2023: Student Dorms
Happy New Year everyone! We thought, what a better way to start off 2023 than with catching everyone up to speed on our Student Dorm construction?
The plan is to have both dorms (A frames) up by the summer, two wings, one on each side of the Mainhouse, connected by an open breezeway. We are in the middle of Winter, so everything has to work in harmony with the weather. Both buildings are going up as simultaneously as possible.
Over the weekend, we came up with tentative names for each one to keep track of the progress:
Eagle Rock Wing - Southwest facing
Battle Creek Wing - Northeast facing
Battle Creek Wing (going up first!)
Order:
Excavate the site (Shout out to Precision Excavating!)
Fill with 2’ of Engineered Fill
Pack it down (the little cute yellow robot)
Put in the Ground Wire (Shout out to Kilowatt Electric!)
Pour concrete footings (Shout out to Black Hills Concrete Solutions)
Continue putting up rebar & forms
Next: Pour walls, backfill, call the plumbers for some drains, then pour the floor!
Eagle Rock Wing (catching up!)
It is about to busy a busy next few months for us with conferences, fundraisers, the Beetho-VAN Project, grants student college auditions, competitions, the build, and more! We will try to keep you updated with the most interesting events as they come up. Thanks for being patient :)
Practice Cabins, Countertops & Flooring
Hello again!
We are sorry we haven’t been very vocal on our blog lately. After a phenomenal 8th season, we were right back into the finishing of the Mainhouse and the planning of the A-frame additions.
Also, to be honest, all of the county meetings kind of knocked the wind out of us there for a while. While the staff has been very pleasant to work with, we have had our attorney hard at work ironing out all of the legal “wrinkles”. It is looking like we will have to do a big fundraiser to expand the road to 18 feet, but more on that later.
Here are some updates of the exterior of the Mainhouse (faculty quarters, dining hall, performance space), the kitchen island, countertops, and some carpet upstairs! All incredible woodworking was done by Victor, whom we highly recommend if you would like some gorgeous real furniture in your house. The carpet was a last-minute compromise after we realized that all of the flooring we purchased for the upstairs was delivered in wrong quantities…we hauled it all downstairs and back to the store! :)
An exciting update to our sponsored cabins…they’re getting sided this week! Check out the progress on our biggest cabin of them all, the Piano Cabin (16’x24’), which will get its official name from the wonderful donors very soon!
Isn’t it beautiful? Perfectly blends with all of the other trees, bark, and rocks that surround it :)
Until next time!
Final post before the Festival!
Our first few practice cabins are going up! THANK YOU to Curt Horstmann and his fantastic team for their incredible dedication in helping us be operational by the start of the Festival. There were definitely several midnight working nights…
Kitchen & Flooring
And the lovely memory of covering the gas line ditch before the water could get hooked up!
Framing Continued!
It’s March 17th and we finally got our two Queen posts put up! The pictures cannot even begin to depict their magnitude… our team is definitely not only incredible at what they do but also BRAVE (!!!!) We are looking forward to getting the roof portion done this week, getting the windows delivered tomorrow, and start closing it up next week! In the meantime, enjoy the pictures! These ones are infinitely better, as they were taken by Brett on his gorgeous camera… Headshots anyone? :)
The post you've been waiting for... FRAMING!
OK, we are SO sorry! When we returned from our Florida fundraising trip (30hr+ drive each way), we went to the property and took in all of the progress that was made in the 10 days that we were gone. Then, we relished in it and all of the pictures we took that day. Now that the shock of it all coming together is starting to wear off a little bit, we are ready to share all of them with you!
But first…
A beefy telehandler and a construction dump truck arrived at the property, looking ever so majestically at our own private mountain. Then, on January 20th, we received 2 semis worth of building materials from DC Structures, pre-cut, pre-drilled, beautiful Douglas fir, ready to be put up like a massive lego set. The fun part? They couldn’t make it up the road so we had to unload everything right on the side of of Rt. 16. From 8AM until just after 7PM we were out there babysitting our materials, no food, no bathroom facilities…it was a blast! Here is what it all looked like:
We had two trailer loads left, but it was after dark, and since it was too dark to drive to the property safely (and not hit a tree, go off into the pond, etc.,) we were afraid we might have to spend the night watching the last bit of materials until our framers came back the next morning. Well, they decided to double stack all of them and caravan with us up there one last time. Stacking that last pile of materials was heart attack-worthy. So naturally, we had to document it for the coroners.
As you can see for yourself, we have an EPIC team, led by Curt Horstman from Spearfish. Johnny, the telehandler operator in the video, has obviously got some serious skills.
Anyways, the following week, they started on the crawlspace TGI system. Apparently we definitely over-engineered it…but you never know when a West-coast style earthquake is coming, right? Not to mention, the subfloor will need to support the weight of two grand pianos. (Now is a great time to make your donation of a Steinway or two!) It is tax-deductible after all… :) Think about it!
Alright…here is a little sneak peak.
Are you ready for it?
And a few more, because, why not?
That is Brett Walfish (Executive Director) standing in a window for some perspective! Our framer suggested we put a basketball court in the Grand Dining Hall…we think some incredible chamber music this summer will do the trick :)
Until next time!
In-between Foundation & Framing
To conclude year 2021 and by popular demand, we are sharing some of the most recent snapshots of the build.
Just a warning though, these are not as exciting as you might think! Lots is happening on the ground, just mostly the important stuff and not necessarily with an impressive wow-factor.
But there it is! The blue foam board you see all around the perimeter is exterior insulation for the foundation.
A closer look…there’s a walking path now in front of the building! (On the right)
A piece of the mountain is also gone in the back of the building, about 20 ft to be exact, perfect for outdoor entertainment!
