Hi Jeff, just stumbled upon your blog and am pleased to find out that I'm not the only person on the planet who dreams of building a castle. We've already taken a few steps in the right direction my moving to Normandy in France where we have bought a stone house built in 1667. Although we have the land here to build the dream, unfortunately we don't have the funds so it will remain a dream. We have however built a pizza oven in a castle style that I thought you might appreciate. Merry Christmas, Andy.
I don't know which is more cool, the 1600s house in France or the fanciful pizza oven? You decide. What a neat video displaying the building process and the imagination that went into the design and construction of the oven. Thanks for sharing Andy, I hope your pizzas turn out ace nice as the oven did! Merry Christmas to you too.
Just found this in an English paper and thought your readers might appreciate it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268612/Want-live-like-king-The-American-castle-homes-buy.html
I too want to learn how to build so one day I can build a castle/ or at the very least a home for myself and my family. Where are you in your project? Here's a thought. Organize a working vacation. Offer to feed and "house" people if they help you build you castle. I have no discernible skills that would make me useful to you helping you build your home.
ReplyDeleteBut! I'm eager to learn, I could be a helping hand, I speak french and I would work 6 and a half days a week for 2 meals a day and the ability to put a tent up on your land while I stay to work. And I'm sure other people would jump at that opportunity too. Imagine you could have 20 employees working day and night for you and all you would really have to do in return is feed them. At the cost of 20 meals 2 times a day, it would be a lot cheaper than employing 20 contractors. To work for you....
But that just a thought. Good luck with your building
That's a lot of volunteers working for food and board. I suspect it would be difficult to maintain interest in working on someone else's project and one would have little authority over their activities. It sounds like a good idea, and there are at least two would-be castle builders out there who have attempted this path of action. Neither has begun building to the best of my knowledge. Best course of action, near as I can tell, is to do as much of the work as you can yourself and keep it simple.
ReplyDeleteI used the volunteer system last August when, with a team of 15 friends, we built a traditional medieval round house over the period of a week. Although I was left with the roof to finish, it's amazing how quick progress can be with a bunch of willing and eager volunteers.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had such good success with the project! We have a ways to go before we build, but if we decide to do it ourselves we won't ignore the possibility of volunteer work.
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