Honey, the dog fell in the moat again!

**UmAnOnion** · 25th February 06, 11:26 PM

Originally Posted by Southern Breeze

How many and what size Crocs do you need? As a landscape designer I can get anything. Crocs? No problem.

More info: http://www.crocodilian.com/crocfaq/faq-2.html

if any of those crocs need feeding i have a couple of exes that will be all too happy to assist...

**Graham** · 26th February 06, 12:12 AM

Thanks for the link, I've always fancied living in a castle, I love the idea. I saw some great castles in Scotland that inspired me.

I'm not mad about the stone they've used in the examples, but it's a case of what's available I guess.

We have a modern-built castle an hour from here, but it's in a bad location and they whitewashed it, which doesn't look too good.

**Andrew Breecher** · 26th February 06, 12:35 AM

Those walls don't look very thick. When I was a stonemason in France we built walls twice that thick, and with undressed stone. We worked the traditional way, with lime mortar, and building the scaffolding into the wall as we went up. While I never worked on any castles, I did work on a house that was built in around 1200 A.D. I'd love to build my own house out of stone some day, but I'm definitely not at that point yet in my life - I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up (I'm 30 now).

Andrew.

**Iolaus** · 26th February 06, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by Andrew Breecher

Those walls don't look very thick. When I was a stonemason in France we built walls twice that thick, and with undressed stone. We worked the traditional way, with lime mortar, and building the scaffolding into the wall as we went up. While I never worked on any castles, I did work on a house that was built in around 1200 A.D. I'd love to build my own house out of stone some day, but I'm definitely not at that point yet in my life - I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up (I'm 30 now).

Andrew.

I imagine the fact that they put a rebar-reinforced concrete core up the center of their walls, instead of a rubble fill, helps reduce the mass requiered for structural stability?

**Andrew Breecher** · 26th February 06, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Iolaus

I imagine the fact that they put a rebar-reinforced concrete core up the center of their walls, instead of a rubble fill, helps reduce the mass requiered for structural stability?

Yes, I hadn't seen their construction methods when I posted, but upon closer perusal of the site I noticed that. They also look like they're tying the central reinforcing metal in to the stonework, which is good. This method of building is much faster - and easier - than what I used! (It's probably also required for certain building codes.) I want a castle!

Andrew.

**Nick** · 26th February 06, 12:13 PM

This should be their motto:

Castle Magic: Putting new meaning into "A man's home is his castle" since AD 1980.

**GlassMan** · 27th February 06, 11:16 AM

Our new handicapped accessible home here in Virginia will be finished in about 2 months and we'll have sunk $1.5 million into it so it's going to be a while until we can pay off that MASSIVE mortgage, but when it comes to making the final retirement home (we hope in Connecticut) this company will definitely be on my list!