another full weekend of work

So this past weekend we got an extra day of work in. Andy & the kids got to fly in a private plane early Friday morning with one of Andy's client's who was headed to Lake Placid. Tosh and I met them @ the airport and we were working by 11am. Uncle Frank was busy clearing the trees and boulders in what will eventually be the parking lot.

This is a sample of the gravel we may use for the driveway and parking area.

Here is Tosh looking over all the site work going on. He is sitting on the new well that was installed this past week and looking down towards the leech field. This, in the winter, will be where the Toboggan run starts and you can kind see how it will wind down and around the trees.

This is the old well pump they took out when they installed the new one.

It was a beautiful day and the sky and clouds were so cool, I decided to take some off angle pictures of the castle and here they are:

So, I think I told you in a previous blog, that after we carry those 80lbs. bags of cement up the 45 spiral stairs, we were mixing the concrete by hand with rakes and shovels. Well, Andy saw that we have a small cement mixer on the first floor and decided to see if it worked and it did. so we disassembled it and carried that up the 45 spiral stairs and now that is doing the mixing for us, here is Rex watching over it to get the perfect consistency

We get so busy running up and down the spiral stairs we often don't get to use the other staircase. When I decided to take the other way down I realized I hadn't really seen, or taken a picture, of this staircase since we opened it up. When you look at Andy's sketches, this is where the draw bridge type stairs are.

OK, you've seen the cistern before, but never this clean, cause Ruby & I cleaned up about 20-30 Big Buckets of debris from the walls and floor and carried them all outside. Remember this will eventually be the wine cellar wine.

Last week I told you how we started to mark the entire 20 acre property, well it was time to finish this weekend. Here Andy is debriefing us and showing us the shape of the property.

and the crew is ready. Ruby has the marking tape, Rex has the chainsaw, Andy has the plans, and I have the camera!

we found some of the property to be very dense. If you look hard enough you can see Andy looking directly @ us.

Here is Tosh and Rex waiting at one end of a marked area for Andy to find the other end, so we can mark everything in between.

We weren't lost, really, we had the plans and just needed to figure out if we go straight or turn to find the next survey pole.

Half way through our expedition we came up a big open area on top of some huge rocks, it was really cool and made for a nice resting spot.

Rex was marking and tagging away

and these are my artistic fern pictures, it is amazing all the different shades/colors of green you come across in the forest.

Ruby found other creative ways to use the marking tape. Cute Ruby!

I was talking to a friend who thought we were out in the middle of nowhere, so I though I should show you that we have a dirt road in from a main road. Notice the weeds are nicely trimmed along the way in, that was last weeks project!

The kids caught a ride on the trailer as we moved concrete blocks from old fire pit to new fire pit.

If you look close in this picture you can see Andy in the top floor window. He rigged up a system to lower Big Buckets of dirt down to us. These are the buckets we filled back in May when we were cleaning up the piles of sand that they were using to mix concrete. We needed to fill in the well hole and Andy was going to buy some sand and then remembered we had all those buckets right up on the fourth floor. Here is the well almost full. We had quite the system, Andy lowered them down, Rex was on 3rd floor pushing them our so they didn't get caught in the 2nd floor window, Ruby unclipped full buckets & re clipped empty buckets, and I carried full buckets over to well and dumped them in.

Later Saturday and Sunday, when Rex & Andy were pouring the second & third stair of the weekend, Ruby & I cleaned up 3-4 piles of big brush in this area.

and here is the 9th stair being completed. It is getting close, 6 more to go, Andy said it is hard to get tools in there to do what he needs to do.

and that was last weekend. We had a few visitors, expected and unexpected, but either way, it is always fun to have people stop by and see their reactions to the place. It's even more fun when they stay and help, so again, that is my open invitation to anyone who wants to help out.

We go up this weekend, just for a day, for the block party. We are going to finally meet our neighbors & have some fun in Tupper. Somehow I think Andy is going to find a way to squeeze in some work!

We're moving now, inside & out

We got to Tupper early this week on Friday evening, so we went right to the castle and got three hours of work in. Here is the last stair Andy poured last week, looks like Edward came back and left his mark.

