The dawn of man’s cave: Man spends three years and $50,000 creating fantasy basement complete with sword rack, suits of armor and even a secret passage behind a bookcase
My French Retreat: The foundation was built on top of the escape tunnels of the old original Chateau as early 1160 and now the sealed tunnel / dungeons below the house. There maybe a connection to the other garage across the street as the cement slab was built on top of a gravel pit to fill up another tunnel connecting to the house. It was common during the olden days. Also the proximity of the house from the church may suggest that it was a part of the original ancient village around the church.
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Back in the 1100s-1200s, building skills were extremely limited. Stone castles were rudimentary - dark, cold, and damp. Gothic architecture tried to solve some of these unpleasant problems, and created light, pleasant and airy buildings. Before the gothic, architecture was functional. Now, architecture became beautiful. The gatehouse at Montaigut is a unique structure and contains several features which suggest that it is an early twin D-shaped entrance. Like White Castle it has an impressive batter spreading a considerable distance down the scarp. Unlike the Gwentian castle though, it has two or three long, unsighted loops, without oillets, in both its remaining lower floors. It also has an external offset at floor level. This is quite similar to the round towers at Chepstow castle which are now accepted as late-twelfth century. The FitzWilliam gate at Dover, which replaced the north gate around 1227, also bears some comparison with White Castle gatehouse. Both are rectangular structures with twin protruding towers set on sloping plinths. However the FitzWilliam gate led to a covered postern which passed through the ditch and the next bank of the castle defences to an outer gate which is now mostly destroyed. Internally the gatehouse had two windows on first floor level overlooking the bailey. On the floor above at Dover were a set of twin loops in each tower, with a further loop set above the gate archway between them. Both gates should also be compared with Criccieth castle gatehouse. This gatehouse, which probably dates to before 1239, has three loops on its ground floor and none on the floor above. These two early thirteenth century structures again suggest that the gatehouse at White Castle dates to the period 1229 to 1232 and this enhances the historical evidence found for this era, which has been divined from the study of both Skenfrith and Grosmont castles and the history of the Trilateral. |
THE DAWN OF MAN CAVE
Unique to this ancient house is the massive buttress walls covering its facade. Buttress walls are usually the side walls in the case of most fortification and salient points of castles.A buttress is a thick stone wall that keeps a building's walls from falling down. If you build a building out of stone, and then put on a stone roof with a barrel vault, you have a problem: the roof is so heavy, and it presses down so much on the walls, that the walls get pushed outward and fall down. To keep the walls from falling down, you can make them very thick and strong, with only little tiny windows. But then your building will be very dark (especially since there were no electric lights in medieval Europe!). What you see as sloping attachment to the house are really buttresses. There are four traditional buttress connected to the south side of the house. It is a specific form of buttressing most strongly associated with Gothic church architecture. The purpose of any buttress is to resist the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards (which may arise from stone vaulted ceilings of the dungeons and from earthquake-loading on the roof) by redirecting them to the ground. A traditional buttress resist lateral forces that are transmitted across an intervening space between the wall and the buttress.
Flying buttress systems have two key components - a massive vertical masonry block (the buttress) on the outside of the building and a segmental or quadrant arch bridging the gap between that buttress and the wall.
ENTRANCE TO THE COURTYARD FROM THE STREET ACTING AS THE OTHER TWO BUTTRESSES
Entrance to the future man cave. Original Granite steps, the walls here are 6 feet thick. This could be a part of the ancient wall of the old city.
Going down to dungeon # 1
Entry door of the first dungeon from the outside
Hallway to Dungeon #1
Dungeon number one
Cobble stone of the basement and dungeons. Threads are original granite stones. I will keep it that way or maybe lined it with flagstones.
Dungeon # 2
Dungeon # 2
Dungeon # 2
Staircase to utility room from Dungeon # 2
TRAP DOOR IN TOOLS ROOM TO SPIRAL STAIRCASE TO Dungeon # 2 BELOW
Dungeon # 2
Above is the floor of the tools room
Unique to this ancient house is the massive buttress walls covering its facade. Buttress walls are usually the side walls in the case of most fortification and salient points of castles.
Dungeon # 2
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| The ultimate man cave: Father spends three years and $50,000 creating fantasy basement complete with sword rack, suits of armor and even a secret passage behind a bookcase
Complete with its own sword rack, $20,000 cinema system for playing video games, and even a secret door hidden behind a book shelf - this basement can perhaps lay claim to being the most glorious man cave ever created. The brainchild of 32-year-old father-of-one Tyler Kirkham, from Utah, the fantasy-themed room also includes a $15,000 bathroom with its own waterfall and ivy-covered rock face, a stained wooden floor costing $8,000, and is finished using $8,000-worth of stone and masonry. Mr Kirkham, a comic book artist who has worked on Tomb Raider, Transformers, Amazing Spiderman, X-Men, and Ultimate Fantastic 4, spent three years building the basement, despite wife Jill asking for a pool in the back yard.
