Safe room/Tornado shelter

[TexasTimbers]

Looks great. Thanks for the pics. My wife wants a central vaccum. If I'm going to do one I need to do it now.

Are y'all happy with it?

[Norm]

I'm only teasing Al. We tore off the WRC siding on our old house my son lives in now and put on vinyl. I don't care how much I love wood, up here it was a pain to care for and did a lousy job of protecting the outside of the house. Brick or stone may cost more and take longer but if you can they are the best choices for exterior finish in the great white north.

By the way your house is a beautiful! We're going to have to take a break, burn some evil ethanol and visit.

[ElectricAl]

TexasTimbers,

We are thrilled with the central vac system. There are lots of attachments available.

A couple things to remember....Get the muffler to quit it down, and put a 2x6 wall in between the living area and where the vac power head hangs.  Ours is quiet enough that someone could sleep while the vac is being used. It might be tough for some to fall a sleep while it's going. But give them a half hour to start dreaming about logs and lumber, and your ready to go.




Norm,

Linda and I talked about a mix of rock and wood siding, but the maintenance would be a killer. I have trouble getting stuff done that needs to be done now. Plus after fussing with wood at the mill all week the last thing I want to do is fuss with more wood on my half day off.
We have two loggers over this way who built log houses. 5 - 7 years ago they are continually hiring contractors to fix or refurbish the houses.

We caught the siding on sale at Menards. It was the best stuff they carry and still cost less then $2000.
I had a customer offer $1000 for the siding when it comes off. I bet it would cost $3000 to side the house now.

[TexasTimbers]

Thanks for the info Al. We have a great place for the unit behind a foam filled wall.

I'll Google up some brand/feature comparisons.

[ElectricAl]

This is why we have a Safe Room.

07-02-08  5:15pm CST

This shot was grabbed from our place looking NW.
What you see is the contents of a pond nearly sucked dry
Sheriff's Deputy reported the water was 600-800' in the air. ;D

[Don_Papenburg]

I have a Vacumaid  CVS . It is made in Nebraska.   Realy like it . I would not spend money on the floor vac pans or what ever they are called set by the floor to sweep dirt into . I think that useing the vac hose works better because there is less dust created.  I saved a lot of money useing 2" schedual 40 pvc insted of the thin vac pipe.  The wall conections(inlets) that I used slip into the 2" snug .  the thin wall fits inside the wall connections.   8' vac pipe cost almost twice the price of 10' pvc
pvc provides fittings that will let you install cleanouts ,and has longer sweap turns.