Ruby's new job when we get to the castle is to climb up to the fourth floor, scale the scaffolding to the roof, and unlock the tin that covers the opening to the roof. Here she is taking pride in her achievements on the roof.

Uncle Frank started the site work, here is his back hoe. It is a special one that also has a big claw on it that can move the big boulders we are encountering as we move around the site. He dug out for the new well and is working on the leach field.

The new well is under those three sticks sticking up in this picture. Andy has plans for the wedding gazebo to be in this site.

I took a walk around the property when we got there cause there was so much exciting change going on. We came across this pillar and weren't sure what it was at first, but our neighbor, Mr. Shaheen came by and told us it was Edward's first attempt as doing the stone masonary he wanted to cover the turret with. We will keep it as a mark for the exit from the parking area.

Andy calls this rock the giant's marble due to its size and roundness. Ruby and I heard "smarble" when he said that, so we call it that, which I think is appropriate cause it looks like it is smiling, not so much in this picture, but trust me, or don't and come and see it!

This is a picture looking back from where the parking area will be. Heavy equipment and a porta pottie, a true construction site!

We were @ the castle until 9pm and this was the first time I had seen it at night with the lights on, pretty amazing!

On Saturday, Andy decided we need to ensure the property lines we marked for all to see, so He, Ruby, & I took off through the woods to mark a trail. The surveyor sticks are there, but with the trees and ferns in full bloom, they are hard to see, so we found them and started marking trees with marking paint and flags.

As we marked, we also tried to cut down limbs and brush, so you can walk along the perimeter, you can kinda see the flags on the trees with the trail along side them.

This is a picture from along the perimeter, looking back at the castle. you can see better all the boulders Uncle Frank is unearthing. The property is very hilly and Andy & Uncle Frank have plans for a toboggan run on this hill in the winter months!

This is Ruby marking the trees. The process went like this. find the surveyor post, Sherie stands near it. Andy moves ahead and finds the next one and marks the trees with the marking paint, and then Ruby goes through and marks the trees with the tape. Tosh, mean while is running all over the place.

A cool tree we came across.

Ruby & I had to leave in the afternoon to attend a family wedding and we left Andy and my Dad, Roger, at the castle. As such, I have no pictures, but I hear they worked on laying a new stair, had a meeting with the building inspector, met a neighbor and got invited to a party, and had a meeting with Uncle Frank on more of the site work.

Day two of marking, Ruby decides to break out the crown with her tool belt

Here is a beautiful apple tree on the property as you drive down the driveway

Andy built this wall divider, and he, Roger, & I got it into place. to the left of the divider will be the utility room and to the right will be a lower level powder room. As contractors are coming in to work on well, water, electrical, we wanted to have the clear deliniation for them.

This is the formwork Andy has to put together everytime we pour a stair. This is what you see as you are walking up the current stairs to get to the fourth floor.

and here we are on the fourth floor with two more stairs poured, that is 6 done and 9 to go!

Busy weekend, lots of visitors, some new helpers, and stuff going on inside and out! It is really moving along. Thanks for all who came to offer their encouragement, support, and help. Hopefully we'll see you back soon and maybe some new faces this weekend!

Sherie

Syracuse Post Standard Article - 7.4.10

Here is an article that ran last month. I had a link for awhile, but something happened, so I decided to scan it and put it into the blog body.




Fantasy Land: Architect Andy Ramsgard and family have grand plans for Adirondack castle
Published: Sunday, July 04, 2010, 6:00 AM Updated: Monday, July 05, 2010, 2:35 PM

Skaneateles architect Andy Ramsgard specializes in eccentric fantasies.
Normally, they are the fantasies of his millionaire clients: One wanted a labyrinth of underground tunnels stemming from his mansion. Another wanted his house to look like a yacht from the back and a lighthouse from the front.
But of all the strange houses Ramsgard has designed throughout the years, nothing can top the one he's building for himself: a 6,000-square-foot medieval castle -- made entirely of cinderblocks -- that was designed by an untrained, eccentric Adirondack introvert.

