I've been lurking here for a LONG LONG time. I've had my eye on Victoria's plan. On May 8th at 0741, mother nature made a decision for me. I watched the news at 0530 and the weatherman said don't worry about this cell,,,,,it'll storm tonight....so I went to bed (I work a strange evening shift, get off at 0200). Well, I woke up and said to husband, it's really storming..........about that time, our 17 yr old came flying in and said our roof is across the road.......... :o :o I ended up in the dining kitchen area, looked out the sliding glass door and the back porch was moving up and down. I built that and it's NEVER done that before. The inland hurricane that went over us (what I saw from the debris field makes me think small F1 that dropped on us) and went straight southeast and put a tree through mothers roof. Brother took two days to get to drive up to his house due to trees down. (He lives in a wooded area that the family never cleared for farming and it's been in the family for 160 years).
Long story short.....Place is a total loss. Now, we have bought a travel trailer to live in on site and we're going to start the salvage of useful materials from here and build.
I'm going to finally order the plans I've built for years in my head and get down to business.
This site has inspired me for some years, but I was just waiting. Mother Nature saw to it that the waiting is over.
My upgraded insurance coverage was to take place on May 13th upon policy renewal. Guess the insurance company is laughing all the way to the bank..........(go figure that timing).
I just wanted to thank all of you for building and showing me that I also can do this.
Sorry about the storm. At least you were not hurt. I listen to the weather alert radio and head for shelter if the warning is issued. Have fun building and good luck. w*
Sorry to read about your misfortune, but thanks for sharing. I too am a long time lurker and just recently actually joined the mix.
My family is half Okie. My mom's side was dusted out and relocated here in Idaho in depression times. And we still have family in Ok. so I read with a great deal of interest news and views and building projects from Oklahoma. We have family in Edmunds and very close friends in Bartlesville, as well as Tulsa.
So please keep us posted and informed.
Rick and Ellen w*
Here's a little thought for you. Since you've already been hit by a "tornado", why not build a tornado shelter as an integral part of your new construction. If done at the time of construction they can be really inexpensive to build. And if your county is anything like mine you can get up to a 50% rebate on the cost from the government.
I built one in the house I'm building. If you care to read about it, it's discussed in my blog (address below).
In the blog, you can find it quickly by clicking on the archives for January and May of 2007.
w* Susan. Sorry to hear about your house but hopefully we can be of assistance.
w* to the forum. Before you start float some ideas , one thing about the forum thats sort of madding is folks post photo of "Look what I just did!" which is fine but had they asked before they started they'd have gotten some maybe better ideas , cheaper , cooler , safer , easier , etc etc free lessons if you will. About what they where setting out to do.
Lots of smart / practical folks here , all pretty much willing to give you free advice , most of which is good advice d*
So again w* to the forum and G/L with your project.
PEG
sorry about your loss susan. i hope everything goes smooth in the new building process to get you back to normalcy ASAP. :(
Sorry about the misfortune, but glad to hear that it sounds like everyone was spared from life and limb. I grew up on the res. (both my mother's grandparents were full Osage). Hope everyhting works out for you, and you certainly have found a good impetus/resource with this site. Seriously, this is one of the best tools in the toolbox. Keep us informed.
Thank you all!!
I will have many questions (and I'm not skeered to ask!).
Now, I'm leaning toward the grandfather cabin, but just need to tweak the layout. I just so so set on Victoria's, but now..........I'm not sure. Guess I ought to make up my mind so I can get to working.
This will be a rather long process because we both work and I'm also going to school (that 19 year vacation from college, probably not a good idea)
We're moved into the camper and I need a material list so that I can start scrounging for good deals. We have a lot of ground work to do.
As for storm shelters, I helped my brother with his above ground concrete one in the garage in the middle of the afternoon in August in Kansas. I will look at your blog.
If I go Victoria's, how can I get a material list? I'm sure I could figure it out, but it'd be a lot easier if I didn't have to........