MinnieMom Campground

Amy - I will say it again - your project management skills are admirable! Do take that solo trip - great to recharge and get away for a bit.

Today is a good day! I had a meeting with Paula, who has been the key contact at the local Planning office. I went in with 8 agenda items. Here's the update:

1) I gave Paula a complementary beta reader print version of Rascal Takes Responsibility, the first illustrated storybook for the Forest Friends. She loved it! Before we started anything else, she took the time to read and offer comments. When I talked through how we will incorporate the theming into the campground, her eyes got really wide and excited. That was great to see!

2) We have the first brochures for Standing Pines! I took several for the nice ladies at the planning office. They were a hit. Evidently, as word has gone out locally about Standing Pines, the staff in the planning office has been getting questions. Mostly those seem to boil down to "when are they going to open?" and "why haven't you already approved them?" Perhaps the funniest was hearing Paula tell the story of a friend running into her at the gym and peppering her with questions about whether Standing Pines was going to open with a pool or a lazy river first. It was cute and really reaffirmed just how excited the local community is for this resort to get built.

3) I had a brainstorm last week about opening more or less immediately for primitive tent camping only. DH was hugely opposed for liability purposes. We compromised by agreeing to talk to planning about it to understand rules and requirements. When I scheduled today's meeting with Paula, I mentioned this to her and asked if she would research the requirements. She did. Turns out we would have to have two full bathrooms, complete with showers, to do primitive tent camping by the county's standards. Since the best cost option I've found for that would be $60,000 that is a hard no for now. Instead, we added a group primitive camping area to the overall business plan. It will be a low to no cost add, with potential to turn a nice profit over the first five years. Still a long term win!

4) There is a narrow exception for owners to do small projects on a commercial property without a contractor's license. The project must be valued by the county at $10,000 or less. DH asked me to check county values for a carport. That's a $10/sq ft value, which means this is well within the exception for him to do it. That is good, as it also means there are a few other projects he will build out to save us some money. Basically, anything that fits in this exception is now his bailiwick.

5) and 6) and 8) County permit / zoning approval is granted, pending the two outstanding permits being issued by DOT and DHEC. Paula was certain enough based on her own independent verification work with these two agencies that she finally allowed me to pay the small application fee for the campground. DHEC has committed to getting our paperwork done by Monday the 18th. DOT should also be completed next week. Paula was quite firm that if those two came together next week, she would approve Standing Pines and issue me the certification letter for the bank before the end of next week. Oh wow. I wanted to hug her! I didn't, but I really wanted to hug her with that news!!

6) I shared the above updated map on a regular letter size paper. Paula asked for a larger 24"x36" version so e911 could finish all the addressing requirements easily. I'll get that to them quickly. I think the request for it is a very positive sign.

As if that wasn't enough good news for one day, I checked with the pool designer. They verified they received the updated clubhouse blueprints and will have the updated pool permit documents ready for me to review this afternoon. Unless I come up with any changes, that whole package will be completed and sent to the pool builder no later than the end of this month. I let pool builder know. They are excited and on board to fast track us as much as possible to get that lovely, lovely pool built for Standing Pines!

And here is yet more good news, the attorney doing the securities/investment package and I met late Tuesday. I'm doing a final read this afternoon. I expect to start advertising the investment tomorrow. I'll post a link here just in case. If anyone know anyone who might be interested in investing in us, please share that when I post it. The sooner we raise those funds, the sooner we close on the construction loan!

Plus (because of course plus!) we are going to go ahead and get the first 5 acres cleared before the end of this month. That's a slight risk, as I do not know if we will have raised the funds needed at that point to close on the construction loan yet. But I have just enough left in the current budget to cover it and want to get it done so we get back a little bit of time towards the opening timeline.

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I am so very excited today. I know there will be more obstacles and challenges. I know we have a long way to go before starting construction, much less opening and successfully operating Standing Pines. Still, I am taking a moment to celebrate today's wins. The permits and county approval are really big. Seeing the light at the end of that particular tunnel is outstanding.

Several people have taken a moment to let me know that following this journey here has meant something to them. I am humbled and honored every single time. It does not feel like we are doing anything extraordinary. At times, it has felt almost deeply selfish to me to take this chance and follow a dream instead of the safe and steady path for financial comfort. So I want to take a moment to say thank you. I deeply appreciate the positive and encouraging comments. It means more than you will ever know.

Ok, back to work now! Catch all you wonderful MO again real soon with the next update!

Amy

Amy -- I swear I haven't forgotten about Canva. Work has been simply nuts.
I always love seeing your updates here.

Hello again! There was a snag with the DHEC sewer approval yesterday. There is no question or concern about the proposed engineering solution. Instead, it is simply delay after delay after delay. That is holding up the other required approvals, other permits, construction loan and technically my solicitation of investors as I want this "i" dotted before offering others this investment. That is super aggravating. Yesterday, I reached out to the two politicians that have expressed interest in Standing Pines to explain the situation and ask for their advice and/or a phone call to DHEC to try to move the approval forward. Fingers crossed.

On the fun side, our very first registered guest plans to show up this afternoon for a special preview tour! This is a gentleman who has followed Standing Pines for several months via public posts. He shared some personal information with me that indicates why this is such an urgent interest for him, so we made a special exception to allow him to register as an advance request guest. When we spoke, I offered to give him a special preview tour of the current state of the property. He and his wife plan to drive up from the coast this afternoon for that preview tour. As a surprise, I made this certificate for him. I'll present it to him this afternoon, like asking for a photo of him holding the certificate. Assuming he agrees, that photo will be the first one up on a designated wall in the Welcome Center for guests to display their favorite moments at Standing Pines.

That’s great news!

I don’t think people have any idea the amount of work that goes into this. I know I shared this back in the MouseOwners days but I use to joke that people thought I had it easy as a business owner - I use to say - yeah…I work half days. I would pause and say - you just pick which 12 hours.

Everything is looking great and thanks as always for sharing!

I probably missed it, but how many cabins will there be and are they all studios?
What about glamping? How many of those will there be?
Will they be all sorted together?