The Last Ceiling

When we started planning the house for Odie to live in, one of the features we wanted to include was a safe room. When Odie is at the house by herself, she has no way to flee during bad weather. We have been in some homes in tornado alley that have closets doubling as safe rooms and we thought that would be the best way to proceed.

It is not terribly common for people to build safe rooms here so we were kind of on our own when it came to design and telling contractors what we needed. With Google as our friend we were able to zero in on specifications that were translatable to local contractors and we are now well on our way to having it finished.

The block was laid a week ago Friday and the progress has fast forwarded since then.

One thing we could not source locally was a door that was made for a safe room. It was not for the lack of trying, calling and emailing though. I exhausted every avenue I could find and then Kelly Jo contacted Brent Searcy in Oklahoma. He directed us to a company in Oklahoma City and they came through for us.

Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe picked up the door in OKC and delivered it when he came recently.

The room went from this...



To this...

To this...

And then this in a few days.

We lacked one element to make the shell of the structure complete and that was the poured concrete ceiling. David Butler came Monday and and we framed up the support for the concrete.

I spent a couple of hours Tuesday morning finishing that and making ready for the electrical box in the ceiling and for the vent as well. When David and his helper Aaron arrived, we rigged up a pulley, put the metal in place and made final preparations for pouring.

After lunch, we hit the ground running.

I mixed the concrete and helped Aaron get the wheelbarrow up the ramp.

Aaron handled the wheelbarrow, shoveled the concrete from there to the buckets and put the buckets in place for the hoist.

David Butler operated the hoist, poured and finished the concrete.

Dad helped us all.

Here is a look at the finished product from above.

We will leave the forms and bracing in place for a while. Once they are removed, we will caulk and paint the block and then I will build a closet system with drawers, shelving and rods to hang clothes. We will post again with pictures when some of those items are in place.

Hopefully this room will be used for nothing but a closet but it should provide a safe place for Odie to go should she ever need it.

When we finished and cleaned up yesterday afternoon, David Butler told me he was not charging for his labor on the safe room ceiling. I tried arguing but he was adamant. He worked like a mule in that hot attic Tuesday and deserved way more than ZERO! 

David had already dug and poured the footer and prepped and poured the slab. He did those two things and much more at very reasonable rates. We certainly did not expect him to do this work gratis. May God bless him for his kindness and generosity.

May God bless those of your that are praying for this house adventure. We have been blessed greatly by your concern.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

A First Class Feature In The House!

If you have been reading Boggsblogs for a while, then you already know that we think pretty highly of Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe. If you visited or participated in any of our City Reach campaigns last year then you know why we think so highly of Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe. This dude is incredible!

He can do about anything in construction and it seems like a hundred other areas. He is not afraid to jump right in and do whatever presents itself to be done and he finds a way to do it. If he has ever been accused of being lazy, then the person doing the accusing must be a filthy, degenerate liar because it is obvious Bro. Jimmie is not lazy!

I told you yesterday that we were very sad to see him leave on Saturday. We love having him around and we value his friendship to a high degree. He is a dear friend.

I have mentioned several of the projects he conquered on the house. Today I want to tell you a little more about his main project while he was with us for a week.

Bro. Jimmie told Odie very early on in the planning process that he wanted to do the custom tile shower in the house. He told her later that he intended to purchase the material as well. That was an enormous commitment but he fulfilled his promise and more!

We knew he wanted to do all of that but we certainly did not expect him to carry that whole load. He gives God glory and we give God glory for his tremendous gift of time, talent, labor and material. He was and is a giant blessing to us and to the advancement of the completion of the house. May God bless him with health, strength and uncommonly good jobs in the near future.

Preparing the shower for tile was a bigger step than it should have been unfortunately. Right before the slab was poured the plumber lifted the HVAC ducts up in the way of the concrete. In fact, one of the ducts was above the surface of the slab and was supposed to be four inches below it.

David Butler (Concrete) and  Jeff Haines (HVAC) worked diligently at the last moment trying to correct the problem but then David was not able to slope the concrete correctly. The concrete was on the way and it was unavoidable. I appreciate them working beyond the call of duty to rectify a problem and keeping the job on schedule.

The plumber ended up misplacing the shower drain so his helpers cut out a pretty good section of the concrete in the shower to correct their mistake. That miscalculation and their correction was actually a help to us and to Bro. Jimmie.

Scott Hines Plumbing

Most of Jimmie's first day on the job was spent removing the rest of the concrete and then replacing it with the right slope.

Can you spot Jimmie in there?

When he was finished it was beautiful and sloped perfectly.

Then he hung the drywall in the shower and started installing the water proofing material on the floor and then the walls.

Kelly and Odie found porcelain tile in 4' lengths at Lowe's. It looks like old barn siding and it is super realistic.

Next, Jimmie and Kelly Jo decided on the design. Kelly Jo came up with the idea to run most of it vertically and it was a great idea. Jimmie thought about running two rows horizontal in the middle and it really set the design off!

Then it was time for the fun part.

It is starting to take shape.

Next Jimmie started setting the rock tile on the floor.

Then it was time for the plumbing fixtures, grab bars and the seat that folds up out of the way.

We wanted a shower Odie could roll into, transfer to the bench, push her chair out of the way and then exit easily too. This fits the bill perfectly. It does not need a shower curtain or door and she can roll right in! She loves it!

We are absolutely amazed at how it turned out and Odie is thrilled! 

This roll-in shower was one of the "must haves" to make this house accessible for Odie but it could have easily been either a budget buster or very cheaply finished to preserve the budget.

Bro. Jimmie Radcliffe gave Odie the gift of a first class roll-in shower and what an incredible gift it is. Thank you friend.

Thank you all for reading today.

Davy