The castle is the creation of Ed Leary, a Tupper Lake probation officer who died in 2005. Known as a loner, Leary quietly bought 20 acres of property two miles outside of town. In 1985, he got permission from the Adirondack Park Agency to build a castle with a 65-foot tower turret; construction began in 1993.

For 12 years, Leary and close friend Jimmy Bombard lugged concrete blocks up the 20-acre property. With little outside help, they built the four-story castle by hand.
After Leary's death, the castle sat untouched until last October, when Ramsgard's wife, Sherie, read a story about the property in The Post-Standard. The couple drove out to see the castle that week.
"I can look at a building and it will talk to me, like a painting talks to an art critic," Andy Ramsgard said. According to the Franklin County Clerk's Office, the couple paid $150,000 for the property -- it was listed for $180,000 -- and closed in March.

As part of the sale, Ramsgard was given Leary's drawings and writings about the castle.
Leary had kept meticulous records of the money he spent on materials and labor: exactly $178,623.52. The sketches he made designing the project were far less precise: they look like cartoon drawings. On the back of them, he rambles about Nick Nolte's drinking and Bill Clinton's philandering.
Ramsgard called Leary's work, "brilliant," and said he's astonished at how architecturally advanced it is. "My architecture professors are cringing, but I absolutely love that it is made out of concrete blocks," he said. "It's one of the least expensive and strongest construction material to work with."
Only about 30 percent of the work was done when Leary died of complications after surgery. His sister, Karen Watson, inherited the property and figured whoever bought it would raze the castle and develop the land. After all, her real estate agent, Rob Gillis, said contractors estimated it would cost more than $1 million to finish the project professionally.
Ramsgard was undeterred by the challenge. To him, the fact that the castle is unfinished is "the best part. (Leary) did all of the heavy lifting. All the hard stuff is done."
He said the castle's engineering is incredible, especially considering Leary had no training. The only major error, he said, is a mathematical flaw in the design of the grand staircase. Ramsgard is compensating for the error by building a landing at the top of the stairs.
"It's not an uncommon math error," he said. "And the second (spiral) staircase is a very complicated piece of engineering, and he got that perfect."
The castle also is situated so that the view stretches 100 miles in every direction; another point of wonder to Ramsgard.
"It takes a complete career to figure out the placement of a building," Ramsgard said. "You never want to place a building at the top of a mountain because then you're just looking down. You want to place it just on the side of the mountain so that you get a complete understanding of the environment. And he got it right. What was in his head fascinates me." Coutesy Andy RamsgardHere is an artist's rendering of what the finished entrance to Andy Ramsgard's medieval castle in the Adirondacks will look like.
Unlike Leary, who was building the castle as a fortress of solitude, Ramsgard said he wants his castle to host Gatsby-esque parties.
"This house is going to have lavish dinners and be used for weddings and charity events," he said. "I don't want to create a museum. I want to create a place people can live in and have fun."
Ramsgard said he plans to do all the work himself, relying on talented friends and associates in the business. He hopes to complete the work in about two years. The castle will mainly serve as a vacation home for the Ramsgard family and he plans to rent it out occasionally for guests.
More than anything, the evolving project is an excuse to spend time with his family.
"We can build a relationship with our kids while we build this together," he said, adding that his children Rex, 12, and Ruby, 9, talk about the castle constantly.
Ramsgard would not talk about how much money he plans to invest in the project but he wasn't shy about his building plans.
The lowest level, where Leary placed a cistern, will be made into a Renaissance-themed game room. There will be a pool table, chess tables and a movie screening area; there will be no television.
On the main floor, Ramsgard's close associate from Auburn, wood craftsman Matteo Bartolotta, will hand-carve an ornate kitchen. The kitchen will lead to a library, with a wall of books. Pull the correct book and the wall will swivel to reveal a secret passage leading to a powder room.
From the main floor, guests also will be able to see the grand staircase. Because of Leary's math error, the staircase will be especially shallow at the bottom and lead to an elevated landing at the top.
A second staircase spirals to the upper floors, where there will be a 20-foot-high great room, with a walk-in fireplace lined with benches. Ramsgard is hand-crafting Gothic furniture to decorate the space. Much of the furniture, he said, will be 1970s castoffs from flea markets that can easily be repurposed into looking, "castle-y," he said.
King and queen's master suites will each consist of a large bedroom with a bathroom and a balcony overlooking the great room. The queen's room will also have a drawbridge at its entrance, should invaders try to capture her.
On the fourth floor are four more bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.
The roof will be outfitted with a wood-heated hot tub, a greenhouse and an outdoor fireplace. Guests can climb the 60-foot-high turret and look out over the 20-acre property."This is not a project I ever would have started," Ramsgard said. "I never would have gone into the woods to build a castle. But this story intrigued me. I may not get to write the ending, but I get to write the middle of it."
So, what's the moral of the story he's writing?

