Castle Doors....

.....And Hinges!!!

I left you last weekend, Dear Readers, with the "caves" in the Castle Base all painted and the doors ready to attach. I don't know why it took me so long to get the "courage" to add the door hinges! Perhaps it was just that the "caves" had been open for so long that I was having a hard time envisioning them as closed "cupboards" instead. But nevertheless, I decided that the only way to discover whether I liked them with doors attached, was going to be by attaching the doors! So I dug through the pile of hinges I had purchased Years ago... to locate the proper sized ones... and then attached the doors! Above you can see the first cave with the hinges on the doors... the other doors needed to be trimmed a little so it took longer to get them hinged.

Here you can see it closer.... I think they look lovely!

And with all three caves with the doors attached.

(It is really challenging to get a good shot of the entire castle and base...

 I can't stand far enough away to get it all in the picture...!)

I will need to add some sort of "door knobs"... 

but I think they will end up looking like chunks of rock... 

just something to grab to open the doors.

But then I decided they also needed to have "backstops" added

 to keep the doors from pushing too far inward and damaging the hinges.

This was Not easy to do!

I had to use a mirror and spotlight and work upside down

 to see what I was doing while screwing them to the frame on the inside....

Can you see it there.... sticking down from the top...?

Here you can see it with one of the doors closed.... 

it catches the door and keeps it from opening inward.

And once those were added...

(I am going to need to add these to all the Castle doors...!)

I decided to add the hinges to the only two doors

 to the Castle that were already prepared...

The doors to the Pantries on either side of the Kitchen....

And..... Ta Da!!! The doors are open! 

(I LOVE hinges!!!)

And then I cast my eye on all the Castle Rooms which needed to have doors added....

I was ready to add hinges right and left.....

The Stables and the Guard Room to the right.....

The Chapel and the Dungeons to the left....

And I located and identified all the door panels.....

which had been cut when I made the "prosceniums" 

for the rooms that had been started.... all those years ago!

(I began the Castle in 2010.... and have not done

 much to the basic structure since 2011).

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you have spotted

 the problem I encountered.

These "doors" are the fourth wall of each room

and they span a wide opening. 

None of them had the windows cut in them yet... 

and each one would need to be cut in half to open in the middle...

And I hadn't even started the panels for the upper rooms yet!

(Why did I think it would be a Quick and easy task?)

I had to get out my big saws...

And decide exactly where all the windows would go...

 

And hours later I had my door panels roughed out.

The kitchen ones are the ones on the right.... 

the Dungeon to the left....

The Guard Room and the Stables to the right....

 (But the Guard Room panels need trimming to fit...)

The Chapel doors to the upper left...

(the proscenium here is still not even attached 

because the ceiling is still being painted....!)

This is as much of the Castle as I can fit into one shot.

(It is 66 inches wide Tower to Tower... the base is longer).

I still haven't cut the Great Hall doors.

I need to design the window placement and

 decide whether I will have the doors double-hinged.....

And the "prosceniums" still have not 

even been cut for the upper rooms..... 

The Lord's Council Chamber and 

The Lord's Bed Chamber to the right....

And the Lady's Solar and the 

Lady's Bed Chamber to the left above the Chapel...

(which have not even been cleared of their "storage"!)

So No, I did not get to play with any more hinges.

But I did complete lilac blossom number seventeen....

Here in the box with its buddies!

 

And I spent an hour on the petit-point embroidery too....

stitching by an open window on a beautiful Summer Morning.

But my Favorite part, Dear Readers, 

is being able to open and close those Castle Pantry doors!

And now I can't wait to add hinges

 to all the rest of those doors!

Did you know how much I love hinges??