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Post by melk on May 16, 2023 5:36:44 GMT -5
Wow, I’ve lost track of this thread and now am so pleasantly surprised at how much progress has been made! So happy things are moving along so well for you.
I have to admit I kept thinking of Fort Wilderness loop names when you mentioned naming your streets. Are you incorporating anything “Disney?”
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Post by MinnieMom on May 16, 2023 12:58:10 GMT -5
Here's the updated campground map with the road names we picked.  |
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Post by WDWGoof on May 16, 2023 16:53:21 GMT -5
Love Baby Deer Drive!
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Post by MinnieMom on May 18, 2023 7:50:07 GMT -5
Wow, I’ve lost track of this thread and now am so pleasantly surprised at how much progress has been made! So happy things are moving along so well for you. I have to admit I kept thinking of Fort Wilderness loop names when you mentioned naming your streets. Are you incorporating anything “Disney?” Thanks! These past two weeks there has been a sense that a lot of the work of the past 18 months is starting to come together. Fingers crossed that momentum continues so that we can start clearing land for construction in June / July. Any Disney touches will be more along the lines of a subtle tribute, I think. Although I followed up on a suggestion in this thread & reached out to DVC member services to ask about the FW cabins. A CM got back to me. She didn't have any information, but indicated personal support for the thought of the FW cabins going on to live at another campground. So I've been told my request for information on potentially purchasing a few of the old FW cabins when they get taken out for the new DVC ones is winding through the various Disney teams involved. If that winds up working out, part of what it would have to include to make it work for me is some kind of written ok from Disney to incorporate the cabin's history in FW for Standing Pines. There is also a potential concern about those cabins being at the end of their life expectancy, but that needs more research to verify. WDW Goof - thank you! I love Baby Deer Drive too. I think it will be a ton of fun for the kids. |
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Post by MinnieMom on May 20, 2023 13:34:15 GMT -5
So, art & marketing. This is part of the work I'm doing now as design/engineering shifts to construction/planning.
Fivver is a great resource. I love the logo and brand guide that was designed for Shifting Pines over a year ago. Getting my first samples of potential future mech with the logo this week was awesome. I love how the logo looks and think this will be an extremely valuable resource for the company over time. Similarly, the unique look of the illustrated concept map has been a real win. That has been key in discussions with different contractors and officials to help them understand how Standing Pines should properly be viewed more as a resort than a campground.
Not all of my art/marketing attempts have been successful. The AI generated art, while inexpensive, was also low quality. Not only did it not return the images I wanted, that art has a real risk of overpromising and underdelivering. As a friend pointed out, when guests see photo realistic images, that is going to be the expectation. Even if our product winds up better than the AI photo realistic art, it will not be an exact match. It is all too easy to envision guests disliking that. For that matter, as a guest at WDW and other resorts, that kind of disconnect between marketing and reality would set me off too. So the AO stuff was about a $200 mistake. Not terrible in the long run, but right now I resent every wasted penny.
Trying to find a good balance, I tried two other artists with two other styles. I like the art both produced. It is pretty. It is well composed and strikes a memorable visual. Unfortunately, it also becomes distracting quickly. As a good friend pointed out, we need to keep focused on building a brand right now. That means consistency, consistency and more consistency. It also means a visually striking image that is distinctly Standing Pines is critical. So, although I like the art from these two other artists in these two other styles, that's also another $400 invested that we will not be able to use initially in our marketing. Now, that I do not consider a total loss. I can take the images to the artist with the style we are going to use for all of the initial marketing art. Redoing those images in her style will save significant time and some cost. Plus, I still own the commercial rights to these other images. So if I want to use them internally or at some point in the future, they remain available.
So, all that said, I'll wind up spending about $3,000 all in for the logo in about a dozen variations, the brand guide with colors and fonts, the illustrated concept map, two marketing posters featuring accommodations and activities respectively 3-4 detailed landscapes of specific resort amenities. This should be a really good set of tools to build the initial marketing. That's a significant part of my initial marketing budget, but I think we may well find it pays for itself with some branded merchandize over time. Here's an image I put together using some of these tools to convey the possibilities of using them together.
And here's a larger image of the first of the landscape amenities. The artist will do the pond next. I'm not entirely certain which of the others I'll ask her to do. Probably the dog park and mini golf, but that's still up in the air.
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Post by MinnieMom on May 20, 2023 13:39:44 GMT -5
I should add that while this is an artist's concept drawing, it is 100% based on the actual engineered plans for the pool, pool deck and pool building. Our actual soft goods and the cabana colors may vary, this is a reasonably accurate depiction of what the final resort pool will be. The pool capacity is 158 persons bathing in a 2800 sq ft space. The deck is an additional ~7000+ sq ft. The total footprint for the resort pool area is ~11,000 sq f.
