Thanksgiving by the Paris Cabinet and We Have Turrets

Thanksgiving with the Paris Cabinet in the background. 

We had a wonderful meal together and a loud and wild time playing Mexican Train after dinner. 

Left to right, Sage, Davis, Joe, Lisa, Doug, Reese, Donna, Jan.

 Holy moley! We have roof turrets. 

Looks mighty large when you are standing inside looking up.

From outside the turrets do not look large. 

It was a gorgeous Friday, we got the front on and I started painting it.

One of the cacti had bright yellow blooms, we love sunny yellow.

 My painting job didn't get too far before it got dusk and I didn't want to open another can of paint. Jan is standing in the doorway. We still have so much to do, turret shingles, copper finials and flags, crenulations, build the double doors and windows, add lots of trim, stone base and more.

 With rain expected we will work on the turret shingles next.

It looks like our gargoyle is smiling, hmm, doesn't look too ferocious. 

Wonder if he can really do his job to ward off evil spirits.

Roof Progress on Garden Castle Shed

Jan took a photo of the progress on the slant-roof comp shingles from Lowes, they are Estate Gray but have a bit of a green cast.

This evening Jan did some sketching and quick coloring for some options for doors, windows and colors.

Now we will decide. I'm partial to plain soft gray and teal doors and window trim.

Roof Shingles on Garden Castle Shed

Building when you have no construction experience is hard work. We were exhausted on Saturday. We got up early Sunday morning and went to 8 a.m. church services with the intention of coming home to work on the shed.

We had a nice visit with friends at church then came home to make brunch. Working together we made our favorite dish, a sauteed combination of bacon, lots of onions and potatoes and cooked till browned. Scrambled eggs, homemade bread toast and orange marmalade finished up the brunch and we washed it down with Dutch coffee. As we finished eating we realized how achy we were and how quiet the neighborhood was. We decided not to disturb the peace and instead played Tri-Ominos before cleaning house and resting the rest of the day.

Back to work, here is Jan, on the lean-to part after rolling out the felt paper.

 I was on a low ladder at the back hammering in the nails to secure the felt paper.

By late afternoon Jan was working on the 5th row of shingles.

Jan tacked up three turret roof triangles to see how they fit. We will do the felt paper and shingle them individually before they are mounted permanently.

We're now starting to think of the windows and doors. We quickly cut out a cardboard window to get the effect, see the right turret. Not quite Gothic enough, needs to be more pointed.

This gives us a feel for the windows but we have decided the doors will be made first since the windows need to be in proportion and it's hard to decide if one long window or two smaller windows will look best for the design proportions.

Good Day for Garden Castle Shed

It was a good day, things went smoothly. We got more panels up and here is Jan working on the first roof section of the slant roof portion of the shed.

Waving from the roof. It was pretty exciting getting to this part.

At the end of the day most of the slant roof was in, still a small section at the right to go. Jan added the extra doorway header and sides. The project has gone through many changes from the September foam core model. Originally the plan was to be only 8 feet high with a small wall between and we were going to use reclaimed wood. Two small turrets would not have been much storage so the center was expanded to be a slant roof shed that was 6 feet at the back and the turrets would be 11 feet high. By then we realized we needed to use full panels. This is definitely a plan that grew and grew.

Now we realize the quick sketch will be different, only one long window for the front of the turrets and it will start about 34 inches up. The right turret will have two windows on the two open panels so I will have a window with a view to the yard. The final window decisions will not be made till the turret roofs are complete so I can see how it feels. I do not want a dark shed but also realize the more windows the less storage options.

Little mister evil eye gargoyle is waiting but not sure how patiently. Patience little guy, the roof paper and shingles on the slant roof will go up tomorrow if we don't get rain.

Tea Time Among the Saw Dust

Today turned out to be productive but we started with two steps back. It's so frustrating when you have to take something apart to re-do. We both had "I told you so" moments. It just proves that it takes team work. We're good with that and didn't rub it in.

After the re-do was completed Jan wanted afternoon tea. Here is the tea time tray among the sawdust.

This is Pickwick tea we purchased from Erik Timmerman who delivers Dutch products every few weeks. We always enjoy our little bit of Holland but my question is, "Are the Dutch becoming too Americanized? I like labels in Dutch, this was the latest Pickwich tea and mostly in English. Kaneel is Dutch for Cinnamon, both words on the box but description was entirely in English. We've been buying Dutch Pickwick tea for 24 years and it's always been in Dutch if it's imported. This must be for export.

Moving forward, here is Jan, putting up the first long panel on one of the turrets. We cheered!

He liked this picture of him working and called himself the headless carpenter.

Cutting another panel of siding.

It looks quite different with siding going up.

 We had quite a mess at 3:30 and had no more siding to cut.

We quickly cleaned up and took off for the lumber yard to buy more siding.

