Pennsic House

[Chris Gilman]

I would classify these as technical, not structural. A couple of the trim pieces have already had the tolerances loosened up. The only real damage I have found are items damaged from our hasty packing job because of the storm. Hence the crates. (I just finished the crate for the windows)
The other main “set upâ€

[Eltz-Kempenich]

I just want to reiterate what we were all thinking last year: Holy fuck!

How was the temperature inside last summer at midday and early morning? Did it stay reasonably comfortable, or did it heat up?

It seems all you need now is a personal outhouse and a small cookhouse.

[Vladimir]

I felt so under-dressed last year.

I dress for a meeting with fellow armour geeks at a coffee shop and I end up in a fancy venetian villa for a housewarming party.

The house is awesome. I can't believe you are making improvements.

[Chris Gilman]

I have to come clean about something.... Many people have asked how I made the house and how it goes up so easy...
Well truth be told, I had some help.
In 2009 I found on eBay a building system originating in the 16th century; it was discovered in a warehouse in Venice. I bought it, and used for my Pennsic house. I have a feeling I’m not the first to discover this old system, I suspect others just changed the name a bit and modified the design of the pieces to better market them to the 20th century.
The pressure has been too much, so here is the secret. These are the crates I bought and now you know the secret.



In one crate I found these window pieces, they just "Snap" in!



Ok, not believing that story?
With some of the upgrades, I built some crates to store some of the elements of the house in to better protect the finish and I asked one of my guys to paint them when he had nothing else to do and I said color didn’t matter, just use some old paint we are likely not to use for something else. (The large crate is for the 5 windows and the other 3 crates are for the new columns)
The crated ended up in primary red and yellow and I remarked how they looked like industrial Lego kits.
So I made some labels more appropriate to the early 16th C.

[Cian of Storvik]

That Lego font is appropriate for 16th c? I must have missed that manuscript.
Clever! I possibly would have gone with LEGA; sounds Italian, and is the second person imperative Latin verb form of Legare, which means "to unite", or "bind", or "connect"!
And can be an acronym for Lago Esplanade di GAston (Lake Causeway of Gaston)
-Cian

[Heinrich H]

Leonardo ! Heard about some guy named so

[Old Xeno]

First off, awesome! My Baron & Baroness (Barony of Arn Hold, Artemisia) had given me a report of your incredible villa. My mental image paled to the pictures of the actual structure. Amazing!!

As a 16C Venetian persona, I have always been reluctant to commit to a period pavilion. Now I know why!! You have inspired me!! I see a Palladian villa (or at least part of one) in my future!

I do have some questions tho. First, the Warner Brothers staff shop is no longer on-line, if you can recall, what was the cost of the vacu-formed roofing tile panels?
Here in the Mountain West, we often get high winds. Where did you attach the ground anchors & what type did you use?
Lastly, I do not doubt the integrity of the frame, but will the foam panels take the abuse of 65 mph gusts?

Thank you for sharing this info here and on the Diligent Dwarves blog.

Signoria Xeno della Lama

nucleare dall'orbita, è il solo modo essere sicuro

[Chris Gilman]

Signoria Xeno,
Thank you for your kind words. The roof tiles were pricey and the staff shop had problems with ABS and we had to resort to styrene. Normally they pull .030” material, but for me they used .060” I had to join 3 panel together to make up the height of my roof and so I made vacuum-form tooling to pull a styrene “connector” panel. In the end, they were too heavy for ease of handleing and not strong enough, especially given the weight.
There are many staff shops and at least 3 of them have a similar tile. I have to replace my roof panels and I plan on using ABS or Kydex. The panels can then be pulled from .030” or .040” material, resulting in a lighter and stronger panel. (I will likely need to help pull the tiles as most of these guys have little actual v-forming experiance and compared with styrene, ABS & Keydex are tricky to pull.)
When I get a quote on that, I can let you know.
Too hold on the roof, I have giant 14’ long “staple looking” hold downs. Made from ¼” x ¼” cold rolled steel, these screw to the ends of each beam and go over the entire roof section and screw to the beams opposite end.

To hold down the building itself, I use 4 to 6 standard 4’ “earth anchors", these are bolted to the frame.
http://www.mayawindmills.com/images/earth_anchor.jpg

The “Ultra board” wall panels are rimmed with thin steel “J” track, (used for dry wall) then using sidewalk bolts they are attached to the 4x4 studs on the ends and pinned the entire length vertically in between each panel with a board, screwed to the 4x4 studs.(I think this is explained in the blog a little clearer).
I think with this construction the panels should be very wind resistant, but I couldn’t say for certain given 65mph gusts.
Let me know if you decide to move ahead on this project, as I have many drawings and sources for materials they may be very useful.

[Chris Gilman]

I was just given a link to a couple of images Ron Lutz II shot at Pennsic 40 of the new houe. I had to share them. He used a tilt & shift lens to get these awsome shots.



From that to one I shot of the new upstairs with my Iphone after my good camera ended up in 2" of water.

[Sean Powell]

Dude... SNEAKERS in the bottom photo?!? Someone go in and photoshop those into turnshoes please.

Beautiful as always Chris.

Sean

[Thomas Powers]

if "Living Well is the Best Revenge" you are into a truly *epic* revenge! (if you filk the Song of Hiawatha how do you get "persian rug" and "Four Poster Bed" to fit the meter????)

[Gerhard von Liebau]

Who's that guy in the sexy exomis? Ha. Dude, Ron took some great photos! I remember when he wandered up, glad I introduced myself - what an eye!

[Chris Gilman]

For any of you folks on the west coast who are interested in seeing my Pennsic house and the Bardicci great hall, they will be at the Southern Ca. Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Which runs from April 5th to May 18th.
http://www.renfair.com/socal/

[Hrolfr]

Holy shit



In a good way!

[Chris Gilman]

Never mind! After we had 90% of the structures up, the organizers realized they would not be able to get the structures approved by the LA county building inspectors. It seems they have had not been able to get 2 story structures approved on this site. Given both of my buildings are 2 story and they knew that the inspectors were unpredictable on what they would approve and what they wouldn't, it's unfortunate we didn't know this before we drove 6000 miles to retrieve them! The Faire has spent a great deal of money on this endeavor and it a real drag that it has to be canceled at this late date. The whole team is bummed. Now we have to take them down ASAP. Anyone looking for a couple days work, let me know today or Sunday. On top of that, we had an earthquake yesterday, so it will be even more amusing if my house is still on its foundation pads after the quake, but would be approved by LA county.
Life goes on.....

[Cap'n Atli]

Definite bummer! (My nephew attends from time to time and I was going to tell him to take a look at the amazing structure.)

Hope it did okay in the 'quake (better than the Washington Monument, anyway ).

[Sean Powell]

Oh that's a heaping load of suck! I'm sorry for the round-trip and the emergency take-down. Sounds like the building inspectors are clueless to anything outside of the ordinary.

Sean

[Charlotte J]

How did it fare in the earthquake?

[Chris Gilman]

It didn't move. Before I left on Friday, I noticed the front corner frame pad was right at the edge of the wooden spacer, when I came in on Sunday it hadn't moved.