And who’s that!? None other than Brett Walfish (Executive Director) and Megan Hagel (RMF Student Alum)!!
Planning for the future, we are flattening out an area at the end of the main driveway to eventually build a garage. Not anytime soon, but it will be perfect for unloading all of the building materials in the meantime!
And finally, there is a trench dug all the way down way past our house, past the road, into our neighbor’s yard to get some much-needed power!
That’s it for pictures in 2021!
While not picture-worthy, but incredibly time-consuming have been decisions on…
Siding (we are going with Hardie Woodtone in Aspen Ridge)
Roofing (we decided on Class 4 Certain-Teed Landmark Series, probably in Moire Black)
Gutters, fascia, downspouts (TBD still, but most likely Mocha or Black)
Appliances (high capacity washer, gas dryer, gas cooktop, exhaust fan, bathroom fans, exterior and interior lighting, fridge, double oven, bathroom ONYX systems, jetted bathtub, water-efficient toilets, and SO MUCH MORE!) Trying to conserve water and energy on all appliances.
Insulation (this has been a blast! we still haven’t decided whether we are going to go with fiberglass or part foam/part fiberglass. Foam freezes an it’s currently 7F outside!! And it is about 15K above our budget, but better R value…TBD)
Anyways, this build has been probably the most incredibly intense experience for us. 2021 has taught us volumes about building a home, outfitting it for our needs as a Festival, and managing dozens of people in trades we knew nothing about.
We are ready for 2022. Bring it on! Not to forget though, this was us 5 months ago:
Lastly, HUGE THANK YOU to Precision Excavation (Luke & Willy) who have been an absolute blast to get to know and work with on this dream project that is actually coming to life thanks to them!
Framing starts January 18th, so if we don’t post until then, not much will be happening between now and then and now you know why :) Cheers!
The Foundation
This week has been incredibly exciting, as we finally got our concrete crew pouring our foundation!
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves :)
The setup…
More setup!
If this isn’t about to be a beefy foundation, I am not sure what is…
That’s one way of pouring concrete into a mountain…
Not sure how many concrete trucks we had in total…5? 6?
That’s just pretty…
That is a lot of forms…and vegetable oil.
Look at all that rebar!
He stepped in wet concrete!!
I didn’t :)
How it was all being done:
Thanks, everyone! Until next time!
Thanksgiving
We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! Definitely, the weather! While we might have been absent there for some time while our groundwork was getting finished up, we do finally have some incredible updates!
WE RECEIVED OUR BUILDING PERMIT!
The housing pads are also now pretty much complete. The Mainhouse, which is getting constructed first, is now ready for foundation with 2’ of engineered fill ready to be poured on. (We have fatty clay.)
We have some light gravel on the driveway for the concrete trucks so they don’t get stuck in snowy/muddy conditions (which, thank goodness, are waiting for us!)
Mainhouse foundation is getting poured next Wednesday, the week after Thanksgiving!
Our building materials ship out January 18th.
Framing crew out of Spearfish is starting on the floor system on January 18th.
We are SO excited! Hang in there until we have more news to share :)
For now, here is a beautiful view of Eagle Rock!
And just in case you’re not really taking our gorgeous boulders seriously yet, here is Katie’s mom next to the far A-frame wall!
See you soon!
Fall Colors
Hi there!
We got a little sick for a few weeks and haven’t gotten to update the blog, but here is testament to some incredible work from our excavating crew:
Because our hill is so steep, Luke built up a rock wall, upon which one of the A frames (student dorm) will sit on. Here is the view from the top:
And just because Aspens and Birches are beautiful…here’s our personal hiking mountain! (These pictures do not do the colors justice…everything is actually shiny and golden)
And the Eagle rock, which is not ours, but we get to admire it from the back of our house:
And for the boring details, we are still finalizing septic, expanding it a bit… might have found our framers, might have found our siding & roofing, found our electrician, found our HVAC & plumbing, etc. This whole general contracting it yourself is happening!
Driveway Grading
Small update here on Klondike rd! The top portion is starting to get graded, we have a drivable driveway, and that rock that got dug out is the size of my Subaru… :) go Precision Excavation!
Building Permit
Some very exciting news over the last few days! Probably the most important of which is the official filing of our Building Permit yesterday!
Our driveway is coming along and the Fall colors are making it even more beautiful!
And one more exciting development… we have a rock wall at the entrance!
With this view out back…:)
Thanks for checking in!! Come back in a few days for more!
The Driveway
The last few days were SO eventful! We have been up at the property twice a day and each time it starts to look more and more real.
We have a driveway now though, take a look!
We also decided to stick around to watch Luke move a boulder yesterday. It was quite terrifying!!
Here is a 1.5 minute video of what they have to do to each one of these boulders:
We have a “fortress” of a driveway… it looks amazing!
We will have to carve out the house number on that right boulder :)
Also, it’s official! This is to receive permission from the county to allow the Festival to use this property for 3 weeks each July.
It Begins…
It all begins with an idea.
We had a jampacked morning today, complete with meeting our surveyor Nate from Renner Associates and our excavating team, Willie and Luke from Precision Excavation at the property and staking out all of the building corners! Here they are:
They let Brett drive the first stake in :)
Then we went to Pella and Knecht to pick our favorite fiberglass windows…we are between Impervia and Essential, respectively. The quotes are pretty much the same, but Marvins look cleaner…TBD soon!
And finally, we stopped by the County Planning & Zoning to get our Conditional Use letters and our property sign. Sending those out tomorrow, in time for our meeting.
Finally, here are some gorgeous finds from the property! We are so lucky :)
[Edit] Just before dinner we went out to see the progress after just a few hours:
