Furniture, Appliances, Final Touches...oh my!

Sorry for the delay in updates. With holidays, getting camp more winterized and rentals I let myself get behind on updates for the staff house. Not to worry though, it is still making good progress. We are working hard to get the appropriate accounts set up for appliances and I am trying even harder to understand the University system for purchasing furniture.

We are looking at wooden bunkbeds for the rooms to get maximum occupancy. Each room will have wooden cubbies for belongings. These are easier to keep clean and will hopefully match the wood of the beds. There will be a large chair in each room also.

The appliances have been a bit of a challenge. We are looking at Energy Saver equipment that has a stainless finish so it does not show dirt as easily. We have found all the items we want and are waiting on the account so we can get them and have them delivered.

We want to make the solar power a teaching tool for campers and user groups. To do this, we will need to get some additional elements to make teaching happen. Thanks to John Vining and Ken Kindly for their help in making that happen.

Carpet is going in!

This past week, some of the finishing touches are happening to the staff house. They were prepping for the carpet to go in and finishing the "punch list" for the paint. They deck was stained and the railing was painted green.

We should have the appliances installed by the end of next week and will be looking for an occupancy soon!

We marked several scrub pines that we want to take out so we can do some nice landscaping with native trees and plants. Who wouldn't want to sit in a rocking chair on the deck and look out at the view below? Imagine it mixed with lots of dogwoods in bloom...

We are wanting to name the staff house something other than "staff house" if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Laying the road

This last week, they laid the base for the road that will go up to the back accessible entrance and the parking area out front.

The propane tank was brought in and put into the ground. This will create a climate controlled environment so that the ceiling tiles can go in now.

They also did some interior stuff like the beautiful stair railing and painting.

I am making more progress on the furniture. I have compiled a list of things we will be buying and am now gong through the state contracts to figure out where to buy it from.

Concrete & Connections

There has been lots of progress from the outside! They poured the concrete that connects the building to the parking area. This has a slight grade so it provides a "ramp" to the Wellness Center. This also made it possible to start the outside stairs that will connect the floors in the front of the building, they look great!

The heating units (5 of them) have been brought in and placed on their slab. We are waiting on the propane tank to get buried so we can actually have some heat. We have to wait on that so we can get a climate controlled space so we can finish the ceiling tiles.

The leaves are turning and it is beautiful!

Water & Power!

The 6 inch water line has been put in finally. The yard at the Directors house and the lower parking area was torn up to finish the connection. We are going to use this opportunity to do some needed landscaping in that area. It is the first thing you see when you enter the property so it should present itself in a welcoming and polished manner.

The large vault for the camps new water connection is in. It will require some creative landscaping to disguise it. It is bigger than they made it sound, sticks up above the grade, is right in front of the lodge/old pool area and is quite an eye soar. The good thing about it (and one reason it is so big) is that this is going to be our only metering point for the whole camp. It will allow up to tap into the line anywhere below it without the long permitting process and extra costs. It will also keep us from having more of these vaults all over the place when new buildings and things are put in. So in the big scheme of things, it will be better for the camp and you will not really know it is there when we get done landscaping it.

The electric has been connected to the house now! It is cool to see the lights illuminating from the house in the mornings.

We want to rename the Staff House to something more user friendly and appealing to groups. We thought of Hickory Hideaway or Hickory Hollow since there are lots of hickory trees around it. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Solar panels, water and flooring, Oh My!

At the end of last week the solar panels were installed on the roof. They look small compared to the rest of the building, but I am sure they are powerful! It may take a week or so to get them hooked up and functional. We are wanting to use them as teaching tools for the kids on how solar power works!

The big water line that has kept us waiting for so long is almost ready to connect! They have been digging rather large holes and ditches along the road to lay a 6 inch water line. They started at the staff house and worked their way back to the parking area in front of our house. They are almost connected! When they do finally tap into the water line, we will let you know if the pressure blows the roof off or not..ha ha!

They also put most of the hard wood flooring in over the weekend and it looks beautiful! The combination of hardwood and ceramic tile looks great. We are in the process of picking out the furniture and fabrics right now!

Floors are going in!

These last few weeks have been very busy at the staff house and here at camp. The ceramic tiles went in and the "rubbery" tiles for the wellness center were laid. They look great! It is starting to really come together!

The installable permanent furnishings have been delivered and are being hung in the rooms also. There is a big back hoe out in front of the staff house too digging a large ditch for the new WATER LINE! Yeah, that stag was cleared up finally!

I have been told that the cabinets in the kitchen are being hung right now and that the permanent power line should be going in this week. I am narrowing down furniture options also so we can start to order bunk beds, couches, etc. soon.

