Castle Great Hall Revisited....

 

Strengthening Corners High and Low.... 

Some of you, Dear Readers, might Remember last summer's frenzy of strengthening the Castle.... in particular adding trim around all the eaves and doors and windows of the so far completed rooms. And you might remember that I had just begun on the Great Hall when I added the structural cross beam along the upper front where none had been built in the original construction process. And that was as far as I got. The building season had come to a close and there were still several parts of the Great Hall that needed solutions! In particular the eaves just below the vaulted ceiling along the back wall. There was no supporting beam on that side either!

Here you can see what I mean. 

I have turned on the flash so you can see 

all the glaring deficiencies in this construction!

Once I had added the support across the opening side,

 it was even more necessary to strengthen the back side

 where the ceiling would meet the wall.

I had always intended to add a row of 

 "stone" buttressing under the ceiling edge,

 but had not figured out the precise method of attaching these "stones".

The window frames got in the way, for starters, 

and the wall itself is irregular,

 and the ceiling edges were even more irregular....

 It needed solutions!

 

Here you can see one end of the Great Hall with the ceiling removed. 

(I will not firmly attach it until I have completed the painting part....)

You can see there is no "framework" on the back wall

 to support this barrel vaulted ceiling!

(What was I thinking!)

 

And another place that really needed "strengthening"

 was the opening doors on the front wall. 

 

They have those wonderful hinges 

supporting the opening of the bi-fold doors,

 but the plywood warps terribly

 in the ever changing humidity of this region.

At the moment we are terribly humid... 

so the doors have swelled to their less warped shape

 and they close just right.

It is another story in the dry winter air.

(I could not find a picture to show you...)

But all winter I was planning out how to add "buttressing"

 to the inside panels without getting in the way of the windows.

It needed to sort of align with the roof arches... 

(for rational minds like mine!)

Which meant they would not align exactly with the hinged folds.

And after much fiddling and testing

 (a challenge when the interior can't be seen properly 

when the doors are closed!)

 I figured out where the "posts" should go...

Along with a narrower strip that would be attached to the other door panel

 and would cover the "crack" between the door sections when closed.

Believe me, these add a lot of structure to the doors!

The lighting is a little better in this picture.

 You can see that I had to carve away where

 the bracing would bump into the gallery.

 

And somewhere in this "strengthening" process,

 it occurred to me to just add a "beam"

across the back to support the ceiling,

 much like the one across the front,

 although it would be interrupted by the chimney flue....

It would really simplify the juncture of the roof and the wall.

Here you can see I have cut some sections of wood

 for the "stone" beams and am testing them in place.

They obscure the top of the window trim "stones"... 

but I have figured out how to integrate that into the new plan....

(It is still being constructed...)

Here those supports have been painted to resemble stone... 

but are still not glued in place.

There will be more strengthening on all the edges of this ceiling...

And the arch of the barrel vault

 needs to be made more symmetrical...

On both ends of the Great Hall.

Which is difficult to do with the ceiling in place....

And hard to tell what looks right when it is not in place!

And maybe while I am doing that,

 I will Finally finish painting all those Patient Saints!

I can Dream.... Right?

So there you can see, Dear Readers,

 the partially strengthened corners of the

 Great Hall Ceiling and Doors.

It is Progress at last!