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Post by reblzmom on Apr 10, 2023 19:08:58 GMT -5
Thanks for updating. I can't imagine the effort behind this.
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Post by MinnieMom on Apr 28, 2023 13:33:04 GMT -5
Hello again! Time for a brief update. 1) Permits. a) We are "this close" to getting the major state permit, the Land Disturbance and Stormwater permit. That is the critical one required before any land clearing or construction can begin. I spoke with the state official who will issue the permit. Barring anything unexpected, he plans to stamp the drawings and issue the permit no later than next Friday, May 5. Fingers crossed for sure on this - any good wishes or pixie dust thoughts you could send our way would be appreciated. b) We are finishing up the last of the permit requirements for our house this afternoon. I just got off the phone with the county planning department & my husband is on his way there to finish out the paperwork, pay the fee and pick up the permit so our house can be delivered by May 15. This is great! c) We have been working with the county permit office for over a year. They are fully up to date on plans. They require the state permit mentioned above before they begin their review. My sense is the county review will go very quickly once we have the state permit. d) There are several other permits we will need. Most of those will be the responsibility of the General Contractor, but there are a few more that are in progress with our engineering team that we will handle directly. These are way ahead of schedule and should not prevent any activity we need to do at this point. 2) House We should be set for the new house to be delivered by May 15. Once it passes inspection, we can move our things in and have a home again after a year living full time in an RV. This is exciting! We did wind up going with a mobile home option instead of the traditional home we had designed. The time and money savings were too good to pass up. Here's the floorplan for the model we are getting. It's the Triumph by Tru. It has taken me a while, but now that we are 2-3 weeks from getting this on the property, I am so happy we went this way. It will be good to have a real home base again.  3) General Contractor We are getting pricing from two small local firms now. Neither was even on our short list originally. I truly hope to get to a decision on this soon. As others who have tried to build recently know, nothing is happening fast on the construction side. We will not be able to build everything on our plan in this first round. But we should be able to do enough to open as a nice resort early in 2024 as planned.  ![]() |
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Post by MinnieMom on Apr 28, 2023 13:50:48 GMT -5
4) Marketing After a couple of good experiences with different artists on Fivver for our logo and the camp map, I am working on some additional concept art now. This will be helpful in marketing. I also think we may sell some of these prints in additional to framing and hanging some of the art around the resort. Once of the pieces will be a vintage style poster showing the different types of accommodations. This is the sample image the artist sent me for the style.  This is the slide I put together for the artist to show what I wanted from the art in the vintage style.  And these are the three pencil drawings the artist sent me for approval so he could begin on the art piece. I approved the 3rd; the first did not have the welcome center and the 2nd needed to switch an RV for a motorhome.  The total cost for this art is ~$200. Another artist is working on a different series of concept pieces for significantly less. I am looking forward to getting their final work over the next several weeks. 5) The political side is going so-so. There is verbal support for the business, but no action. I think the very best case I could get might be having one of the US senators from SC show up for the Grand Opening in Feb 2024. That would be fantastically good free publicity. It is early days yet, but there is some small reason to think this might be a possibility. 6) Mental/Emotional state Building a business is exhausting. Not physically, at least not until we start the work of building. But the stress and the worry are real even in these early days. It is also by far the most satisfying work I have ever done. While I've been a roller coaster of ups and downs, my husband has been the rock for the family. He does not get excited. He also does not get down in the dumps. I am extremely grateful for him. |
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Post by MinnieMom on Apr 28, 2023 13:55:18 GMT -5
Now, let's talk about DVC at Fort Wilderness.
OMG!!! Wow, that was out of left field. I love the Fort. I love DVC. But I really wonder about this decision. For the most part, there does not seem to be a significant overlap between Fort and DVC fans. Campers tend to be far more social. DVC (MO excepted to some extent) tend to be somewhat more guarded. So while I am tentatively optimistic about this move as a Disney fan, it raises a ton of questions. It will be interesting to see who it plays out.
Of course, the very first thought that went through my head was: "I need cabins. I wonder if Disney will sell the old cabins?" If anyone here has any contacts that might know the answer to this, I would really appreciate a message. I would love to have a conversation with Disney about buying 10-20 of the cabins. Can you imagine how it would feel if we could have a Wilderness Way street in Standing Pines with 10-20 of the old Fort Wilderness cabins? WOW!!!!!!!
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Post by snowwhite4 on Apr 28, 2023 16:06:59 GMT -5
Oh my goodness, just got caught up on your adventure. It is mind boggling what you have accomplished! Thanks for keeping us updated.
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Post by helenabear on Apr 28, 2023 16:26:15 GMT -5
Wow what an update. I am most excited for you to be in a home again.
As for Ft Wilderness Cabins, my understanding is they are at the end of their lifecycle. I'm not sure they'd be a wise investment if they are not demolished.
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Post by MinnieMom on Apr 30, 2023 13:11:46 GMT -5
snowhite4 - welcome along for the journey! helenabear - that is something we'd have to check. In 2016, Disney sold the cabins from the 2100 loop that was converted to additional RV campsites. A few found a way to the public and a few were sold by an RV resort. chipandco.com/former-fort-wilderness-cabins-sale-245084/. I plan to reach out to Nature's Resort in Homosassa Florida to see how these cabins are doing today after multiple years of use. DH would strongly prefer to build our cabins, so that factors as we well. But I'd love to at least learn if purchasing is a possibility and what the terms might be for that kind of transaction. |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 2, 2023 14:36:35 GMT -5
I love the final art for the marketing poster!  |
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Post by WDWGoof on May 2, 2023 16:53:16 GMT -5
Looks great!!!
