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Our first glance inside the original camp store.
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The original camp store
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Original concrete.
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The day we were awarded the contract in October 2019.
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Our first look at the back patio.
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Inside the original store.
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COVID delayed everything by a year, the clean up began in May, 2020.
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The building was patched up and painted “Classic French Grey”
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To begin we operated out of this tiny window.
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And then the interior shelves arrived and we worked on opening the main store side.
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We made subtle improvements daily.
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In mid July 2020 we open-end the temporary version of the store.
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As we worked we had to bring our kids wiht us all the time.
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By late July 2020 we had the tables set up.
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While we worked during the day we did our best to start the process of tearing out all of the old patio to replace it wiht a new one.
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The place was a mess.
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We painted the campfire center and benches to match the main building.
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Removing all of the asphalt and wood from the back patio took almost a month.
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Starting the landscaping process.
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In early October we started the full landscaping plan, step one was to remove the old concrete.
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Big shout out to our friends at Carlsbad Concrete Cutting, especially Richard and Jason!
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Step two we tore out all of the old bushes and regraded the entire area to keep water from running directly into the storm drains.
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The first load of decomposed granite arriving on site.
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We placed and buried each rock one by one.
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We built this river of rocks by hand on one day!
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Everything was regraded over the course of a few weeks.
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The concrete forms were next.
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And then the plants arrived, with our auger we planted every plant ourselves.
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Getting a little help from our son.
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The primary concrete day was expensive but exciting!
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We hand drew the wavy concrete mow curb.
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Plant identification labels were put in early.
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Coming together.
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Installing the mow curb.
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The fire-pit was a good idea in theory, everyone likes to throw these rocks though.
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Our friend Scott at QCP donated these wonderful benches for us.
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And this fire-pit!
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The landscaping took a full 10 weeks of rigorous 18 hour days.
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In mid January 2021 we started to renovate the entirety of the building starting wiht demolition.
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After demolition we worked on adding new plumbing.
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Starting to think about the design.
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Wood delivery for reframing.
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Our friend Bart handled all of the framing.
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Our friends Glenn and Andy redid the electricity.
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We saw this design on a tiny house and loved it.
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The entire exterior os James Hardie fiber cement siding which is weather proof, fire proof, and bug proof and should last 50 years.
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Stage 2 of the concrete.
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We formed it out to make the entire building and back patio one level.
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ouch
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The interior slowly started to come together.
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The restaurant cabinets went in before we even had the windows.
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Thanks to Encinitas Glass we got beautiful new doors and windows.
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The new Adirondack chairs arrived!
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Reepained and ready for the order window.
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People ask why it is so low… it’s ADA and we have no choice on the height.
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Window installation.
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The new store layout.
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We added this step in a day.
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The pizza over arriving,
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Tiling was a big job!
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This building did not have enough power so we paid for a new connection to get us up to 200amps.
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This required digging a trench, at our own espense, across the street.
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We hated this trench.
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The hod for the kitchen arrived next.
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more appliances showing up
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Meanwhile we kept working on the outside too.
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The kitchen came together nicely.
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Not a bad view.
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HUGE thanks to Glenn our electrician here. He spent over a month on site,
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Our biggest hire, Ivan our Head Chef.
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Once we got going people started to show up, thank goodness for the neighbors!
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The site was not transformed.
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Our first pizza sale ever!
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We added a new cooler inside the store.
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A new white, vinyl fence was erected to enclose our patio.
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And more people came, mainly for dinner.
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The kitchen team slinging pizzas.
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And finally we got music going in July of 2021.
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Yes, there is laundry.
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We’ve done our best to continue to make the site better and better.
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The stage was the missing piece, ti was finally put up in April of 2022.
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This gives us a music and entertainment venue like nowhere else.
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Los Cinco Hombres.
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A busy Friday evening, there is nothing like The Camp Store!
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The native garden continues to grow.
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Thank you for all of your help and support!
3 Comments
Parisa Hill
Incredible story in pictures! Best transformation ever! My husband and I have been camping here since we first met in 2014. We visited the old camp store for the occasional item, but it NEVER had the presence and happy vibe the new camp store has! We now camp with our toddlers and look forward to a night off of camp cooking to enjoy some pizza, cold beverages and live music AS THE SUN IS SETTING! The only regret we have this weekend is that we missed THE RAM- my four year old’s new favorite jam! Thank you for sharing your journey and your labor of love! We look forward to many more pizza and sunsets!
Jean Marcotti
Been there from day one. Seen it all. Your vision became reality with physical and emotional hard work. Where else can you go enjoy music, delicious food and drinks, and watch glorious ocean view sunsets? Truly a wonderful family friendly place to gather. Thank you Anthony and Courtney
Jean Marcotti
Great place to shop for clothes, drinks, sundries, cand, snacks and don’t forget a hat and sunscreen from the campstore.
Delicious pizza, tater tots and fries with truffle salt, chicken wings, Caesar salads, house salads and more from the campstore restaurant! Add the outdoor music and ocean views. You’ve got magic.