought us a new table cloth for the picnic table. Were getting relly classy here now.

We took a walk to the lower Pond as the Gallaghers had not seen it. Here's a picture of it as we are walking down. Love this picture.

and Patti inspecting the pond.

Once back at the castle we went to show off the new roof, but we lost Andy on the way as the Mason, Micahel Stender, stopped by to show Andy the stone samples he is going to mix in with our stone to complete the turret. He is ready to get going on that as soon as the stucco guys are done.

Rex and Jack enjoying the new roof.

Patti enjoying the new roof with a gentle breeze blowing through her hair. It is totally awesome up on the roof!

Jack felt like he was flying!

Andy working on placing some other blocking in place on the backside of the castle. This will be a little balcony that extends off the great room window above. Again, the blocks had to go in place before the stucco got sprayed.

Look closely, ndy is napping on the ladder. Working on the blocking for the window balcony/seat thingy. It's got a name and Andy told me what it was, but I forgot and he is at a meeting, so just go with that.

and here is Andy puting the blocks in place for the balcony/window seat area that goes around the side to the front window.

I fug most of this with Rex and Andy jumped in for the photo op. We had to dig around the turret and place blocks in place for waterproofing and footing.

and then once in place, we filled back in the dirt.

Monday was mostly a clean up day, moving the scaffolding, and measuring up, so I didn't get any pictures. Trust me, we were busy.

Anyways, Rex and Andy are headed back tomorrow for more. Ruby & I are home for her first soccer game.

It's on schedule and coming along.

Roof Top Concrete pour

The Concrete Men were at the castle yesterday pouring the new roof floor. Here's some pictures from our guest photographers from Sears Contracting and thePark Motel. Thanks Dawson and Maggie.

Brackets in place

So here is a picture I should have taken last week with all the roof frames in place. You'll see there is a rope railing around the roof. The concrete men were here and put that in place in preparation for the concrete pour this week.

Ruby got a new Pogo stick for her birthday and now has a new castle activity.

Andy is getting to cut these window opening bigger with his concrete saw so he had Rex and I working on them to remove the glass and metal frame that were in place. A little hammer drilling, grinding, crow bar, and elbow grease and they are out!

This second window frame removal required moving of the scaffolding and you know how we love to do that.

Andy spent Friday afternoon & Saturday morning up on the scaffolding cutting out more windows. If you look real close youll see him up there.

I started the hot knife and cut down the insulation. I took a break and the hot knife stopped working. That is now 2 hot knives that stopped working.


A picture from the roof looking down the new stairs that go all the way up!

Andy sent Rex up to roof to finish a few things in preparation for the concrete pour this week and we didn't see him for awhile. When I finally went up to check on him I found him asleep in the chimney cut out on the roof. He was there for more than an hour.

This is a picture of the new lower pond from the end looking back.

Sears Construction is now cutting a trail around the entire 20 acres of land. Here is the machine doing the work on the trail.

Here is a picture of where the trail starts. this is near the upper pond. the left road takes you on the trail to the big cracked rock while the right trail takes you to the back of the castle

Here's Ruby hiking up the trail. There is a part in the back that is pretty steep and will make a good sledding hill.

Ruby on the big cracked rock!

I spent Saturday morning trimming out the three crab apple trees on the front driveway. this one is near the upper pond.

This one is as you drive in on your left.

This is at the entrance.

Our friends, The McCarthy family (Dad Dennis, Mom Tracey, Son Graham, & Daughter Shay) came to work for the day on their way through the Adirondacks. Here Rex and Graham are on the upper floor loading cinder blocks on the crane and lowering them to Tracey and I on the ground. We unloaded them and stacked them.

here is Tracey using the guide rope to make sure the crane palette doesn't hit the windows.

the place the cinder blocks use to be on the fourth floor

and the new cinder block pile on the ground with two pretty girls on it!

The McCarthy's dog, Sirus, and Tosh ebcame fast friends. Tosh followed Sirus around and wouldn't leave his side.

The girls hanging out in the window

Andy and Dennis spent most of the day on the scaffolding putting up a guide bar on each side of the great room walls. This would be the bar that the brackets would hook onto. Alot of measurements and calculations were going on every time I came in to check on the progress.

Dennis decided he didn't really like heaights after being on the scaffolding all day.

Here you can see the wood bar across the wall.

We were ready to try and hang first bracket. here is Dennis carrying it over. So strong.

All decks on hand to raise the bracket. We have a pulley system going here on the scaffolding.

and hoist, and pull, and pull...

it's up and now Andy is drilling the bracket into place on the wall. These are the big brackets we stenciled last month. These bracket will hook the large timber together and we'll build the new second floor in the great room on them. The beams will stay exposed as the great room ceiling.

more positioning and drilling.

Success, Andy is happy. His system to place them worked and the first one is in place. The rest will be easy now, according to him.

We continue the celebration at the pool.

and the McCarthy's in the Park Motel chair before they leave after a long days work and head for Old Forge and some hiking. Thank You McCarthys!

Ruby and I left the following morning & drove through Irene and headed home for her 10th birthday sleepover party with friends. Rex and Andy stayed for 2 more days and hung all the brackets on the great room outer wall. Yes, I said Rex and Andy did all that themselves and because they were so busy, we have no pictures, but I will get them this weekend

There are rooms available at the Park Motel if anyone wants to come help this weekend!