(Under Construction)
This is an artists conception of what the castle will look like when finished.
Click here for Answers to frequently asked questions about Dupont Castle.
For pictures of work done in 2012, scroll down this page.
Pictures of recent progress (
2012)
1-2-2012 This is what the castle looks like at the beginning of 2012. With any luck,
I hope to get started this year on a storage room that will be built over the garage which you can
see the top of to the left in this photo.
2-17-2012 I am about to get started on installing the wallboard in the tower that is just
off the kitchen. Not surprisingly, we call this room the "kitchen tower". This is what it
looks like with just this insulation installed.
2-27-2012 The wallboard is now in and I have the tape and the first coat of "mud" in place.
2-29-2012 We noticed a deer convention going on in our side yard. There were 10 of
them out there at one time. To see a video of the deer, go here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiMsbe2DiN4&feature=youtu.be
3-5-2012 I have finished sanding the wallboard in the kitchen tower, and have put two coats
of paint on the walls. I also installed the light fixture, and the outlets. I still need to
finish up the wordwork and molding. I am almost out of molding, so it may be a while.
3-19-2012 I am about to start building the block walls for a room over the garage.
Mr. Moatmonster has helped me move the blocks to get me started.
3-24-2012 I started by installing a row of dark blocks on the new tower. The tower will be dark
like the other two towers, and the straight walls will look the same as the walls on the keep.
4-3-2012 I have finished two rows all the way around the new section.
4-3-2012 I am using the same method of reinforcement that I did on the main section of the castle.
I've bent and placed a number 3 re-bar (3/8 inch) in the channel on the top of the tower blocks.
This will be mortered into place as you can see from the block next to the end block. On the straight
walls I use steel ladder reinforcement. This reinforcement occurs every two rows. This must work,
we have no cracks in the main castle.
4-3-2012 I have also been working on the kitchen tower room. I still need to put another coat of paint on the
trim, other than that, it's finished. While the weather is good, I'd rather be working on the outside anyway.
4-13-2012 I have now finished row 6 of the new room. Starting with row 7, I will be leaving openings for the windows.
4-16-2012 I received a nice gift for the castle from a man by the name of Eric Rowley. It is a hand carved
coat of arms. It's very well done, and we appreciate the effort Eric went to to make this and send it to us.
Eric has a website with examples of his other work.
OCKTHWAITE Statuary
4-26-2012 I am now up to row 10. You can see where the windows will be. There will be 5 windows in the tower
just like the towers in the main part of the keep.
4-26-2012 This is a photo of the same thing looking down from the roof. The black area on the floor
is the rubber roofing material (EPDM) that I was using to cover the floor to keep the rain out of the garage.
It has been pulled back from the edges to give me space to work. This rubber will be used on the roof of
this new room.
5-15-2012 A bunch of lumber was delivered today, I need to get started doing the carpentry work on the
storage room.
5-18-2012 This is what it looks like so far. Still lots to do.
5-18-2012 This is what it looks like on the inside. The 6 inch wide wall in the middle is a weight
bearing wall. It holds up one end of the roof rafters. This space is about 900 square feet, and is
designed so in the future, it could be converted to a one bedroom apartment. It's not likely that we
will ever get around to doing that, but someone in the future might want to.
5-20-2012 In order to install the wall studs in the tower, I need a curved piece to place them on. I use
layers of 3/4 inch plywood cut to the curve of the tower. I use two layers on the bottom, and four layers
around the top. It's a good thing I have a band saw to cut them on. I'll need about 80 of these pieces
before I'm done.
5-23-2012 We've had a lot of rain here the last couple of days, but I'm now finished with the studs in the tower.
Next, I need to finish the roof joists.
5-24-2012 This is our friend Comet. He will be a year old next month. He has started growing his first
set of cute little antlers.
5-25-2012 On the bad side, the rain slows things down, but on the good side, it sometimes gives us something
pretty to look at.