Doors are being hung...

We have the United Way Day of Caring today. We have ~35-40 volunteers out here right now and they are clearing & building 3 new elements on the low ropes course, starting to widen and clear the logging road for the new entrance road and they repainted the rec hall bathrooms. Things are looking better and better every day thanks to our volunteer groups!

As for the staff house, it looks like everything is on schedule now. The water permit is straight with the City of Asheville now. The doors came in and are being hung...they look awesome! I love the light pine look. Most of the fixtures are in and the ceiling in the downstairs is going up. They said that they are starting the floors next week. It is all coming together!

Interior work

There has been some progress in the interior in the past few weeks. They have finished most of the dry wall and have started painting the main and mezzanine floors.

There has not been much done in the past week so we are constantly looking for new things. Now the "visible progress" is reduced. When they are framing and siding you can tell at the end of the day that something major has occurred. With all of the details going in, it is harder to see that. We know they are still chipping away at it and will hopefully be able to order furniture...soon!

Interior Progress!

We are starting to see progress on the inside now too! They have got the insulation in and have started on the drywall/sheet rock. They have finished most of the exterior painting and it is starting to look like the drawings. We are having an Open House of sorts this Sunday starting at 5pm and we are trying to get it "gussied up" for that.

Exterior progress

We we have some obvious exterior progress happening to the staff house. They have finished a beautiful railing on the wrap around porch. They have put doors in and they are trying out colors on the side. They only did one side so it still looks alittle weird, but even slow progress is still progress!

Camp is going great! The kids are having a fun time and all are safe and happy!

First week of camp!

Sorry for the delay folks, but after 3 years the cabins are again filled with laughter and excitement! With all the preparation for our first campers I let the staff house settle on the back burner. During that time progress seemed to go very slowly so you haven't missed much. The siding finally started this last week and is already 99% complete! The windows are in too! Now that there is some visible progress I can resume the photo talking. Enjoy! Hopefully there will be even more visible progress next week! Until then, look at all the campers we had last week!

WOW!!!

We had yet another clean-up day this weekend and this time we had 13 people show up!!! Big thanks to Linda Semon, Daniel, Calib and Joshua from Yancey County. Roger from the community and a few others stopped by. We got alot done and the place is looking great! We still have more to go and another clean-up day this Sunday. If you get a chance, stop by to help!

The staff house is amazing! They have part of the roof done and part of the front deck also! I can't believe they have gotten so far in such a little time. I can't wait to see what gets done this week!

I think they may do it!

They said 10 days and I thought they were kidding! Look at it! They should have the roof on in the next few days! I can't believe how fast that went up, it was a regular "barn raising" huh? They worked all day both Saturday AND Sunday and it sounds like a bee hive down there.

The clean up this weekend had another depressing turn out. My Mom and her husband drove up from Tennessee to help and they were the only ones who showed up. We removed dirty screens and stained buildings. They were a HUGE help but it was a bummer that no one else showed up. Maybe NEXT Saturday some people will come and help out.

10 Days and counting!

They started framing this weekend and they tell me they will have it dine in 10 days! I was alittle skeptical until I looked at it last night...they were walking around on the second floor! As you can see they have already made HUGE progress in just 3 days!

Our first clean-up weekend was sort of disappointing, our neighbor Jeff was the only one who showed up. We got ALOT done though. My husband, Jeff and myself managed to fill an entire roll-off dumpster with old furniture & the stuff from the program shelters. We now have 2 great spots...one for the Nature Nook (eco-stuff and stream stompin') and one for the art area (cool name has yet to be thought of). The place is already looking so different. WE HAVE ANOTHER CLEAN-UP DAY ON SATURDAY FROM 10AM-5PM. If you can come, even for a few hours please stop by!

We have a slab!

I am sorry that this is alittle late, but up until today there as not much to update you on. The sprinkler guys hit a few of the existing lines so that was slow going, but that should be fixed right now. This morning I went down to the site and there was a fresh slab of wet concrete curing. Once this is finished the framers can start! I can't wait to start putting pictures of the progress up now, it will look alot different every week b/c framing can go quickly.

Plumbing laid

This last week was alittle slow. They got the plumbing laid and had to wait to get it inspected. Now they are waiting for the sprinkler people to tear up the ground and lay the water/sprinkler lines. Today they had all kinds of big equipment out there to start and had a busted part on their back-hoe. That has been fixed and now they are making some progress.

They had trusses delivered today for the frames. They cannot start framing until the plumbing is done, the peastone is spread and the concrete is done. Hopefully that will happen quickly now that the equipment is fixed.