"When life gives you cinder blocks," he said, "you make a castle."

Adirondack Daily Enterprise Article - 7.24.10

Here is an article that ran in the local Adirondack paper recently.

Castle with a view
Skaneateles family carries on Edward Leary’s vision of fantasy home

By JESSICA COLLIER, Enterprise Staff Writer

TUPPER LAKE - It was the view that clinched it for him.
Andy Ramsgard's wife heard about a partially built castle stowed away in the woods of Tupper Lake that was on the market, and he was intrigued. An architect who specializes in creating fantasy buildings for other people, he saw the castle as a fascinating challenge, so he stopped to take a look at it the next time he was in the area.
"I was like, 'Whoa, I don't know if I can really do this. This is a pretty daunting task,'" Andy told the Enterprise. "Then I got up on the roof and I was just blown away by the view. Absolutely the best view in the Adirondacks."
The castle went on the market a few years ago after the death of former Tupper Lake probation officer Edward Leary, who conceptualized the castle and began its construction but didn't have time to complete it before his life ended. It was listed at $189,000. Andy and his wife, Sherie, closed on it the second week of April and started work on it in May, traveling on the weekends from their Skaneateles home to the castle, which sits down a dirt road off Old Wawbeek Road.
Sherie is originally from Lake Placid, leaving after her 1984 high school graduation. She and Andy saw the castle as a way to re-establish family roots in the area. They also saw it as a way to spend quality time together as a family with their children, 12-year-old Rex and Ruby, who is 9.
"It's obviously a lot of work," Sherie said. "But the kids are at an age where they're really excited, and they're really getting involved and helping with the design, and we're all learning interesting things."
Massive undertaking
Sherie said they are on a four-week streak of heading to Tupper every weekend for work sessions. They've had great weather each time.
There is much work to be done on the mostly concrete structure, which is 6,000 square feet and four stories tall.
Andy works a lot of the plans out in his head. Sometimes, Sherie said, he will run into a problem and get really still and tell his family to hold on for a minute because he's thinking.
"Then he lets us in on the whole thing and we see how he's working," she said. "We call him the castle McGyver."
They created an initial to-do list on their blog, "Building an Adirondack Castle," that involves planning, measuring, cleaning and airing out the building and organizing the building materials to start with, along with buying all the necessary equipment for the project. Then they planned to take down the wood form that was created to pour concrete into in the cistern area of the castle. Edward wanted to use the cistern area for water collection or as a pool, but the Ramsgards plan to use it for a wine cellar. Also on the to-do list is securing the structure, performing a percolation test to find out whether the soil will absorb enough liquid for a septic system, and cleaning up the property.
Andy said he wants to have the building completed in about two years. And by completed, he means what most people would consider about 90 percent complete.
"It's the kind of thing I would like to embellish for a lifetime," he said. "There will always be projects. For me, the best part of any project is the process."
He plans to use the castle as a second home for his family. The family likes to ski, hike, whitewater raft, and do other outdoor activities. They have always enjoyed spending time in the Adirondacks, and now they will have an excuse to spend more time here.
"It's the best part of New York state," Andy said.
Living in the past
Most people in Tupper Lake referred to him as Ed Leary, as did the newspapers, but his sister, Karen Watson, said he preferred Edward. She said it reflected his tastes for older times.
"He always had a fascination for medieval times," Karen said, and she figures that's why he taught himself Latin and Greek. He also spoke French, Spanish and German, and was well known as a linguist.
He also had a collection of old slot machines.
"He was a real eccentric," she said. "He didn't go in for the cool things."