5-26-2012 I decided that now would be a good time to construct the stairway. This morning I cut and placed the
stringers. All I need to do now is find some scrap wood to use for steps.
5-26-2012 While working in the garden, Patty came across a new little turtle. We are not sure we want him in the
garden, but he says he doesn't eat much.
5-27-2012 We were placed under attack by a small army from Maryland. They managed to get past our outer defenses.
Even Sir Galin was unable to stop them. Everything turned out okay though, we found out that they were a friendly
army so we showed them the castle. All is well again.
5-29-2012 The plywood is all in place now. I have a few odds and ends to finish, then it will be time to get
back to placing block.
6-1-2012 Mr. Moatmonster the backhoe offered to help raise the blocks to the roof. Thank you Mr.
Moatmonster.
6-12-2012 Princess Jaclyn and Princess Carolynn stopped by to see the castle today. We are pleased
that they could come.
6-27-2012 I have now finished row 20. This is the top of the straight walls except for crenelations.
the tower will be a little taller.
6-27-2012 There is one area of the walls that is not quite finished. This opening is used by the
backhoe to lift the blocks to the roof.
6-28-2012 Back in December, we were visited by Marti Attoun.
She wrote an article which was recently published in the "American Profile" magazine (see above photo).
The article mentioned our castle along with other castles. You can see a copy of the article here:
here.
or you can see it online
here.
7-3-2012 I am now almost finished with the crenelations on the straight walls. I still have work to do on the tower.
7-4-2012 We had a small party for our good friend Wendel. He will be 94 tomorrow. We had a great time, and were able to
see some fireworks from the roof.
7-9-2012 Patty's church group had a meeting up at the castle. they are a nice bunch of people,
we enjoyed having them here.
7-18-2012 Our friends Jim and Audra stopped by for a visit. They brought their daughter Teresa with her
husband Eric, and two sons Patrick and Ben. We LOVE to have them stop by.
7-22-2012 I'm just about done building the deck for the tower. Having this to stand on will make it
easier to install the blocks for the last three rows on the tower.
7-23-2012 Our deer friend Socks appears to be very pregnant. For about the past three weeks, she has been spending a
lot of time in this area which is about 30 feet from the castle. She may be planning on having her next batch
of babies there, we are not sure. Her little boy Comet is there keeping her company right now.
7-23-2012 One of Socks's deer friends brought her new baby around to show him off to everyone. He sure is cute.
7-30-2012 Patty's former roommates from a long time ago stopped by for a reunion of sorts.
Their visit was a lot of fun.
8-13-2012 I have finally finished placing the blocks for the tower. It is finished now except fot the
concrete caps that go on top of the crenelations.
8-13-2012 I now need to turn my attention to the hole that was left in the wall to get the blocks up to the roof.
8-17-2012 I have now finished placing the blocks. You might notice an opening in the wall to the left of the photo.
This will be a way to get to the gatehouse if I ever get far enough along to build one.
8-18-2012 We have had a visit from this visitor in the past, but this is the first time we have been able to
get a good photo of him. He looks to be about 31 inches tall at the shoulder. We would be happy if he would
move to a different neighborhood.
8-19-2012 Now that the blocks are all in place, I still need to do a lot of things to finish the roof area.
One thing I still need to do is to place caps on the top of the crenelations. In this photo, you can see a
cap on top of the center merlon. I need to do this to all the other merlons.
8-25-2012 I also need to get the rubber roofing on the roof. I am about half done with that.
9-3-2012 We were visited for a couple of days by our friends Arlene and Bert. I have known them
both since my junior high school days. It's nice to see old friends, we had an enjoyable time.
10-2-2012 I managed to get a little more work done on the storage room. I put the door and some of the
windows in place. I still need to do some caulking and painting and install the trim around the door.
