Rain, Rain Go-Away!
It has been a while since we have had a blog update. After a few crazy months of bridal shows, extreme weather and circumstances, we are back! And with so much to share with you all, so let’s get right down to it, shall we?
To start out with, the prediction of timings I made in the Building Love blog…. Poof. nonexistent. Twas a pipe dream. Life and weather happened instead. But don’t worry, we have been hard at work getting our grounds ready even if the building construction was postponed. We have been marking altar locations, clearing underbrush in our woods, building up sidewalls on our driveway, hanging signs, and more.
In March, we spent a great deal of time cleaning and clearing the undergrowth in parts of the timber. We marked trees we wanted to try to save from any construction equipment and where our woodland altar would be set so we could begin clearing an aisle. We also were able to plot our amphitheater by the pond, and visitor parking lot for consultations and meetings.
April was a quick project of widening our pond dam in order to provide a wider driveway and two walking paths from our parking lot to the pavilion. We were able to up-cycle tin from the old garage to line both sides of the pond and back-fill in with dirt to create additional space. The parking lot was prepared and ready for seeding. After two sessions of walking back and forth, back and forth while listening to an Audible, our parking lot will have grass on it this year. This isn’t done though, it will take at least two more sessions before we can really build up our root system for cars and someday, gravel.
Outside isn’t the only area getting love. We have new flooring in our Bridal Lounge and living area. Decor and fixtures still need to be added to our Bridal Lounge to ensure bridal parties have everything they need to be perfect on the big day. Bedding has been purchased for our Bridal Suite and Bridesmaids Parlor. Only a few more details and our overnight accommodations are complete!
April also brought us our Groundbreaking! We were so excited to have all of our wonderful and valued partners together for this moment. Just in time for the rains to start…. Not to worry, we couldn’t work outside because of all the rainy, muddy mess, so we caught up on some light reading. Small Grand Things was a cover story for the Daily Democrat! Read up on our story from Wednesday’s paper. And keep an eye out for more stories in the future.
So groundbreaking happened and we were finally able to demolish the old garage that was in the middle of where our pavilion will be. The wood and lose materials were torn down and burned. The concrete walls were left for now just to reduce the amount of dirt we will have to end up pushing back. Otherwise, with all this rain we have had and are supposed to have would have washed it down and created a bigger mess and more work in order to prep the area.
We finally have our sign up on the highway too! You can drive by and check out where exactly we are located on X23 now. Once construction is complete and no more trucks and loaders need to come in the lane, we will stand up a more permanent sign, but for now, this serves the purpose of showing people we are here and informing new people of the Grand things to come!
So there we have it, slow and steady, but progress is progress! We will no be able to have a little more regular updates on construction as the weeks go on so stay tuned to check those out.
DN