The Next Steps.....

 

Are Not So Fast....

You Might Suppose, Dear Readers, that now that The Chapel was finished and I was finally able to work on The Ladies' Solar, that progress would be quick and satisfyingly efficient. So much of the Castle structural methods were already firmly established.... just pull out the lumber (rocks) and get building, right? As you can see... I got going on the next steps right away... the staircase to the Lady's Bed Chamber above. But then I realized just how late in the year it was! October??? Oh... uh oh.... October! Clearly, Time was getting past me... I don't know how... but it was already October....! (long time blog readers Know what that means around here... a special form of mayhem erupts all on its own schedule... but with a dreaded Deadline.... (heh heh)...spooky... right...? .....) And more importantly... the season was changing... I would soon lose the time for opening doors and windows to air out the fumes.... painting with Primer being a culprit on big tasks... and I really REALLY needed to get that final exterior wall on the Ladies' Tower primed and painted! It was already three (Three!) years since I had done this for all the Lord's Tower walls. The weather had already turned chilly and Autumnal in my neck o' the woods... but I saw a day being forecast for temps in the high sixties.... on Thursday.... and after that... heading towards the fifties at best. So what was stopping me? All I had to do was get the Ladies' Tower wiring channels cut... the powerstrip box constructed and built into a new buttress on the back side of that wall..... Was there enough time....? Well, only one way to find out.....

 

I have been doing so much work recently on the back wall.... 

(which got its coats of paint back in 2021 when

 I had realized how badly the exterior of The Castle

 needed to be painted to protect the plywood!) 

that you might have forgotten that this side wall

 was still not painted. 

It has been bothering me for years! 

Here you can see I made a start on carving the 

wiring channels for the few lights already in place. 

The Dungeon has one torch light... 

the Chapel has the two candlesticks by the Altar...

 and there is a tiny candle in the Monk's cell... 

I think Henry left it there when

 he was using that room a looong time ago.

 These four lights were some of the first ones

 I put in place in 2010 when I began to build the Castle. 

I ran the wires to the exterior and "around to the side" 

where the power plug strip was "attached" 

(the peel and stick backing on these strips is not known for lasting).

 The glue gave out long ago and the power plug strip

 dangled off the side of the Tower 

(I was careful to make sure no wires were crossing!)

 and only got used when the Castle lights are turned on.... ie. plugged in. 

Sixteen years of dangling took a toll on the plug strip...

 its wiring came apart! 

 

So we are starting almost from the beginning here.

 

This is the Tower side wall with the flash turned on. 

You can see the beginnings of wiring channels for 

those first lights carved into the old wood. 

The darker wood is much harder to carve than the paler wood.... 

so putting the channels in white wood where possible

 is much easier on the hand...! (This was a major reason 

I had not simply painted the wall a long time ago.)

Even so, I don't know where all the lights for the upper rooms 

will need to be placed, and at the very least 

there needed to be a vertical channel at the back corner. 

The fireplaces run along the back wall to this channel 

and lighting for the upper two rooms will be

 brought over to this channel too. 

From there they will run down to the wiring box

 tucked into the buttress at the back corner.... 

still to be built!

 

And the buttress has to fit in to the narrow space 

beside the Postern Gate Door!

 (It is not entirely hidden and not entirely secret.... 

but very seldom used... you would need to scale the cliffs after all...!)

 You can see the channel for the Dungeon torchlight

 runs up over the door to the power box area on the left.

 

Yes... there are stairs in there... 

they come up through a trapdoor in the Monk's Cell...!

 

Here I am starting to "block out" the structure of the power box

 and how it will all be attached (very securely!) to the Tower wall. 

The block of wood on the left will be glued and screwed

 firmly to the wall and the power strip will be attached to it. 

The base will be attached from below to this block 

and to the one on the right side of the door. 

 

Here you can see I have cut the two side walls for the buttress... 

the right hand one will have a staggered wall to pass the window. 

These walls are screwed into the first block 

and the inner base along the sides.

