The Manor House

In last week's post I noted that I am currently helping to build a house. I am part of a small crew of 3, working to construct a 12,000 sq ft. English style manor house that will eventually encompass a small winery as well. The project is well known in the Palmyra, Hershey and Middletown areas. Just about everyone I describe the place to has some recollection of the property. The Manor, as it will be referred to henceforth, is located along Schoolhouse Road in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County. The project began over 7 years ago by a local man who had a dream to recreate a bit of Europe in this area. Set on 12 acres of what is left of an 19th century working farm, the Manor dominates the horizon as you travel north on Schoolhouse Road from Route 341.

Besides the size and scope of the Manor, there are quite a few features that make this project very unique. Many of the materials to build the house are recycled. The exterior walls are either formed concrete and concrete block construction making the core of the walls 8 inches thick. Then, for insulation, US Military surplus refrigeration panels were attached to the outside of the core walls. These panels are 5 inches thick and constructed of dense foam sandwiched between an exterior of wood then a metal coating. The military used these panels to make mobile refrigerators, freezers and even morgues for temporary encampments. House wrap, an air tight membrane was then applied to "seal" the house. Brick was then laid to complete the exterior finish. The brick are specially manufactured for color and form then tumbled to give the brick an aged, well worn look. On average the total thickness of all exterior walls is about 15 inches.

Double pane windows have been installed and salvaged stained glass windows will then be mounted inside so that the insulation value of the structure can be maintained. There are 10 fireplaces in the manor. The mantles for them have all been salvaged from old structures that have been torn down. Some of the more ornate items have come from a contractor's salvage yard in the Baltimore area called "Second Chance, Inc.". Second Chance seeks out older buildings to "deconstruct" to save unique and ornate architectural elements that are not being duplicated today. They use the deconstruction process to train unskilled, unemployed people in the area how to salvage these old buildings without damaging the unique and interesting items so that they can be reused in different ways or incorporated into new construction as we are doing here. It saves landfill space, provides a community service and preserves the beautiful and unique work of our heritage. The picture above left shows a marble mantle piece that came from Second Chance. It is late 19th century and made up of about 13 different marble pieces. In the picture we have put the mantle back together temporarily to check for fit. As the project progresses we will be re-assembling the mantle just as it was when it was originally installed with mortar and molten lead.

The above right picture shows part of the front property wall constructed of barn foundation stone from Lancaster County. When finished, the wall will have 8 foot tall columns above what you see in the picture with 12 foot long by 4 foot high sections of early 19th century wrought iron salvage by Second Chance from Washington D.C. and welded together on site here. Another interesting find is a pair of Oak doors 7 foot high, 3 foot wide and 3 inches thick that were salvaged from an old Federal court house in Baltimore.

Other recycled items include an 8' diameter granite fountain base, front entry door and stone trim from another government building, fireplace inserts, early 18th century bar and back bar with copper counter top and a 1200 gallon aquarium from a bar in the Baltimore area. The sub-floors are used shipping pallet bottoms and tops. Steel I-beams and floor underlayment are recycled from old mobile homes. Heating of the manor will be done in part using geothermal radiant floor heat. US Military sleeping pads will be used to protect the plastic piping for the radiant heat system.

As for keeping the project green, all rain water from the roof of the manor is directed into 2 - 2000 gallon underground storage tanks. From there it goes through a filtration and UV light system into 4 - 400 gallon storage tanks in the basement. A pump in the basement will pump the water up into 2 - 400 gallon storage tanks in the third floor and will be used to flush toilets and shower. All of the 400 gallon storage tanks are surplus shipping containers used in food manufacturing. These storage tanks will also be used to supply water to the fire sprinkler system that is being installed using salvage water pipes.

For the past 4 weeks we have had a 2 person mason crew on site completing the brick work on the walls surrounding the formal courtyard. We have the whole area covered in tarps, which are recycled 48 foot by 14 foot advertising banners, so that we can maintain a temperature in the 50-60 degree range to ensure the mortar sets up without freezing. The picture above left is the courtyard from this summer. Above right shows the area underneath the balcony as the brickwork continues. By tomorrow, we should be setting up forms for 5 arches that will compose the areas around and between the metal poles in above right picture.

Each week I will use this blog to track the progress of the manor's construction. This project currently has no plans in writing only the owner's ideas. Each day is like a new adventure. Sometimes it's frustrating because with no set plan the changes are frequent. There are times that you end up undoing things because the original thought or idea won't work. The up side is that there also are wonderful moments of serendipitous discovery. Those are the moments that keep me going.