No expense spared: Tyler Kirkham, 32, from Utah, spent three years and $50,000 creating this fantasy-themed basement underneath his family home complete with $15,000 shower room and $20,000 cinema system
Small touches: As well as the waterfall in the bathroom, and the $8,000-worth of stone used to finish the walls, Mr Kirkham also spent $100 on a medieval helmet and $250 on an Italian crossbow for his basement
Nerd-vana: Themed around the Elder Scrolls series of video games it contains its own armor suits, weapon rack and potions lab - alongside the flat screen TVs, pool table, and kitchen
Eye for detail: Mr Kirkham, an artist who currently works for DC Comics, used screenshots from the houses in the video game to make sure his real-life creation was as close to the fantasy as possible Themed around the Elder Scrolls series of video games, it features weapons, armor and details that will be familiar to anyone who played the last Sykrim installment - set in a land based on real-life vikings. Just like the houses in the video game, it comes with its own alchemy station for brewing potions and poisons, and is equipped with a weapon rack and armor stands to store hard-won treasure after a quest. Mr Kirkham spared no expense on the weapons inside, which include an Italian crossbow he bought for $250, and a medieval helmet which cost $100. He said: It felt amazing to turn our dream vision of what we wanted the space to be into a reality. I wanted to do something fun with the basement and I love the fantasy world of these games. The ultimate $50,000 man cave inspired by Elder Scrolls
Tucked away: The basement features a bespoke gaming system for Mr Kirkham and his brother, an alcove for his one-year-old son Indie, and a bookcase which swings back to reveal a hidden passage
Hubble bubble, toil and trouble: True to the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim computer game, Mr Kirkham's basement also contains an alchemy lab along with a set of potion and poison bottles (pictured)
+18 Ready for battle: A sword rack is just one of the fantasy-themed elements to the basement, which also includes practice dummies covered in suits of armor (pictured left) 'When you're in there it just has a very unique feel, it's completely different from the rest of the house.' Tyler's wife Jill, 32, a real estate agent, even helped with the design. She said: 'With all the money we've put into finishing the basement, maybe we could have divvied it up and put in a pool in the backyard. 'But I never wish we had a plain basement - who wouldn't want one like this, it's amazing.' The basement has been a huge hit with Tyler's friends and neighbours too. He added: 'Pretty much everyone's reaction has been the same, whether they know what the game is or not - wide eyes, mouth open, with a shocked look on their faces. They always ask: 'How did you guys think of this?'' Finishing touches: Cladding the walls in masonry and stone with lantern-style lights cost Mr Kirkham around $8,000, while the $15,000 bathroom ended up being so expensive he had to stop building for months until he could afford to fit it
+18 Treasure trove: While to the untrained eye the basement appeared to have a medieval theme, in fact it is filled with references to the last Elder Scrolls game, called Skyrim (pictured, a helmet from the fantasy world beside a pendant bearing the game's dragon symbol)
+18 No done yet: While the basement features items and decor from the last Elder Scrolls game (pictured), Mr Kirkham says he plans to add a wine cellar or children's play area based on the newest installment in the franchise, which comes out today One of the basement's biggest admirers is Tyler's brother, Tristan. The pair love to play the game together with friends. Tristan said: 'I think Tyler did a great job, he's always had a knack for interior design. When Tyler first told me about the basement, I was very excited, because we both love the game and I knew he'd do a great job of it. 'When I entered the basement for the first time I was completely floored.' He began construction on the family space and theatre in February 2012 and uses screenshots from the games to ensure maximum accuracy. Financial constraints meant that Tyler had to wait until the summer of 2014 to add the bathroom. The basement features a wealth of other nerdy details from the game, including coin purses sourced from Italy and homemade scrolls customised to look ancient and tattered.
Hanging out: Mr Kirkham says that one of the biggest fans of the basement is his brother Tristan (right) who often comes round to play video games on the room's $20,000 cinema system Quality man time: Mr Kirkham and brother Tristan play the last Elder Scrolls video game together in the basement, ahead of the latest release, which came out today And Tyler has plans to expand his creation further. He's considering a wine cellar or children's play area inspired by the latest instalment in the series, the multiplayer online game Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. He said: 'I'm really looking forward to playing Elder Scrolls Online on my XBox and PS4 - the idea of playing with friends against people who might be a state away, or even a continent away, is amazing to me. 'I might be fighting a guy who is in Europe, or who is in China, or we could be teaming up to fight orcs or goblins or trolls.' Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited is available now on Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC and Mac.
Day at the office: During the day Mr Kirham works as a comic book artist and his work has featured in Tomb Raider, Transformers, Amazing Spiderman, X-Men, and Ultimate Fantastic 4
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