 

Here you can see the basic structure of the plug strip box and buttress base... 

it will be glued and screwed onto the Tower wall....

 thus when it (the buttress) gets used as a "handle"

 to move the Tower around.... it will be very firmly attached

 and no harm will come to the wiring!

 

 It became clear that the wiring needed to be glued into those channels

right away in order to continue building the buttress!

 

And in order to do that I had to splice 

and shrink-tube the connections

 at the right length to reach the plug strip 

with the right amount of wire to spare.

 

Here you can see the candlestick wires 

from the back wall of The Chapel ... 

I run them "through" the corner so as to

 minimize stress on those wires at the corners.

 

And the Dungeon wires need to go around the door... 

As you can imagine, Dear Readers... this takes a while!

 

The upper ends of the buttress have to be 

glued and screwed to "blocks" (5/8" x 5/8"stock wood) 

which are themselves glued and screwed firmly to the Tower wall. 

The buttresses need to be very sturdy!

 

Here the buttress pieces are mostly built 

and "tested" for attaching but not yet 

glued permanently in place. 

The front panel will have an opening door section

 at the bottom to access the wires.

 

And the short piece of "buttress" 

on the right side of the Postern door

 also needed to be constructed. 

It holds the base section firmly in place

 and helps hide the door. 

 

But by now it is Wednesday night... I am tired.... 

the primer needs to be painted the next day... 

the section over the Postern door can be added another time. 

The basic framework is now glued and screwed securely in place!

 

The next day, as sometimes happens after a good night's sleep, 

the fresh eyes of morning see things differently! 

There was a scrap of wood... a cut off piece from years ago... 

kicking around in my way... making a nuisance of itself

 as it would not settle into a category of scrap.... 

it was large and pointy and ... odd! 

But suddenly I thought it might fit over the Postern door

 as part of the buttress framework I was still trying to build.... 

so I cut it to fit the space....

 (because you couldn't tell if it would work

 until it had been cut to fit.....) and ...

 

I know it is hard to see... but it fits the spot just right! 

And then maybe it needed to be given a saw-toothed edge... 

like so many of the other old door arches.....

 

But I was hurrying that day and forgot to get many pictures.... 

you will have to wait 'til later to see it in place... 

because now it was Finally time to get the primer on the wall!

 

 

Oh my goodness... this felt like such a relief.... 

like old dry skin getting a soothing lotion at last... 

 

 

which then has to dry sufficiently... 

you can see in the background 

my door is open to the porch outside... 

a lovely breeze wafting through the house 

and out the window on the south side....

 

 

And then the gray base coat of paint...

 

 

And the whole wall is now painted! 

Just awaiting the "rock" details.... 

along with the rest of The Castle facade.

 

 

And yes... I am still working on the details of the Postern Gate...

And I have to attach the front of the buttress 

and the opening door to the plug compartment... 

 but I got the bulk of it done in time! 

 

So clearly, Dear Readers, 

the Next steps weren't at all 

what I thought they would be.... 

Not at all Fast.... but (mostly) done at last! 

 

 

And More Windows.....

 

Details, Details.....

While I was working on the back side of the Ladies' Tower, Dear Readers, it seemed to only make sense that I also complete the one remaining window on the Tower back side while I was accessing that part of the structure! Who knows how long it will take me to "get to" the final upper Bed Chamber... but at least I was certain of the window placement and the construction needed. So I began right away as you can see in the above picture... the boring part of building the frame. I will not bore you with all the steps taken.... but since this is my construction archive, I feel the need to record the progress made, however skip-de-doodle it is!

 

Here you can see the entire Ladies' Tower exterior with the flash for reference.

 The lowest windows are the Chapel windows flanking the altar,

 the two on the next level up are the ones I just recently made for the Ladies' Solar,

 and I am determined to make their exterior rock trimming too

 before I turn the Tower back to the wall!

 

And here you can sort of see the Ladies' Solar window

 before the exterior trim is begun.

