Fernie Mountain Bike Sanctuary

It’s been a while! Super pumped about how things are coming together at the Fernie Mountain Sanctuary. Original stone foundation has been tuned up and is looking beautiful. And new polished concrete floor with hydronic radiant in floor heat is 1/2 done. Love the concrete against the stone wall! Starting to frame and things are really taking shape.

Since last update we have been focused on relocating all our living areas from the lower level. This included: partitioning off new bedrooms/bathrooms on the main level, extending the choir loft over top of these new rooms, building a temporary kitchen in the loft, finishing a new upstairs bathroom and moving the laundry upstairs. Lots of work to really get started down stairs... but is done and we’re now in a good position to make a mess without having to live through i...t! First job in the lower level was to layout the new partition walls to locate the future toilets, showers & sinks. Then the fun job of cutting and jackhammering up the old concrete slab to allow for the under slab plumbing rough-ins. Once this is complete we will be starting slab prep for a new polished concrete floor through the lower level. Going to go with radiant in-floor heat to keep our guests nice and cosy! Thanks for reading and wishing you all a fantastic August. Jane and Jeff

Hi gang. Hope you’re all doing well. We’ve put a lot of time into trying to design the best space we could think of for our guests. We really want this to be a place for people as passionate about outdoor sports as we are. A place where bikes are allowed to sleep inside. Where ski boots get properly dried out every night. Where there’s an area for tuning and fiddling with equipment while still being involved with what’s going on. Where you don’t have to wait in line f...or a shower and you can wash thermals when they really really need it. And we thought we had nailed it! Three rooms, each with an en-suite. Gear cubbies, boot dryer, repair shop with bar seating, washer/dryer. The MKC Stammtisch for quick meals and late night cards. Yep, we were ready to rock and roll. So demo started. And very early on... surprise... we found more closed off windows! Opening these windows and utilizing them would send us back to the drawing board. However we simply couldn’t imagine leaving them closed off and that opening them would be worth it in the end. So new design which captures all of the elements mentioned above, but with more natural light and a new flex area for a ping pong table that can easily double as yoga and body maintenance space. Score! We’re super happy with the new design and just about have the lower level stripped back to a blank canvas. So hopefully the next update will have some new construction in it! Take care out there, Jeff and Jane.

Firstly, thank you all for the excitement! We were totally touched by all the kind words and it was great to hear from so many of you. I’ve been having a hard time trying to figure out how to start this. I really wanted to thank a few key local people that made it possible for us to be here in the first place. You might find it hard to believe, but buying a Church as a primary residence isn’t exactly straight forward! Ryan Frazer for helping us through the process. Jea...n and the Lutheran Church board of directors for being so incredibly patient. The East Kootenay Community Credit Union for stepping up and making it happen. And of course the Planning and Building Departments at the City of Fernie for caring and working with us. Forever thankful. Ok, now I’m going to start the project update from a significant reference event. Kevin Giffin and Carolyn Doyle’s Wedding!!! That was the last time I saw a bunch of you and several stayed with us that weekend/week/month. The first thing we needed to sort out was windows for the proposed lower level bedrooms. This was critical for egress but super daunting as the foundation is over 2’ thick of stone and concrete. Upon investigation of the foundation, we found what appears to be perfectly rectangular cracks in the concrete wall exactly where there should be windows. After some exploratory sledgehammering, we struck gold. 4 perfect sized window openings that meet egress requirements all ready in the 2’ thick foundation wall! This was such a major score and really kicked off the project. So here are some pics of finding the cracks, opening them up and installing new windows. Let there be light! Thanks again and more to come!

Ok, official announcement to make! As many of you know, last year we were able to purchase the Lutheran Church in downtown Fernie. We feel incredibly fortunate to now call this beautiful heritage building home. After over a year of exploring options and planning, we have decided to create a special place for adventurers to stay while visiting Fernie. The Fernie Mountain Bike Sanctuary! We have worked closely with the City of Fernie Planning and Building Departments to fi...rstly create new long term accommodations (for us) and to secondly create short term accommodations which are in compliance with the City’s bylaws and direction. To create The Fernie Mountain Bike Sanctuary, a massive renovation has commenced! It includes moving our kitchen and bathrooms upstairs before building the bedrooms/bathrooms/kitchenette. We are hoping to have the space ready for this summer and after our much loved health care professionals give the green light for tourism to get going again. I know lots of people are interested in what we’re working on, so we thought it would be fun to document the construction process. We’re going to take photos and do updates as we go. So stay tuned! Take care everyone, Jeff and Jane J