Keeping Busy At Home

Haven't been camping lately, but we've been busy doing stuff at home.

A week after our anniversary party we had a cul-de-sac yard sale. We had been saving up for this occasion, and even though the timing wasn't very convenient, we participated. Thankfully Tater's brother and his wife stayed an extra week to help out. The sale was a success in more ways than one. We got a closet back. All of the yard sale stuff and our two swivel rockers from the trailer were stored in the walk-in closet in one of the guest bedrooms. After getting all the yard sale stuff out, and putting the chairs in the master bedroom, we had an empty closet. We already had that pegged for a Christmas closet because the Christmas closet in the hall was overflowing. Got the stuff transferred, and already had an idea for the former Christmas closet. We are converting it to a safe room. Right now we have our two extra dining room chairs from the trailer in the safe room, and we're very glad to have the dining chairs out of the other guest room. Later on, before tornado season next spring, we will reinforce the closet walls. Here is a picture of the safe room as it is now:

Often, when I see a picture loading in a post, I'll scroll down to look at the pic first and then read about it. I immediately wondered if you two went in here when you gave each other a timeout.



It just struck me funny. Sorry.

Tater,
What are your plans for reinforcement? Are you in tornado country?

BobnPi wrote:Often, when I see a picture loading in a post, I'll scroll down to look at the pic first and then read about it. I immediately wondered if you two went in here when you gave each other a timeout.



It just struck me funny. Sorry.

Yup - - that's how we've survived 50 years together.

Glen Schumann wrote:Tater,
What are your plans for reinforcement? Are you in tornado country?

We live just south of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Quite a few tornadoes come through here, but so far they've missed us.... but did major damage not too far away. The first time we lived in TX, we were in a town a few miles to the northeast. Late in April of 1994, we were in Florida when a bad one came through our town. Several blocks, including a large part of town square, were leveled. It came within 2 blocks of our house, but fortunately we had no damage. Our pool had a lot of debris in it. It was strange watching TV the morning after the storm and seeing so many familiar things gone or destroyed.

FEMA has instructions for building safe rooms. Nothing for a closet that size, though. They recommend steel walls. I don't think we are going to do that - at least at this time aren't planning on it. We plan on removing the existing sheetrock, reinforcing the walls with more 2x4s, and putting 3/4" plywood over that - we will also put in a dropped ceiling that isn't actually attached to the existing ceiling. With the price of plywood going so high, it might be less expensive to use steel. That little closet, BTW, is surrounded on two sides by other small enclosures (fireplace on one side, closet on another) which might strengthen it. We plan on putting in a steel door instead of the vinyl one that is there now.

Tater

Tater,

When I looked at the picture, I had a little chuckle too, sorry....

Um, about having the chimney on one side, is that a good idea?? I would worry about it falling over onto your safe room.

Do you have a basement? Would it be better to have your safe room in the basement?

Just a thought....

Tom

I've never seen the FEMA safe room instructions. I have always lived in the tornado areas of the northern midwest and always had a basement available.

I don't claim to be an expert, but I would be skeptical that plywood will stop a missle thrown at up to 200 MPH by a tornado. They can drive straws through boards. I would vote for steel or poured concrete on all sides. That said, it is true that the other surrounding walls do help.

I have seen fiberglass enclosures that can be buried underground for a safe place also; no idea what the cost would be.

Building a shelter in an existing home on ground level isn't recommended. But, we don't have a basement. Most of the homes around this area don't. We've seen where straws or 2x4s go straight through walls. Our chimney is not masonry. Many homes that do have masonry chimneys that are in tornados - only the chimney is remaining. This small space, after we get finished with it, will have to do. Our only other option, would be an in-ground shelter. We have room for one, but by the time we got out to it, we'd probably be goners anyway.

Our little safe room will be better than nothing... and if we get a cat 5 storm, there won't be much of anything standing.... like the little town where we lived in the 90s.

Tater

Well;

I hope you never have to use it.
Out here we don't have tornadoes, but we do have earthquakes. Not many in Northern Calif. but many in Southern Calif. Since most of the homes out here are built on a concrete foundation, I have been thinking about having a concrete building around 12' by 15' by 8' tall put underground so we could use it as a food pantry which would keep our extra canned food at around 55 degrees winter and summer. Normally when we leave to spend time at the ocean, it is over 110 degrees here. If we do not keep the a/c on, the canned food can be subjected to high heat in the house for the week or two that we are gone. We like to keep 6 months to 1 year of extra canned food. We rotate the stock before the expiration date comes up.
A structure like this could work as a shelter for those in tornado alley.

I wouldn't want to live in an area prone to earthquakes. At least we have a little warning with tornados and flash floods.... when we lived on the MS Coast, we had hurricanes, but plenty of warning there.

Nice idea about an underground storage area.

Tater

Maxtor wrote:Well;

I hope you never have to use it.
Out here we don't have tornadoes, but we do have earthquakes. Not many in Northern Calif. but many in Southern Calif. Since most of the homes out here are built on a concrete foundation, I have been thinking about having a concrete building around 12' by 15' by 8' tall put underground so we could use it as a food pantry which would keep our extra canned food at around 55 degrees winter and summer. Normally when we leave to spend time at the ocean, it is over 110 degrees here. If we do not keep the a/c on, the canned food can be subjected to high heat in the house for the week or two that we are gone. We like to keep 6 months to 1 year of extra canned food. We rotate the stock before the expiration date comes up.
A structure like this could work as a shelter for those in tornado alley.

Down the road a piece sir they had 2 of them this year.

Scruffy and Tater - Been through your country when it was Tornado season. Actually just down the road a piece. I would not build a house in your area without a basement area I could live in for a short amount of time. Earthquakes. Basement just not the thing to do but them fingers that come out of the sky, I am hiding under ground.

Portagie1968 wrote:



Down the road a piece sir they had 2 of them this year.

Where is down the road a piece?

Basements are just NOT built around here. Even people with boucoup amounts of money, don't have basements. The only basements we see actually aren't basements - the house is built on a hillside with the ground floor half-way built into the hill. We don't have enough hills to go around.

When we lived in Illinois, we had a basement. We went down there a few times when tornadoes threatened.

Scruffy and Tater wrote:I wouldn't want to live in an area prone to earthquakes. At least we have a little warning with tornados and flash floods.... when we lived on the MS Coast, we had hurricanes, but plenty of warning there.

Nice idea about an underground storage area.

Tater

We lived in Southern California "San Bernardino" from 1942 through 1973, so we experienced many small earthquakes and a few monsters. Our houses would shake, dishes would fall, but no permanent damage. It was eerie to see the ground roll like the ocean, and telephone poles first lean towards each other so the lines would be slack, and then lean apart and the lines go tight and "sing" from being stretched. Since 1974 we have lived in the Redding area, and have only experienced one very slight earthquake. No matter where a person lives, there are pluses and minuses. Here our minuses are very high heat in the summer. I have seen 118 degrees. Pluses are, "generally" no snow, no humidity, no tornadoes, no hurricanes, no freezing weather. One HUGE minus is the nut cases "politicians" in the large cities of our state .
If Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento would "disappear" this would be a great state. Another option would be to secede from California, and create a new state from Red Bluff north. That could never happen because we have all the water and forests, of which the lower state wants.

We can't build basements here on the coast in South Texas because of the unstable soil and the water table is too high, and we have to deal with hurricanes this time of year, so we either evacuate when a storm approaches or ride it out depending on the storm category. We had to build our new home according to Texas wind storm certifications, but I'm sure it would not survive a direct hit from a cat 5 storm or tornado.

Maxtor wrote:

Portagie1968 wrote:



Down the road a piece sir they had 2 of them this year.

Where is down the road a piece?

Woodland and Oriville area if my memory still works..

We couldn't have basements in MS either. Even though we were at 79 ft elevation - we were on sand, not good for basements, but the sand was a good base for a slab. We were 10 miles from the coast, so our main worry was wind, no storm surge.

Where we live now, we are on almost solid limestone. Makes a good base, but not practical for a basement. I don't know if our house was built to TX wind storm specs or not. It was built in 1996. Doesn't matter, we are here to stay.

Well, that ghost in the attic might drive us away.

Tater

Portagie1968 wrote:

Maxtor wrote:

Portagie1968 wrote:



Down the road a piece sir they had 2 of them this year.

Where is down the road a piece?

Woodland and Oriville area if my memory still works..

LOL,,,, Those "twisters" are akin to Texas dust devils.
On a good day they might pick up a chicken..

Very funny, Maxtor.

I don't think we have chickens that small - this is TX, you know.

Scruffy and Tater wrote: Very funny, Maxtor.

I don't think we have chickens that small - this is TX, you know.

Yep,,, you are right...

I meant California chickens.

Ahhhhhhh. I see.

Thanx for a good laugh. I needed it.

http://www.groundzeroshelters.com/saferooms.html

http://www.wkrn.com/story/12259485/tornado-shelters-slide-into-garage-floor?redirected=true

http://www.stormsaferoom.com/

TC

Maxtor wrote:

Portagie1968 wrote:

Maxtor wrote:

Portagie1968 wrote:



Down the road a piece sir they had 2 of them this year.

Where is down the road a piece?

Woodland and Oriville area if my memory still works..

LOL,,,, Those "twisters" are akin to Texas dust devils.
On a good day they might pick up a chicken..

They sure took out a lot of tress and buildings for dust devils.

In Tornado alley, they have F3, F4 and F5 tornadoes. Here in California, ours would be less than a F1. They have more tornadoes in one day than we have in ten years. But as you say, they do occur, albeit not very often and not very powerful, and that is a good thing.

I agree. Coming from Fort Knox to Memphis and on to 40 to come home I felt like a storm chaser. Dodging them like a running back in a football game.