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Post by helenabear on May 3, 2023 10:13:20 GMT -5
Looks fantastic!
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Post by tomandrobin on May 3, 2023 10:21:29 GMT -5
I love the final art for the marketing poster! Poster looks great.....I especially like the coloring and how it incorporates everything you want to be. |
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Post by beam4dvc on May 3, 2023 16:47:44 GMT -5
Love the style of the poster!
Only thing that caught my eye is that the pine trees in the background are brown. Pine trees are evergreens. Brown pines suggest they are dead.
Hope this isn't too picky....
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Post by MinnieMom on May 8, 2023 16:56:16 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback on the poster! I have a few other marketing art things in the works. I'll preview those here over the next few weeks as they finalize. Please keep the feedback coming. We have our permit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, of course we will need other permits as well. But the big one, the one that is the necessary prerequisite for any other work, the one that if you are lucky takes months if not a year or more to get, we have it!! That came through last Monday. It immediately set off a whole slew of other dominos in a good way. We have picked a GC. While we are still waiting on some pricing, this is the first GC that checks all the boxes. He understands the project. His firm is big enough & experienced enough to handle it. He is super organized and on top of all the details. He gets value engineering and will help us make the most of our available budget. We have not signed a contract yet, but I confirmed with the bank today this is the GC we want to use to get him started on the qualification process with the bank. The permit for the house is complete. The clay needed to create a bed for the house has been delivered, spread and compacted. If we are lucky, the house will be on our property this Friday. It is looking good to be able to move in before the end of the month! The county is moving us right along on their approval process. Now we are in the middle of picking road names. We need 12. So far, 2 have been approved. The issue is they have to be unique so as to be very easy in potential 911 emergencies. I was able to get Standing Pines Circle for our main road. Sugar Pine Way was also approved. Now I need 10 more tree related road names. DD and I will work on that tonight. My understanding is this is the last thing the county needs to approve us. Super fun! We are now starting to plan for a Groundbreaking Ceremony. I know it is just a basic ribbon cutting, but it is hugely exciting to think we are actually going to build this dream. If all goes well, we may even be able to start clearing some of the land prior to the groundbreaking now tentatively scheduled for mid July. And perhaps the biggest news of all - - GC is reasonably optimistic we can make my target opening date of Feb 2024. Now for something that didn't turn out as I'd hoped. I found a less expensive artist on fivver who uses AI to quickly create art. I was hoping to get some images from that to use in marketing. I think we will have a use for these images, but probably more internally as aspiration than anything else. They are lovely at first glance. Then some of the quality issues start to show. Overall, I think they very much overpromise what we will be able to realistically deliver in our first year of operation. So I'm sharing them more to show the kinds of things I'm thinking and doing that don't quite work out. There is also some question in my mind about AI art for commercial purposes. It was an interesting experiment, but I think we will stick with original art for the resort.     While the above are nicer than what we will be able to offer guests when we first open (I think), they do represent what I think we can offer as we mature as a business. On the other hand, the pool is just totally wrong. Wrong size, wrong shape, wrong feel, wrong building as the focal point - just wrong.  Happily, if we can start building as soon as I now think is possible, we will be able to supplement these creative efforts with real time video of the build as well as update photos on a routine basis. It is actually about time for me to get serious about youTube videos for Standing Pines. |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 15, 2023 13:17:52 GMT -5
Hello again my friends!
Last week, we worked with 911 and the county to choose road names for the resort. It took some time, as there are strict rules in place to prevent names that are similar to exiting names in order to maintain an efficient response time in the event of an emergency. We were able to find 12 names of local plants, animals and trees that work. That will be fun, as I think my DD and her BFF are planning a kids scavenger hunt guide that will incorporate the species from the road names as a fun activity for guests.
Big picture, getting the GC through the bank approval process is the next big thing. Happily, most of that is on him. I've shared the information and contacts needed. I am reasonably confident this will go fairly smoothly, but won't know till its done. We are also working with the state provided consultant (free!!!!!) on some soft stuff like mission/vision and marketing. Plus DH is hard at work getting our new house ready. It was delivered last week & should be ready for inspection this week so we hopefully get certificate of occupancy next week.
After asking for and getting significant feedback on some of my marketing images, I needed to regroup a bit. One thing that kept coming up was the need for a consistent look for Standing Pines. The illustrated map has the most distinctive look. It matches the relaxed, almost child like wonder we hold to evoke with the resort. So I've asked that artist to a couple of additional pieces for me. I love the first sketch she has created and look forward to sharing that completed art in the next week or so.
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Post by MinnieMom on May 15, 2023 13:22:23 GMT -5
Groundbreaking Announcement for Standing Pines Resort We are now actively planning a symbolic groundbreaking to introduce Standing Pines to the public! In the event anyone is around the Hartsville, SC area in mid-July, I'd love to welcome you to our groundbreaking. Please click HERE to confirm interest and get the details once we confirm date/time for the event.
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