February 10, 2007
Why finish a project when I could just as well start a new one?
When the house was built, all the extra stuff kinda landed in this corner.
Yep, there's the fireplace mantle. Shouldn't I be finishing that instead?
All the stuff went to a better place. That shop vac was new back when they were putting the original first floor decking on this place. Just about every night after I left Motorola, I'd come here and spend about 2 hours sucking the water off the deck. The bearings are clearly run out of the motor, but for the most part it still works.
Why would you build a bunker down here? Well, in the event of a tornado, it would be a good place to hide.
Have you ever been hit by a tornado? Um, no. Is that required before you take precautions?
The red lines are the outer dimensions. The plan is to build block wall here, 10 courses high (80 inches or 6'8") with a door on the end to our left. If we never get hit by a tornado, that would be just great with me. That's what I call the 'sunny day scenario', and I truly believe that this house will fall down from old age before it ever gets hit by a tornado.
However, just like someone always eventually wins the lottery, there remains the outstanding possibility that our house could be hit by a tornado, on a day when we are actually home, and to a severe enough degree that just being in the basement may not be enough to keep everyone safe. If this room ever truly did it's job, our lives would be the only thing we have left besides a fight with the insurance company and a big mess.
It's not like I'm building this in an area of the world that can / does get a 'storm season' and we do have tornados north of us and south of us pretty much every year. One did considerable damage within 10 miles of here about 17 years ago. One did considerable damage 70 miles from here a couple years ago.
If, one day I look out the window and see the F5 coming our way, I would prefer to be in the bunker as it spends 45 seconds directly overhead sucking the house off the foundation. It's worth the $300 - $400 I'll get in to the project just for peace of mind.
Yes, there are people who've lived in the area for years who figure it's just fine to crouch in the corner and hope you don't get wacked by junk swirling around. Probably won't even suck the house off the foundation anyhow.
That's the big plan. Now, it's logistics. 40 pounds per block, we need about 100 of them, maybe 130. 4000 to 5000 pounds of blocks... Yeah, we can do that in the Prius. I guess I'll get 10 every day on the way home. Bags of mortar, I plan to fill the columns with rebar and concrete... This will be 6000 to 7000 pounds of junk to bring home. I have time..
It's cold outside. -5 this morning. We did that all the time at the farm, but out here that's especially cold for us. About another week of really cold weather and then the "Global Warming" retards are back from their convention in the bahamas and we can warm back up around here.
Need a house? That one with the 3 white doors just went up for sale. $745,000 is the asking price, but you could probably get it for a little less. I think it's about 3500 sqft. Taxes are probably around $13000 a year, maybe $15k.
Nope... ours is not in that ballpark. I find it fascinating that in the next 12 months, someone will show up, pay up and move into that place. It happens all the time, those McMansions are pretty much all around us, and if I understand it right, our value is probably higher for them being in the neighborhood. Whoever it is will either have a lot of equity to put into it, or some super high paying job to keep that thing afloat.
There's the garden. I'm going to square it off this year and plan for flood irrigation.
About a week ago we got a decent snow.... 4 or 5 inches.
It's blown down some now over the days and shrank a bit, but still a winter wonderland.