I absolutely love this image. I cannot wait to build it and play in it, then spend years watching guests enjoy themselves at the pool.
What do you think? What do you see or feel when you look at this pool art?
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Post by MinnieMom on May 23, 2023 9:01:44 GMT -5
I just saw a note from our GC that he expects to have pricing complete this week & is working with bank to finish qualification with them. That's really good news for keeping us moving ahead. Fingers crossed.
The 2 bedroom RV we purchased for the resort as a rental that has served as an office/home for us for the past 12 months goes back to the dealer on Friday for some warranty work. Our new house may or may not be completely ready by Friday, as (of course) some things are taking longer than we were told to expect. But we have other other personal camper up there, so the plan is still for DD and I to take the dogs and join DH in Hartsville after school on Friday. If our house is not yet ready, Grandma will stay with my parents a little while longer and we will board the cat. Even with last minute delays, I don't think it is going to hold us up more than a week or so for the new house.
DD finishes all tests, finals, concerts and any semblance of actual school this week. The county had to make up some school days, so they are scheduled for 4 days of movie watching, award ceremonies and babysitting next week. DD wants to go to her honors awards ceremony, so I'll bring her back to the beach for at least that day of school. A week from Friday, she and I take off to meet up with her BFF's family in MS to pick up BFF for a long summer visit. Then I take both girls to Universal for a few days before heading back to SC with them.
So I'm trying hard to tie up some loose ends on Standing Pines this week in order to mostly free up the next two weeks to deal with the move and have a few days vacation with the kids. Here's hoping!
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Post by MinnieMom on May 31, 2023 9:57:04 GMT -5
If you heard a scream from SC last Friday, it was me venting stress after getting numbers on just one building back from GC. There is just no way. So DH and I got creative over the weekend. I think we have come up with a way to eliminate 500 heated sq ft in our main building that actually works really well for a campground and may ultimately offer better guest experiences while saving around $200,000 on building costs. I sketched it out last night and sent it to the architect to review.
The pool builders are anxious to get going. I'm anxious to get going. GC is out on vacation this week and I told him last week to take the time. There's no point in building a resort for families to build memories then run my team ragged. So I'm going to be taking lots of deep breaths this week and using the time to come up with cost management possibilities.
Tomorrow is DD's last day of school here. I'll go for her awards ceremony then we had up to Hartsville. Good news - our house passed inspection yesterday!!! We are all clear to start moving in!!! Yeah - we have a home again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So of course DD and I leave Saturday to pick up her BFF for a few days in Orlando at Universal. Then her BFF is coming to stay with us for several weeks this summer. So it will be nice from the girls to have time together since they have only seen each other in person for brief visits since we left Oklahoma a few years ago.
Overall, it is going well. There will continue to be bumps that stress me and we will continue to find ways to turn these into creative solutions.
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Post by MinnieMom on Jun 2, 2023 12:30:49 GMT -5
Hello MO friends! Sam finished the school year yesterday. We loaded more of our things and drove to Hartsville. We spent the evening cleaning and bringing in the bare minimum of furniture required (bed, table) to be able to camp out in our new home. All three of us got distracted by the sunset. DH says this is pretty typical here on the property. If he is right - and he usually is - sunrise and sunsets will be an experience I think our future guests will really enjoy. Samantha snapped a couple of photos on her phone. Lovely!  |
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Post by reblzmom on Jun 2, 2023 19:06:20 GMT -5
That looks wonderful!
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Post by kzrooster on Jun 3, 2023 8:24:36 GMT -5
I should add that while this is an artist's concept drawing, it is 100% based on the actual engineered plans for the pool, pool deck and pool building. Our actual soft goods and the cabana colors may vary, this is a reasonably accurate depiction of what the final resort pool will be. The pool capacity is 158 persons bathing in a 2800 sq ft space. The deck is an additional ~7000+ sq ft. The total footprint for the resort pool area is ~11,000 sq f. I absolutely love this image. I cannot wait to build it and play in it, then spend years watching guests enjoy themselves at the pool. What do you think? What do you see or feel when you look at this pool art? Granted I’m on my iPad but I don’t see anything other than text? |
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Post by sherrih on Jun 3, 2023 10:51:34 GMT -5
The sunset pictures are beautiful.
