I’ve got bronchitis. I feel like hammered shit, and I’m pretty sure that thing I hocked up earlier is breathing on its own now.
The concrete guys are here. They demolished our back patio earlier this week, and today they took away the dunnage and they set forms and tamped the bed sand to prep to pour the new patio. When we closed on the house 11 months ago, cracks started appearing in the concrete before we were even moved in. The builder has been very very supportive and stood behind his work and that of his subs. We’re very happy with the level of support we’ve received from him. I don’t see us getting another house ever again at this point, but we’ll use him if we do.
Speaking of builders in OKC/Moore, things have been going like gangbusters all year. Almost from the moment debris was swept away from the tornadoes last May, we’ve been seeing construction work all over the area. Lots of new houses going up in places where the old neighborhoods were destroyed. Local addenda to the building codes has specifically tightened, too. All houses must now have hurricane straps on the rafters, and south and west facing gables are no longer allowed in new construction. Although not a part of code, all the houses in our neighborhood, whether already built or still under construction have or will have storm shelters before the end of the month. Our builder said that he’s trying to contract with a shelter builder to install shelters in all his new construction, and he’s retrofitting the built houses he hasn’t yet sold because people are walking away from buying houses that don’t have shelters.
We’ve stocked our shelter for the season with fresh batteries, water, some snack foods, flash lights, crank radio/cell phone charger, and blankets. We’ve added a pre-paid cell phone on a different network from ours as well. We’re as good to go as we can be living here. Last night and the night before were the first tornado watches of the season, so we’re off and running early this year.