Safe room

When we started talking about building a house, I think we decided that no matter what else we had in the house, we would make room for a safe room.  I am freaking scared to death of storms  have a great respect for storms so I really wanted a safe place to go.  And what I envisioned wasn't a small closet that we would have to scrunch into with maybe one folding chair.  I wanted a place I could just go to sleep in if strong storms were being forecasted overnight.

So our safe room is kind of like an extra bedroom.  We call our house a three bedroom house because the safe room couldn't technically be considered a bedroom since it doesn't have a closet or windows but we really have four useable bedrooms.

This is all of the furniture we had in our guest bedroom in Little Rock.  I don't like the look of the bed, but its comfortable and I couldn't rationalize a reason to buy furniture for a safe room when we already had this.

I wish I could tell you all about the cool doomsday items that are stored in the armoire but its really just a bunch of crap.  I do plan to one day clean it out and put things in there that we would need in case of a disaster.

The door into this room is just a regular door that matches all of the other doors in the house.  But you can see the steel door just outside the room.  You actually have to step through the mechanical room to get to this room.  The mechanical room is also "safe" so we were able to put a more attractive door on this room but still meet the guidelines of a safe room.

One of the other good things about having a room without windows is that Brad works 3-4 nightshifts each month.  So I thought this would be perfect for him to sleep in when he had to sleep in the middle of the day.  But he hasn't slept in here much and I don't really know why.  He sleeps on the sofa in the basement instead, but the drapes don't keep it all that dark in there, so I'm not sure why he prefers it.  But the good news is, I don't have to wash the sheets and make this bed on a regular basis!

On my last visit to the Pottery Barn Outlet, I had a reward certificate to use and decided to get this rug.  I needed something to soften the room and this did exactly what I wanted it to.  The concrete floors seem cold and this warmed it up in there.

I have this photo taken by my friend Dawn hanging above the bed.  It's one of my favorite things in the house and at first I thought it shouldn't be in the safe room.  But I like it in here and this way it won't get destroyed if disaster struck!

I actually like this room a lot.  There is no indication that it's completely concrete and in fact, I have a hard time making some people understand that this isn't just another bedroom.

Thankfully, we haven't had to use it for it's intended purpose.  There were a couple times I gathered some things up to get prepared, but then what was being predicted passed us. But I'm amazed at how much peace of mind this give me.  I say "me" because anytime it's storming, Brad is out on the porch watching it like it's entertainment.

Shutters

We got the shutters finished and hung recently.  I think the builder was going to show us some vinyl ones and those would have been great as far as being weather resistant but it wasn't really the look we wanted.  He never brought them for us to look at so we decided Brad could build them.

We never even thought about having shutters, but the garage windows especially needed something.  I really like the difference they made.

You can see our parking pad here too.  I think once the driveway is finished (should be this week) people will start to use it.  Up to this point, we have had to tell everyone to pull up around back.  It will be nice to have people come through the front door.

Brad and I are both kind of weird when it comes to shutters.  Brad just doesn't really like them and I think they must be functional.  As in, I want to be able to close them if the need arose.  We live in Arkansas so I'm not sure what that need would be but I didn't want to just screw these to the house for decorative purposes.  I was also insistent that they needed to be the correct width.  If they're going to close, there doesn't need to be a gap between them so these are each half the size of the windows.   We ordered the hardware from Signature Hardware and were really pleased with the quality and service.

So, here is a before and after:

The grass and parking pad help a lot too!  They laid the rest of the sod in the front and you can tell where the new grass is, it's just not as green yet.  We are watering it like crazy so it should green up quickly as hot as it's been.

Unfortunately, just as we finish one project, another is waiting on us.  Landscaping is next.

Getting grass!

Brad and I are crazy yard people so not having grass was killing us!  Besides being ugly, everything stayed so dirty so it was way beyond time for a yard.  

I really wanted grass on the ground the day they started working, but it took about a week to get the sprinkler system finished.  I think a good part of that time was spent getting all of the rocks out of the way.  Sheesh...I hate the rocks!

They got it super smooth and then added a layer of topsoil.

We got a semi-load of sod and it was almost enough.  They're coming back next week to start on the backyard so they'll bring a couple extra pallets to finish the front then.  

It looks SO much better.  We still have to wait a couple more weeks before we can mow.  I'm sure it will be blazing hot by that time.  I really only like to mow in the spring but I guess you should be careful what you wish for.

In this photo they hadn't finished laying all the sod so it actually fills in most of the dirt you see.

Since our garage is in the back, we had to make a parking pad out front for visitors (which has not been poured yet) so that is where this path goes.

A few of the front windows really need shutters.  I like the real wood ones but all of them we found online were pretty expensive so Brad built them.  The hardware is ordered and I can't wait for their arrival so we can get them hung.

Barn door coffee table

You might remember when Brad and I found this old barn door at an antique store last year that we just couldn't pass up.  We tossed several ideas around as far as what to use it for but the easiest and most practical was to make it into a coffee table.  We thought we would find something that could serve as the base but after looking for quite a while at antique and junk stores we didn't find anything.  So we decided to have Stan, the man who made our stair railing, make a base for it.  

It seemed really big at first but now I'm getting used to it and like it a lot.

Some of the things we found that could have been used as the base would have definitely competed with the actual door but this simple design compliments it well.  And he just used leftover material from our railing.

The door is NOT perfect and even has a couple of somewhat dangerous details. This piece of metal could hurt someone.  We may need to offer all guests a Tetanus shot as they enter our home.

And this sticks out just far enough to get someone's leg as they round the corner.  That someone will probably be Brad....  Luckily the one at the other end of the table is almost completely rotted off.  I'm guessing this end was the top of the door since it's basically still in perfect condition.

I'm so happy with how it turned out.  It's challenging to decorate because of the two raised panels but I'll deal with that just to know that no one else has the exact same coffee table as us.  

I do wish I knew the story behind it.  The lady we bought it from told us she rescued it from a pile that was about to be burned.  So I guess it's true that one man's junk is another man's treasure. 

I'm so behind!

I'm way behind on here!  The house is almost finished and once it is, I'll take photos of everything.  But for now, here are some updated ones.....

Everyone takes forever to do their part.  You would think the economy is booming because no one needs work.  The man who built our stair and porch rail took FORever it seemed like.  But he finally finished and we love it.  I was afraid it was going to look like a cattle gate but I don't think it does now that it's in place.

The kitchen is almost finished.  Once we got the zinc top for the island, it made all the difference.  Woodunique near Hot Springs made it and we had to meet them in Little Rock to pick it up.  Brad and I carried it in and I swear it weighed about 10,000 pounds.  But it was also worth the wait.  It looks as good as I imagined it would!  This is something I really wanted and Brad wasn't sure about but he really likes it too.  

There really has been a lot of change and I plan on posting more pics in the next couple weeks.  I want to have everything on this blog so that we can look back and see how the process went.