The two grew up in Illinois, outside of Chicago. After finishing his master's degree at Fordham University, Edward moved to Tupper Lake to teach Latin and Spanish. After about two years, the school phased out Latin, so rather than move somewhere else to continue teaching, he decided to stay in Tupper Lake and apply for a job as a probation officer.
"He loved Tupper Lake," said Karen, who lives in New Hampshire.
Some people saw Edward as a loner, but Karen said he had many friends and, after he died, many people told her how grateful they were to Edward for things he had done for them, like keeping their children out of jail.
"He was a compassionate probation officer," said Mike Richer, who was on the rescue squad with Edward.
Edward also was a volunteer for the squad for about 25 years, and he worked the Wednesday day shift with Mike for at least 20 of those years. Mike said Edward loved to talk about the progress of the castle.
"His passion was always building this castle," Karen said.
In about 1984, Edward began the process of buying 60 acres of land with friends, who then split it evenly three ways. The land got caught up in estate dealings for a few years, but Edward began pouring concrete in about 1987.
Edward did most of the work with Jim Bombard and his father, who were masons. He kept his plans secret and told everyone what to do verbally. Karen said she showed Edward's plans to Jim after Edward's death, and he was shocked.
"He said, 'Oh my God, I can't believe Ed had plans for this,'" Karen said. "He thought it was all in his head. (Edward) loved secrets and intrigue, it was just part of his nature."
Edward died in 2005 of a spinal infection after being in and out of the hospital for treatment for the condition. Karen said she thinks the castle had become too much for him. When she went to visit him in the hospital, he told her she should sell the castle if he dies.
"'I don't want you dragged into this,'" he told her. "It was much more of a job than he had been anticipating, and that just kind of did him in.
"The castle had become his idol. It had become his reason for living."
After Edward's death, only half of the fourth floor was finished and there was no roof. Jim went to Karen with plans to finish the castle off to at least protect it from the elements.
"My brother did not trust people easily," Karen said. But when he was sick, "He said, 'You can trust Jim Bombard,' and that was like the stamp of approval."
Jim completed the work just before getting sick, Karen said. Jim died May 23, 2009.
After that, Karen and her family put some time into fixing up the castle. She said her son is an architect and he was interested in the building for a little while, until he realized the family doesn't retain any ties to Tupper Lake with Edward gone.
"What he tried to do was so unusual and amazing that we didn't want it to just go to anybody," Karen said. "This has been a wonderful dream that Andy has picked this up. ... He's got the bug that Edward had."
Karen said she's been following the Ramsgard's blog and looks forward to the castle's completion.
"I would love to see it," Karen said. "I would love to have a meal in the great hall. My brother's dream was to have all his friends over for a meal - a banquet - in the great hall. He told me that before he died."
Another man's vision
Unlike Edward, Andy said a castle probably would have been the least likely type of architectural structure he would have built for himself.
"It just wouldn't have been anywhere where I thought I'd go," Andy said. "But he's got it so far, and the bones of the building are so strong. And, design-wise, you have to pay homage to it, and you sort of have to keep going along with it."
But Andy does find castles to be an interesting architectural type.
"Everyone has in their mind's eye what a castle is, but nobody can immediately define it," Andy said. People have a hard time defining the word, but "they know it when they see it. And that sort of intrigues me."
That allows a lot of freedom to design the edges and borders of the concept and play with the original idea of a castle, he said.
He was also intrigued that Edward got approval from the state Adirondack Park Agency to build to 65 feet.
"Realizing that nobody ever will ever be near you, and that view is preserved forever is the best part of the whole process," he said.
Follow the Ramsgard's progress on their blog, "Building an Adirondack Castle," at http://www.learycastle.blogspot.com/.