 (Sorry about the dark photos.... yeah, I forget

 how little light there is in my house)

 but the chief thing I wanted you to notice is 

that the larger window opening that was filled in

 will be "honored" in the trim construction. 

The story is that the "glazing" of the windows 

was long after the construction of the Tower itself, 

so the already finished opening would have had trim

 and then been partially filled in when the glazing happened. 

Gazing is, after all, very very expensive!

 

The base of the window trim will span 

the original opening as you can see here.

 

And because I am racing along, 

following the already well established styles.... 

here you can see both openings mostly completed.

 Only missing the saw-toothed arch and the central capitals.

 

And here you can see the central capitals have been added! 

These particular capitals are made from

 the laaast small fragments of a particular wooden trim

 that I bought, quite a few years back, at the local big box store....

 and have not been able to find a similar profile since.

 (I hate it when things "disappear" out of the marketplace

 due to changing fashions.... fancy trim..? 

who wants that?.... well, I did.... just a small piece.....) 

So here they are... on the back side of the Tower wall.... 

the Last ornate capitals.... 

hardly ever visible to anyone...

 but I will know they are there!

 

Meanwhile the last upper window frame

 is getting constructed step by step.

 

And the lower two needed their saw-toothed arches cut....

 

Cut... primed.... painted.....

 waiting for the paint to dry between each step.......

 

Here the trim is all glued in place and 

the grout lines are painted on the left window... 

not yet on the right one.....

you can see the subtle difference it makes...

 

And on the right one too.

 

And meanwhile I have raced ahead 

with the glass for the upper window...

 

And glued it in place too! 

It only needs the window crossbar.... 

and trims....

 

 Like so.....

 

And here you see the trims nearly finished too!

 

 

Which just leaves one more saw-toothed window arch....

 And attached.

Well, that was quick! 

 

 

And once again, the exterior view of that back wall... 

with the flash.... 

can we call it just about finished? 

Well, finished enough to turn to the other side....

 

 The interior of that top room has a long ways to go!

 

 "cause we're just getting started with the Ladies' Solar!

 

 And yeah... 

I still have to get caught up

 with that still not primed end wall....

which needs the wiring channels.... 

and the box for the plug strip... 

and the postern gate.... 

 

Well, Dear Readers, a ton of details

 are still needed on this Castle Tower. 

But that just means I get to keep on making them! 

Oh I do love Details! 
 

 

 

Little Diamond Windows....

 

Framed.....

You might Not recall, Dear Readers, the construction of the Nursery Bed Nook windows, and I would not blame you at all! They were made in the distant past, after all, in the summer of 2014, almost too long ago to remember! It was a fantastic little piece of enchantment... this sleeping nook tucked into the "stump" of a lopped off tree branch... on the opening door wall of the Nursery. It set the entire tone for the Nursery... as often has been the case with this construction.... the door leads the way! It lets you in... draws you in.... gives you the glimpse of what will come for the rest of the room. Those little diamond-paned windows with the lace curtains on their curtain rod... yes those are little curtain rings... and those windows are hinged to open! (I tend not to open them often as the hinges are impractical and very very tiny..... but, yes, they do open.) This was the last I worked on the Tree House for the next dozen years! Had I set the bar too high? What was preventing me from continuing with this room? It is a Looooong story... I was distracted... busy with all those other projects.... and the Nursery door would not stay closed on its own but hung open and gaping and begging me to give it some attention.... year after year. I would close it, put tape across the door... but the tape would give out and there was that door waving at me again! Well, as you might know, eventually I bought a step ladder so I could actually see what I was building up there in the Tree House... (I am not tall and the Nursery is above my eye level....) and once again set about constructing these little rooms. 

 

And I have made some good progress in the Nanny's Room,

 and even got started on the Bunk-beds in the other lopped off tree branch. 

But those windows were not progressing at all!

 With the example of the Bed Nook windows and their lovely curtains...

 didn't I have a road map to follow? 

Couldn't I just make them like the first ones? 

Well, no, I couldn't.

