Apollo_Auto
New member
Hi all! Yesterday I went with my father (actually father-in-law) to the Hungária Fürdő (Hungarian Bath) here in Budapest to work on a piece of history that's being restored. This national monument was finished in 1827 and has seen 2 world wars and a revolution but it's still standing... barely but still 
. You can still see bullet holes everywhere in the building. It's situated right on top of a thermal spring and being that it's in the heart of the city it makes this property a very valuable one.
I'll try to make this as short as possible. My dad's a jeweler/goldsmith/blacksmith and the nation monument preservation committee recognized him and about 2-3 other people in the country and surrounding countries that are qualified to do/restore such artifacts/artwork like the ones that are/were in this bath house. Really old-school stuff that can only be done with a hammer and anvil. Anyway, he won the contract.
He got the job an despite being already well-known and accomplished artist in several countries (in this field) this was an enormous honor for him and something that would put him on the pages of history. And of course the work that is to follow this job are sure to make bank loans a non-existent word for the entire family, including my son... big $$$ IOW.
Unfortunately things didn't go according to plans and the contractor pulled out the time so much that the original 1 year my father had to complete this project was cut in half... Then to make things worse the contractor started to brush him off, not pick up his phone, not arrange for the committee to approve his work and this and that and the other... basically "they" were trying to make my father miss his deadline so they could weasel their way out of paying him and most likely wind up suing him because of that breach.
Luckily my pops is good friends with one of the most ruthless lawyers in the country. A few phone calls and a couple of days and my father was able to slide out of the contract, get the money he had coming to him and wipe his hands clean of the whole ordeal.
I'm extremely upset that things turned out like this for him and so is he, as it was to be the "work he's remembered by", but that's life :sosad. Anyway, the work that he's already completed still needs to be put back into the hotel so we went on Saturday to start on it. These are some steel plates that are fitted flush into the granite wall in the front of the hotel. These 14 pieces took us all day to mount, fill in the mounting holes with bondo and repaint the repair work (the latter two tasks I handled
)... The next job we have to finish is mounting the flag holders. To give you an idea of how massive they are, we've had to hire a crane to lift them into place... Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool to get to work on a piece of history like this and thought I'd share . Here's some pics >>
The steel plates we had to mount... my back really thanks me for this today.
Pappa in the front, the other artist helping him (Zsolt) in the yellow hardhat and the "Spider Man" guy Laci from Transylvania (he's a mountain climber).
Takes 8 seconds to get to the bottom...
Some of the bullet holes I mentioned before... cool stuff.
Here's a plan of what it's going to look like... they're supposed to be finished by the end of the year... pfft like that's gonna happen!
If you'd like to check out some of Pappa's other work, here's his site Antoni Doncsev - Fine Art and Antiques
Thanks for reading!
- Jesse
. You can still see bullet holes everywhere in the building. It's situated right on top of a thermal spring and being that it's in the heart of the city it makes this property a very valuable one. I'll try to make this as short as possible
. My dad's a jeweler/goldsmith/blacksmith and the nation monument preservation committee recognized him and about 2-3 other people in the country and surrounding countries that are qualified to do/restore such artifacts/artwork like the ones that are/were in this bath house. Really old-school stuff that can only be done with a hammer and anvil. Anyway, he won the contract. He got the job an despite being already well-known and accomplished artist in several countries (in this field) this was an enormous honor for him and something that would put him on the pages of history. And of course the work that is to follow this job are sure to make bank loans a non-existent word for the entire family, including my son... big $$$ IOW.
Unfortunately things didn't go according to plans and the contractor pulled out the time so much that the original 1 year my father had to complete this project was cut in half... Then to make things worse the contractor started to brush him off, not pick up his phone, not arrange for the committee to approve his work and this and that and the other... basically "they" were trying to make my father miss his deadline so they could weasel their way out of paying him and most likely wind up suing him because of that breach.
Luckily my pops is good friends with one of the most ruthless lawyers in the country
. A few phone calls and a couple of days and my father was able to slide out of the contract, get the money he had coming to him and wipe his hands clean of the whole ordeal. I'm extremely upset that things turned out like this for him and so is he, as it was to be the "work he's remembered by", but that's life :sosad. Anyway, the work that he's already completed still needs to be put back into the hotel so we went on Saturday to start on it. These are some steel plates that are fitted flush into the granite wall in the front of the hotel. These 14 pieces took us all day to mount, fill in the mounting holes with bondo and repaint the repair work (the latter two tasks I handled
)... The next job we have to finish is mounting the flag holders. To give you an idea of how massive they are, we've had to hire a crane to lift them into place... Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool to get to work on a piece of history like this and thought I'd share . Here's some pics >>
The steel plates we had to mount... my back really thanks me for this today
.
Pappa in the front, the other artist helping him (Zsolt) in the yellow hardhat and the "Spider Man" guy Laci from Transylvania
(he's a mountain climber).
Takes 8 seconds to get to the bottom
...
Some of the bullet holes I mentioned before... cool stuff.
Here's a plan of what it's going to look like... they're supposed to be finished by the end of the year... pfft like that's gonna happen!
If you'd like to check out some of Pappa's other work, here's his site Antoni Doncsev - Fine Art and Antiques
Thanks for reading!
- Jesse
! I lived in the micro-brew capitol of the States, Colorado, for 6 years after the Army. Hmm, beach house and beer though...