Monday, July 9, 2012

Getting a shelter

After a few (too many) years without an adequate storm shelter and seeing how wild the weather is getting in and around my AO, my wife and I have decided to purchase one.  The local storm shelter guy said that he would recommend a 4'x6' shelter for me, my wife and 2 boys.  4X6?  IS HE NUTS? 

Of course a shelter is typically used about 30 minutes at a time, a few times a year maximum, so a small cramped shelter might do for that use.

But I plan on using it for a lot more than that!

The shelter that we are getting ready to have installed is a 7' wide x10' long and 6'1" tall shelter designed to accommodate about 18 (skinny) people for a storm.  Perfect for what I have in mind.  Even though I am a 6'3" tall person and my wife is 6'2", we will make due with the cramped headroom without too much of an issue.

The shelter is a flat top unit designed to be almost completely buried underground.  This will certainly serve the need for a good shelter, but it will also serve to maintain a much more consistent temperature without any electricity than my storage inside our house.  It will also help serve to keep it hidden from view if that need should arise.

My plan is to have 1 ft deep shelves lining the entire length of 1 wall as well as the width of the other wall.  this will give me approximately 420 square feet of storage for, you know, whatever I might want to store.

I will be installing a set of 6" bunk beds in it that my boys will be easily able to use (at least for the next few years) and that my wife and I would be able to use in an emergency.  There will also be storage room under the bottom bed.

Even with all of these things in there, I will be permanently installing a couple of extra fold down seats as well.

This project should be complete by mid to end of August, so I will make sure to keep things posted here as the project progresses.