 They were squeezed into a smaller space

 and hinging all those windows was beyond

 my ability to even imagine! 

But I did refine the interior of the bunkbeds nook... 

lining them with matchstick paneling and sewing little mattresses.

 I think I showed that progress last autumn about this time. 

But the windows were being stubborn. 

So I worked on the Nanny's Room instead... 

finishing those windows, adding wall paper and decorative ceiling and...

 and... and... still no windows for the Nursery. 

At last I decided that the window spaces were too large...

 the little Ratlings would fall through them if they kicked too hard... 

so I added more framing to the outside wall... 

closing in the spaces a bit. 

If you look carefully at the above picture you can see

 the protruding section of the bunk-beds nook 

with much smaller and better defined window holes. 

Perhaps now I was making progress! 

When I found myself sewing a tiny patchwork Quilt for the Nanny's Bed

 in the middle of the hottest part of summer, 

I began to realize I was just procrastinating... 

those windows Needed to be tackled! 

 

It starts with making a pattern of the window openings... 

pretty much like with the Castle Windows, 

only the opposite part takes the frame

 (outside the window rather than inside the window),

 hence I am cutting out the window panes, 

leaving the framework surrounding it.

 

And trying to figure out the placement 

of the mesh used for the window panes..... 

seeing how the shapes would fit in the openings....

 

Starting to construct the cardboard frames layers.... 

this is the complicated part... 

the under frame needs to surround the acetate window panel, 

which has the mesh glued to it... 

then the outer frame goes over the acetate and mesh window panes, 

overlapping onto the outer cardboard frame, 

thereby holding all the layers in place. 

If you look very closely at the above picture 

you will see the acetate panes have been 

fitted into those cardboard openings. 

Their edges will overlap the window's framing.

 

Here the underframe has been painted with the brown paint. 

This is so any edges that show will be the dark brown wood color,

 and also the paint strengthens the cardboard itself. 

 

And here the acetate window panes are in position 

(but not glued down yet!)... just to test the fit of all the layers.

 The outerframe, there to the right, is awaiting its paint.

 

And then you come to the point where you just have to wing it! 

The four panes "mesh" has to be glued to the acetate 

with a thick layer of Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue.... 

covering and soaking through the mesh 

and left to dry overnight. 

The paper pattern underneath is 

hopefully making the spacing correct!

 

Here you can see them the next morning... 

the glue has dried overnight.... 

but is also lifting from the acetate surface...!

 Aaack! What to do....???

 

 Well, I decided there was nothing for it 

but to immediately glue all the layers in place

 and see what would happen next......? !! 

Here you can see them being glued.... 

well, they are there under that agate rock 

and the glue bottle! :)

 

 

And much later when the weights are removed..... 

perhaps it worked after all...?

 

Here is the view seen through the windows

 from inside the bunkbeds.... 

it looks just about right to me!

 (Whew!)

 

And testing the bunkbeds wall in place in the Tree House....

 the exterior view with flash 

(it is getting late and dark already)

 

And the exterior view of both the bed nook "protrusions"

with the opening wall closed (it stays closed now

because I fixed the door last summer!).... 

 

But the view of the bunkbed windows

 from inside the Tree House, Dear Readers,

 is almost impossible to see.....! 

Certainly, the camera with the flash turned on

 can't get close enough.

 

But the following morning the sunlight was

 snaking its way into my workroom and

 shining directly onto the Tree House....

 could it be coming through those bunk bed windows.... 

could we see it at all....???

 

Aaah.... 

just the barest corner of a window is visible!

 

And the light is definitely shining 

into the Nursery onto the floor! 

(What more could I ask for...?)

 

And the exterior view this morning.... 

yeah, it is dark again... 

the sun angle is getting lower and doesn't stay as long.....

 but those windows are doing their job! 

There will be more "framework" built up around the openings

 when I get to constructing the outer shell of the tree structure.

 

There is still so far to go Dear Readers, 

but finally, Finally, I have framed those 

Little Diamond Paned windows!  

I call that progress!