Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My new garden or Stone Henge?, 1 by KRNYSGIRL

KRNYSGIRL wrote:
Thank you again for all your nice comments. Shirley - TV stations - no, not yet {grin} but maybe sometime. Johns Aunt and Uncle brought over some people visiting them from out of town yesterday and they toured the house and grounds listening to John's blow by blow description of everything. It took over 2 hours. The folks were just astounded at what he has accomplished here -- the most amazing thing of course is that he has done it all by himself. No work crews, no designers,no loans, no mortgage and he started when he was just a kid (about 24 yrs old).

Scoot - John learned the art of stone masonry when he came out of the service around 1968-69. He spent that first summer back home working for the State parks department helping to restore Gillette's castle (a stone castle here in CT) and took to the art like a duck to water. He decided to build his own castle on this piece of land that had belonged to his grandfather and given to him by this parents. He had NO money so everything had to be done slowly, by hand with simple tools. Everyone thought he was absolutely NUTS. His father would tell him he was a fool and "why don't you just build a normal house like everybody else". But he persisted and he had such vision - that is what astounds me the most. What 24yrs old kid that you know could design something like this in their head and then have the know-how and stamina to see the project through? It took him 6 yrs to finish the outside walls of the house and the 3 story center chimmney. He lived with his parents (next door) during this time. Then once the exterior construction was done he moved in.

The rich history and amazing workmanship of the house doesn't end on the exterior either. Inside the house everything is very authentically designed to mimic a 16th century english cottage. Here's a few shots of the house inside to give you an idea.

This is our kitchen - stone walls (of course!) and even the windows were all made by hand by John out of antique leaded glass.