Building a Castle in Alberta

“You are building a what?” the neighbours questioned and chuckled under their breath. “ You know you can’t build there right? it floods” they said, but I thought to myself what a better place to build a castle but on a flood plain. Castles are always surrounded by water or on top of a mountain right?.

We began to construct our vision of a European medieval castle in 2006. The main structure was up by the following spring when we witnessed our first flood. The water came within 10 feet of the front door. We were beginning to wonder if we had made a grave and costly mistake. That year we spent all of our time building a clay flood berm that was 6 feet tall around the perimeter of the building. The berm proved to be vital that following spring as the flood was so bad it almost breached the 6 foot berm! The structure, was for the time being safe, but the 1500 foot driveway was under 8 feet of water and for 4 more years we used a small boat to access the castle in the spring.

I had no formal training in construction, design or decorating. I had only a lot of imagination and a vision. I drew up an informal rendition of my dream and had an engineered plan made. Throughout the building process I moved walls and changed rooms as it never looks the same on paper as it does in real life. Once the roof was on and the rooms built the fun had begun. I knew drywall would not be an authentic look so I had decided on cherry wood panelled walls. We did most of the work ourselves and I was happy to be able to do it. It took 450 sheets of cherry wood plywood to cover the ceilings and walls. Staining the wood took me 3 weeks of intense labor, numerous cans of stain, and a floor mop. Painting the crown moulding on the coffered ceilings took me another 3 weeks. I did not realize that unfinished wood required many coats of lacquer and that job was the most difficult as we sprayed, sanded, and cleaned the walls and the 20 foot ceilings 7 times. I was lucky I was not afraid of heights. Once the walls were complete I realized where the boards met the unstained edges could be seen as some boards shrank during the winter months. This dilemma took me some time to find a solution. Finally I had decided to take a roll of cherry wood veneer tape and a pair of scissors to fix this large problem that was apparent throughout the whole castle. I went to work meticulously staining, cutting, and gluing veneer to each seam where the boards met. This, I found out, was the most daunting task of the whole construction as there were hundreds if not thousands of seams that required covering. I estimate it took me 6 months to complete this task as a great deal of it had to be done on a 12 foot ladder or on scaffolding. A simple pair of scissors was one of my most valuable tools on creating the vision I had for Ryans Castle. The outcome was perfectly pleasing and it has been 15 years and it still looks wonderful. Who knew scissors would play such a vital role. The simplest tool can be the most important item in your toolbox.