10-7-2012 Our friends Mark, Barbara, Jim and Carol all came up to visit and stayed the night. We had
a great time going to the local yearly festival called the "Apple Butter Festival". Also, Barbara brougt
up a Beautiful castle tapistry that she had made for us. It is now hanging on the wall in the Feasting Hall.
Thank you Barbara.
10-12-2012 I am getting ready to put the caps on the tops of the crenelations. Before I put the caps on the merlons,
I fill the two outside holes with concrete and a re-bar. this helps keep the merlon in place if we are put under
attack with a trebuchet.
10-12-2012 I am now almost completly finished installing the rubber (EPDM) roof. This is the tower area.
Eventually, there will be a deck on the tower platform with stairs leading to it.
10-21-2012 The concrete slabs that I need for the top caps are of a nonstandard size. Therefore, I need to
custom make them. In order to do that, I have built a form out of 2X3's. The clamps hold the form to a base.
Everything is screwed together. After the concrete hardens, I just remove the screws and take out the top caps.
These long caps are about 4 feet long and 9 inches wide and weigh around 80 pounds each. This photo shows two
caps in the form.
10-22-2012 This is the curved form I use to make the top caps for the round tower.
10-25-2012 The windows have now all been installed. I still need to caulk and paint around them.
You will also notice that the top caps have been installed on this wall.
11-15-2012 It's been cold up here lately, so I have not been doing much outside work.
I did manage to get the rest of the caps on the crenelations on the straight walls. I have not yet
finished the caps on the tower. I may not get that done till next spring.
12-20-2012 The stairway between the second floor and the third floor has had temporary steps for a long
time. They look like this. It is about time to install steps that are a bit more permanant.
12-26-2012 This is what they look like now.
12-24-2012 It's Christmas eve, and we have 8 or 9 deer in our back yard. The little one
toward the left in the front is Donder, he is one of our favorites. The one in the middle is one
that we have not seen before. The others have been calling him Rudy. He has an unusual nose,
I would even say it glows.
12-28-2012 And speaking of stairways, I used the old steps from the second floor stairway as the
steps on the new stairway from the garage to the new storage room above.
Click here to send E-Mail
to Jim or Patty.
Princess Patricia and I would like to say a special THANK YOU to the following people
who have volunteered time and energy to help with the work at the castle site.
Bill Postlethwait
Mariann Postlethwait
Mark Eastwood
Barbara Gay
Jim Eaton
Carol Eaton
John Miller
Terry Robinson
Shereen Robinson
Brad Hurliman
Rob Dekarske
Shirley Mandler
T.O. Galloway
Bill White
Adam Elliott
Mike Rozalski
I would also like to thank the following people for advice, technical assistance, encouragement,
and moral support:
John Miller - Bull Run Castle
Ron Bigbee - Castle Avalon
Sir Randy Michael - Chateau LaRoche
Peter Wing - Wings Castle
Sue Maxwell - Ravenwood Castle
Mike Freeman - Castell Gwynn
Roger Greim - Kataryna Castle
Bruce Busboom - Busboom Castle
Meme Hardin - Hardin Castle
Wyatt C Mortensen - Sleeping Beauty Castle
David O'Connor - Castle Anam Cara
We would like to thank the following people who donated either money furnishings,
or building materials to the Dupont Castle building project.
Bill & Mariann Postlethwait
Shirley Zimmerman & Bob Hampl
Mark Eastwood &Barbara Gay
Frank & Beverly Frederick
Bentley & PamWestfield
Al Dumit
Frank Bredimus - Berkeley castle
Mack & Mattie McLaughlin
Terry and Rick Moody - Sky High Castle
John & Pat Beno
Terry and Linda Jemison
Tientje Willis
Carl & Christine Hanfling
Charles Klusarits
Rick & Shirley Rutherford
T.O. Galloway and Shirley Mandler
Bill White
Annamae and Ron Ankeny
Keith Nolan
Foy and Helen Varner
Jim Fassio
Richard Taylor
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