In all honesty, trying to describe what took place over the next 7-8 years would require a book deal. It’s every hard-luck story you’ve ever heard about contractors, lawsuits, and getting suckered. We lived it. I’m not going to elaborate. This was our first homebuilding experience, and we suffered for it, although I’m not sure that, even today, if we were starting over, there would be that much we could have done to prevent it. Dishonest people, determined to be dishonest, will find a way. You can’t know what you don’t know.

Not knowing what you don’t know can be a good thing, actually. As we grew in our understanding of house-building, our vision also expanded. What started out as someone taking advantage of us actually got turned around somehow into something even more amazing than we originally envisioned. I’m not sure how that happens, but it’s a twisted kind of karma. Designers, contractors, subcontractors, landscape architects and many others came and went, but we soldiered on. We’re still soldiering on, because it’s just the thing we do. We wish it were completed, or going faster, but we’d rather have the quality of craftsmanship in line, and the details just right. That takes time, research, and finding the right people and materials. We are our own generals now.

There are still several areas/rooms of the house that are unfinished: two suites we call the Victorian and the Roman; the theater (Chinese-themed from our trip to China in 2012); the Master Suite, with it’s coral-marbled bathroom finishes and fireplace surround anxiously waiting to be installed; a main office; the Parlor, fashioned after the same room at the Pittock Mansion in Portland, and the vestibule at the bottom of the spiral turret staircase complete with antique phone booth. Lots to look forward to!

On the outside, the biggest project we are hurrying to finish before next spring is the lower east patio adjacent to the pool house. The slab is being framed as I write today and will be poured before the end of the month. There is still a faint hope of completing the construction of a 55′ x 80′ glass and metal arboretum on that patio before the end of April, but bureaucracies for obtaining permits being what they are, and our carefulness about subcontractors, much of that is out of our hands. We can hope!

Another outside area yet to be completed is a large field we call Childs’ Play. This area is to the east of the columned pergola above the lower east patio. Tucked into the northeast corner of Childs’ Play is the beginnings of a hobbit house – I mean, what is a fantasy venue without a hobbit house, right? The Childs’ Play field will be ringed with gorgeous plantings in keeping with the rest of the landscaping, and the wide field will be a restful feast to the eyes, a place for outdoor garden festivities, games and fun.

But wait, there is more! If you are standing on the upper east patio and looking east through the wedding pavilion, a wide gravel path takes your eye to two black stone pillars upon which will one day hang a beautiful wrought iron gate. Beyond the gate is a road we call the north-south road and the rough construction of a meandering stream which originates in the east garden near the kiddie-castle. At the end of that stream is a pond, and next to the pond will be a large church ruin. Yes, you read that right. The church ruin resides in the fantasy forest, where meandering paths lead to the discovery of a sword-in-the-stone, an old cemetery, a large Lord of the Rings statue head, and other interesting surprises.

The truth is, the Chateau will probably never stop being created. One day I will find John researching yet another great idea at his computer, peaceful, in eternal sleep. Until then you will likely see him striding around the property in his days-old work clothes, shovel in hand, or kicking up dust in his old blue pick up. You’ve got to love a guy like that . . . I know I do!