MOUNT VERNON — A courtyard, secret passageways and stained glass windows come together to make a fairy tale-esque castle. And for one couple, it’s a dream come true to build their very own castle in Mount Vernon.
Jay Maners and his wife Angel are building a castle. Well, a small, ‘micro castle’ that will serve as their retirement home once it’s finished.
“Since I was in high school, I always wanted a castle,” Jay said. “And I always said you could build a micro castle that meets all the requirements of a house much more efficiently. So that’s what we did.”
“I’m excited about it,” Angel said about the micro castle. “I’m in complete support of it. When we started talking about building our retirement house, every house up to this point has like a component of the castle in it.”
After looking at, and drawing up designs, she told Jay why don’t they go for it, build themselves a castle. They started building it this past spring and progress has been slowly made on it.
“You don’t have to go anywhere to buy anything for it. Everything has to be handmade,” Jay said. “Within the next month or so we should have the exterior finished. At that point, we don’t know (when it will be finished).”
Having things needing to be handmade makes the process of building a little longer than building a cookie-cutter home. Couple that with the fact Jay is doing some of the work himself, and it’s going to take considerably longer to get done. He explained that there wasn’t any additional paperwork needed when it came to building the castle. Everything within the home meets, or in some cases, exceeds, all the standards required.
“We’re not going to build again. And we love this community,” Angel said. “It’s really out of the box. I just feel like you kind of only have a few opportunities in life and we’re not travelers. This just seemed like an appropriate time.”
While Jay does all the structural work and builds the castle, it’s Angel who deals with all the interior design. They both agreed the interior style wouldn’t be medieval but would have a more modern feel, while also containing components of a real castle.
Angel started calling it a micro castle and the term stuck with people because of the size of the living space. There are 1,700 square feet in the main living space for the two of them. Angel said it will be someplace where they’re going to feel comfortable living.
“It’s been nice to be able to showcase some of the local talent too,” she said.
Everyone from the mason to framers has been local, the Maners explained. Resources have been sourced locally. They have also sourced some local antiques from the county that they will be incorporating into the design of the home.
The castle is set up with a courtyard upfront that will act as the porch. Jay explained that he wanted something that resembled an old medieval style alley-way near a castle.
There will also be secret passageways in the house. One will lead from the grandkids' rooms hidden behind an armoire into another room, which will have an opening to access the tower. A large drive-thru garage and woodshop take up the back portion of the house. The two towers will act almost like sunrooms, according to Jay.
The couple has also been restoring a house that was built back in the 1890s and sits in front of the castle. Angel calls it the “gatehouse” and once it’s complete, they will live in it while continuing to work on the micro castle. The small red house, according to Angel, will act as a possible guest house when they move into the castle.
