Beginning the Facade at Last!

As you are about to get dressed someone walks past your window. You quickly close the shutters. But what would you do if the room you're in is on the second floor [European/British first floor]?? This is very startling. The bricklayers had moved the scaffolding around a corner and now were walking on the planks outside the window. We'd hoped for repairs to the facade for many years. Right now just the
facade of the chapel is being repaired. The chapel is not a separate building - it's at the western corner
of the Zámek. They had repaired the western side and the sacristy and now were starting on the south side, facing the platz.

Some outside repairs were done immediately, notably windows. Windows were broken, frames and/or glass. We were going to live here all winter! Some window openings were only openings, some had flapping frames with glass on the ground or on the inside floor. Some were covered with plastic. A few were boarded up.



The first Christmas eve we thought someone was trying noisily to break in. It was a flapping window.

A carpenter friend came to insure that all windows had glass and framing. In rooms we were living that first winter he fixed

double windows. In rooms we only walked through he fixed single windows. He warned me never to open a certain window in the Grand Dining Room. If I had, it would have crashed below. Then he returned to his wood shop to make enough frames for the whole Zámek. As was typical of him, he made many more. Later we used some for screen windows in summers warm enough for screens! A glazier very skillfully filled all the new window frames - that is, of as many as we needed.

Did you ever read Kidnapped? Remember the wicked uncle sending the boy up a stairway? Only a flash of

lightening saved the boy from stepping off into nothingness. We had a balcony like that. There was a wall with a door, so we were not in very great danger. But there was no balcony. Father and son blacksmiths visited, looking for work. We ordered a new lacy stairwell surround, an iron bed, and a half-round table. Then my husband commissioned the new balcony. When it arrived we hired a crane to lift it up. The same glazier added the glass it needed.

Today the balcony is filled with plants, the half-round iron table, and a wicker settee. It is a lovely place to sit and read, or just relax and gaze outside.

;

In George's grandmother's bedroom was a hole to the stars [or to sun, clouds, rain, hail, snow ] We fixed the

hole and reroofed the first spring.

The facade very badly and still needs restoration.but many other things clamored for money. Outfitting carpenter shops, farm machinery, seeds, fertilizer, hiring a few workers were important needs. The facade waited in its dilapadated state. At last a grant became available. Little by little the facade its regaining its High-Baroque gold.