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Post by MinnieMom on Jun 3, 2023 20:42:11 GMT -5
reblzmom & sherrih - thanks! kzrooster - I set the image upload to delete after a certain number of days, because I uploaded on postimage without an account to protect them. I'll try sharing another way tomorrow.  |
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Post by rozzie on Jun 4, 2023 21:05:40 GMT -5
Ugh, I will take the woods to outhouses or nasty portapotties!
We are big campers, more backcountry than front country-- but like the options of campgrounds when we travel. Are you still going to have a tent-only area? I am so SPOILED by the incredible FL state park system. They seem to really have put so much thought into the tenting-only areas on land that probably would have been costly/environmentally disruptive to gravel/pave for RVs.
How fun to follow along on your journey! Both my parents were full-timers and I feel like I grew up in campgrounds.
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Post by MinnieMom on Jun 6, 2023 9:45:15 GMT -5
Hello from Universal Orlando! Or more accurately, a hotel room near the parks. DD and her BFF had fun at UO yesterday. BFF is a big Harry Potter fan, so spending time in those lands was fun. Both girls are still sound asleep at 10am. I'm going to let them sleep until I finish my 11:30 call with architect/contractor, then we will head to Disney Springs for lunch. I am hoping that taking today as a rest day means I can get these two up and going early tomorrow to enjoy the UO parks early in the morning with shorter waits for lines.
I'm so eager to get going on construction. This morning was follow up with our civil engineer(s) regarding a DOT permit for two driveways, one construction and one permanent for the primary entrance to the resort. I think this is something that engineers were supposed to have handled some time ago & just missed. I started asking about it again week before last, which got some traction. Now I'm simply poking at it every couple of days to make sure we are moving along towards getting that permit. Same story on the sewer system permit - everything is in place for approvals, but it does seem to require me asking about it routinely to make sure it doesn't drop down someone else's priority list.
Meanwhile, DH is at our new place. He's got an overflowing plate. There are things he needs to do to make our house a home, including but not limited to building front & back porch, installing dog fence, replacing facets, changing a tub for a walk in shower and other similar tasks. Oh, plus move our stuff from onsite storage into the house. Then he needs to build out a cabin on wheels. Then get started on building 100+ picnic tables, lounges for pool, furniture for welcome center and at least a couple more cabins. Plus build some of the amenities like bike track, hiking paths....DH has more to do than he can realistically do in the time available for a Feb open. I've offered to back off and let him manage his timelines and priorities. It all has to get done. He knows we will have to hire help with some of it, but is resisting that like crazy.
I've got stuff to do for the bank for the loan, stuff to do for the accountant to make sure costs are going to right place, stuff to do with GC and architect to redesign to manage cost. On the fun side, I am enjoying using ChatGPT for some stories I'm creating to support the resort. It's helpful, but I wind up rewriting everything. Mostly AI is helpful as a tool to get me working. I can see where it will be more helpful as I use it more, but for now it is certainly a learning curve.
I've been working on the pool, which has a number of elements. The design is almost done. I'll be glad when that is complete. Then it goes to DHEC for approval, mostly likely including comments for some minor changes after a 30 day review period. The pool builder gave me a verbal quote and a plan for the pool deck this morning. That's about the 3rd iteration of that, including some field trips to go see some of their work in other locations. It's down to $62,000 from an initial price of $123,000, so that's probably about all I can squeeze out of that for now. I gave verbal okay and look to get the written proposal this afternoon.
Our water line extension with the county is a go. They expect to start work on that this week and complete it this month. I am working with electrical engineer and power company, getting very close to finishing electrical design plans so the power company can design the transformers & systems to power the resort. That's cool. It's not really a deep interest, but is something that has to get done. Same with internet company and a few other similar things like the reservations/operations system and making sure we are ready to go operational about 3 months before projected resort opening for bookings.
On the good news side, we were approved yesterday for a joint Small Business / University of SC initiative for grad students at USC's highly regarded Masters International Business to provide free consulting for Standing Pines this fall as part of a class project. I proposed using this resource to create our marketing plan. Realistically, I'll already have several pieces in place when the students start class. But I think they can add value and that the experience will be good for us and them. Evidently, getting into this project is fairly competitive and we may be the first new business to be accepted. So fingers crossed that goes well over time.
Oh, the other thing I am working is the groundbreaking ceremony for next month. I need to spend some time on that this week to get invitations out as well as put the press kit together.
So lots and lots of work behind the scenes. It helps me to write about it. Not so much as a tracking tool - that's what excel is for - but as a way to track how I feel about the overall project over time. Right now, that's pretty positive. I think we are getting close to actually building. That is exciting.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. It is very encouraging to hear from others!!
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