Tuesday workday

Exciting stuff Jessicca looks over the progress this morning of the tile, and they have rocked it.

 Annette ever studiously working on the web site

 Cathy, Susan, and Melissa having a pow wow, figuring out the progress and planning for the next step. On closer inspection, perhaps they are just gabbing.

 Bill is carrying the tiles up and down because the saw for the tile is down stairs.

 Taylor is getting really good at staining. Here he is working on a little organ. He also helped with the cleaning of this dustball to actually make it look somewhat like an organ

 Vivian is warming herself by the fire as she pretends to work. This is hilarious, since she made us all hot yesterday when she and Gary decided to light the fire. At least today is not scorching hot.

 This is what is leftover of what we bought, and it will be sold back to our team, at an embarrassing markup to help offset unanticipated expenses.

 OK this looks really tasty. I saw this and decided I had to try this. What came to mind is maybe this was already digested by someone else, but no, it is basically a graham cracker.

 Linda and David are on the short rows of the steps, looking great to finish today

 Gary is here waiting for the next tile to come back up to be placed

Everybody sew now! Sewing the pillows has been a communal effort with tons of people pitching in.

 Taylor is the cleanup hitter, basically picking up and finishing several things for us. He comes in handy because lots of interruptions derail the finishing of projects !

 Jimmy has been cleaning, and I think he is just trying to get up the clutter, before Audrey sees it.

 Jessicca directing traffic and keeping the boys in line.

 Sylvia keeping Annette company so she won't go crazy (or fall asleep) looking at the screen all day.

 Deborah and Clara hemming new drapes for the hall where Bob and Melissa live.

 Sandra is doing the wash, even for me! It is great I have my own laundry girl. (Kristen, are you listening?)

 Eye in the sky of David and Linda doing the steps

 Sylvia has been a cleaning machine. I guess we will keep her. She completely cleaned out the front entrance of creepy crawlie, and cobwebs that had been there for maybe 300 years!

Overall we are looking good on completeing each and every project before the end of the day.

Taking an entertainment break from the castle renovations

Saturday night was "Mystery Night." It seemed only fitting to solve a murder mystery while at the Overtoun House.  "The Mystery of Stirling Manor" was an interactive who-dunit based loosely on "Downton Abbey." Team members were assigned character roles, some representing the upstairs people and others representing the downstairs help. A suitcase of costume items was brought to help characters dress for the event..  ried to dress up as a character assigned by the scripts. After about an hour of interrogating different people, the cast made their accusations as to the identity of the murderer.  Surprise, surprise:  THE BUTLER DID IT!!!!

 Cathy (Lady of the Manor), Vivian (Cathy's Mom?), Clara (definitely maid)

 Edward was our butler for the evening

 David and Annette (aka Ambrose Haines and Lady Lila)were  supposed to be engaged, per the script. Can you say Ernest T Bass???

 Sylvia sparkling everywhere

 Taylor was the honored doctor making house calls.

 Mingling around trying to find out who did it.

 Dr.Hailey read the confession for us to figure out who did it.

 All of us together after the fact. You have to have the group shot. It is mandatory

 THE BUTLER DID IT!! Edward Was our killer for the evening.  Sylvia and Dave were the winners of the mystery contest.

Blackberries!!

 We found Blackberries everywhere

Our people went down and picked a batch, and Cathy made a cobbler for us to eat.
Pretty awesome to have fresh berries picked by our hands and then made into a great cobbler

Annette's awesome dance moves cha cha
Annettes awesome moves foxtrot

This is what we are watching tonight, it is pretty great

need to get a little more in today while I have time

 Our great kitchen staff: Chef Cathy whipping up all kinds of different creations, and Madame Vivian making sure it is displayed in the "right" order.

 Our chauffeur Ed taking a few moments off to actually be able to do some work. Ed was stuck navigating Scotland most of the time, so work was really a break.

The Triple Buddies Audrey Sandra, and Jimmy working together to get some of the window stuff done. Not real sure why Jimmy is leaning over so far, but I have a few ideas. It might have something to do with the bean soup we had for lunch,.(This is definitely written by Rankin, not Susan!).

 Yesterday we were able to do a little sightseeing and we went to Dumbarton Rock (Bradley and I went there) we had a group head to Luss to shop and another group that went to play golf. The view above is from the top of Dumbarton seeing several young ones playing futbol.

 The are the swans near Dumbarton Rock, and like all swans in the UK they belong to the queen.

 Here is a sight of the Overtoun House from the top of Dumbarton Rock.

 Bradley being silly and finding ways to be crazy.

This stairway is where I drew the line. Ed and Bradley went on, but I waited for them.It did not look very safe for me to get up and down it.

so much to do so little time

A rare sighting of Susan Hailey doing manual labor.

She grabbed Bradley and they became the trash emptiers for a while.

It really is not a rare sight; I am just kidding.

 Here are the chairs all done. Beautiful greenish blue (some froo froo person said teal I think).

 Here is the main hall window with wonderful colors, and what a grand window it is now. Even though it is still just a window, there is a lot of love coming from that corner.

 This is our major project for this trip. Bill and Gary are the only ones that are still with it. Several more were there at the start, but the herd thinned fairly quiclyk. It is awesome to see them making great progress.

 Here is Edward showing off the "swag" for the library. I personally always thought that was a dance or something, but he swears that is the right term.

 Here is the marbling of the steps. Wow!  It is so simple, yet so elegant (Yeah I stole that quote).

 AND not so elegant are the ones getting down and dirty. Here are David and Linda hard at work making the stairs look all purty. They are doing an amazing job of getting it all over themselves.

Unfortunately for Clara, she must have asked for patience, because this job is surely working it.

She tells me she is putting piping on pillows, but to me it looks like just tedious sewing.

Because the sewing machines are not working properly, our crew has had to resort to sewing by hand with extra thick fabric and extra knotty thread.

She got the job of the century!!

happy labor day!

And boy is there labor going on here.

 I told you I would tell you about the stairs in the next post. I was not able to get a before picture, but this is a during picture. It was pretty scuffed and dirty looking before now it is shiny and taped. They will be faux marble (we hope) when it is all said and done.

 Meet Jessicca MVP of the Dumbarton House trip this time. You see her everywhere. She tiles, she sews, and I think she is the only one that knows the organizational system of the basement tools. Here she is helping Nancy get the sewing machine going

 If you can't tell, this picture was last night late and we are all running a little low on sleep, So Taylor decided to lighten the mood with a creepy staple man smile.

 Taylor and I woke up early to get the last bit of carpet started. If we would have waited the Tea room would have been inaccessible for a while, but we started early, so by the time the rest started, they would be able to walk on it.

 Dr. Hailey is digging for wood in this door frame. Unfortunately he is not having any luck as the wood has completely rotted out. He and Bill spent quite some time trying to find a good solution.

 Gary supervising (DOT Style) Jon (another Overtoun House staffer), Bill and Dr. Hailey

Amazingly enough they are flying through the tile today. This is the project that is in the most danger of not getting done, but as it stands now we are looking good.