The weather forecast is sunny for tomorrow. We shall see.

Code Enforcement Checked on Castle Shed

Monday morning, by 11 a.m. a city building code inspector was at our door. Some neighbor didn't waste a minute to call, must have called at 8 a.m. to report us. The roof frame went up permanently on Saturday.

We invited the inspector in, I was confident we did not need a permit for the shed. He said someone walking by called about the the height of the roof. He measured the square footage and we are well below 120 square feet. He measured the height, it is 11 feet, a foot below the 12 foot high maximum.

The inspector asked if the base was treated wood, yes it is. He asked if we were adding electricity. I told him no, only solar lighting. We were very happy when he left. It is good knowing that we are okay and not violating any building codes.

Look at the gargoyle's scowl, he was not happy but the pot of yellow Johnny-Jump Ups that our neighbor Tracey brought us did cheer him up.

We worked a while today and put out a few things after cleaning up. Our Dutch shoes fit right in to our Dutch inspired shed.

And I couldn't resist putting out some solar lights. Don't you think we need a chandelier hanging in each turret? They will be solar.

We finished the back side of the second turret, put up the back side panels and back fascia today. I painted the back wall. Next we will do the smaller back turret panels so the slant roof can go on.

Here is our inspiration, the Koppelpoort water gate built in the 1400s in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Jan took the photo when we went back to visit in 2006, what a surprise during our midnight walk. The Dutch know lighting so well.

Castle Shed Framing

We have the framing almost complete! Only one rafter and two segments of the turret framing to do. It feels good to have this part almost done.

Looking up to the left tower, it looks so large but is actually only 4 feet across.

And the second side.

We can now start adding some siding.

It was two months ago today that we put together the foam core model. At first it was just going to be two turrets with a wall between. The turrets in the model below were not complete, each was going to have a door. Soon I realized why not connect them with a slant roof shed between them.

Concepts always change and there are still changes to come but I'm liking it more each day.

We are two tired people tonight but it is a good tired.

Garden Castle Shed Turrets

It seemed like another two step dance today, two steps forward and one back. I'm getting so anxious to get the shed totally enclosed and roof on.

While Jan was setting up the tools I slapped a little paint on the back wall, the two left panels are white and the section behind the chair is a grayish putty color, didn't get a photo later in the day when the second coat was on. I wanted to test the colors. At this point the shed will be the pale gray and the windows and door frames probably a soft teal similar to the chair and basket.

We got the turret studs up today.

Piecing the shorter pieces of the turret was like putting together a difficult puzzle. The turret meets the slant roof and the short studs need to be supported to the rafters of the slant roof, we finally figured out how we would do that.

After dinner this evening we watched a couple of YouTube videos of Efteling, the fairytale park in the Netherlands that opened in 1952. I wanted to see it again and maybe be inspired by some of the fairytale scenes I remember when we visited in the early 1990s. It has expanded since we visited. The early designer of the park was Anton Pieck, the most famous Dutch illustrator of the 20th century. We have always loved his work.

While Jan is watching I movie I experimented with a piece of copper to make a finial for the top of the copper cap that will be on the pointed roofs of the turrets. I used my bezel mandrel to form the cone, still needs a little work and will be soldered closed. Maybe I will add a little copper flag that appears to be blowing in the wind, not sure yet.

The gargoyle is looking mean, he wants to have a finished shed to protect from evil demons!

Garden Castle Shed Second Turret

Early in the morning we went out to take a look at our garden castle shed construction site. Jan slipped on one of the roof octagons and the view up was so interesting I had to take a photo. It looks much bigger than it really is, I was standing below.

After returning from my office meeting I had doors to ship. Jan has been busy painting the orders, two were multiple doors, and three orders for one door each ordered from our Etsy shop, Paris Cabinet.

The second turret is started.

 

 

When the second turret framing is done we will need to decide how to proceed with the turret roofs since they are so high.

Four Steps Forward on the Garden Castle Shed

Success, we have a turret! It's Veteran's Day and we were able to work about 7 hours today. Finally we felt we had success on a very difficult part of building the garden castle shed. Sometimes sleeping on a problem solves the problem. I woke up thinking about the core and rafters and realized it is just a triangle from the center point and they should have a perpendicular cut.

Here are the first two rafters that fit fine on the core when it was laid it out.

They fit with no gap!

 And then there were 4 roof beams connected.

By then we had taken a lunch break and needed an afternoon cup of tea. I brought out a tray with tea pot covered with a tea cozy.

We celebrated the roof beams. Don't we look like the American Gothic painting? Almost.

As we started work on the turret we labeled things.

We kept going. 

The turret is taking shape.

Finally by 5 p.m. we had the turret beams up but it was too dark to get the roof up, this photo self corrected to look lighter than it really was, we had to stop for the day.

It is definitely looking like our plan and gargoyle will soon be doing his job.