Shelter skelter

The house we are building will NOT have a basement. 
This has been a hot debate between Dave and myself.
I'm for the basement, and he's against it. All of his family and most of our friends agree with me, but Dave has his reasons and here's why...He prefers to have a cozier home rather than a lot of extra unused space.

I'm not sure if I totally agree with him, but recently, there has been a shift towards quality versus quantity when it comes to home design. Basically, it all boiled down to this. Dave said, and I quote, "You can have a nice kitchen OR an unfinished basement."
Since I prefer "cuteness" in the kitchen over studs in a basement,
I went with his first option.

BUT....in light of the tornadoes that hit Alabama in April, I was still unsettled about giving up on the basement thing. Dave made a deal with me that calmed
my fears, "If we lose the basement, I promise that we will build a storm shelter underneath our house".

After the tornado hit north of Birmingham in April, our family went to
Pratt City to see the devastation.  It left us speechless!!! There are no words to describe what we saw that day and I think it changed all of us and gave us a new respect for the power of tornadoes.

Pratt City, north of Birmingham

Pratt City, north of Birmingham

Our shelter will be an 8'x8' structure with reinforced concrete walls and ceiling with a 

steel door. It will be big enough to hold our family of 5, our dogs, my niece and nephew and some of their friends.

In the shelter we will have the following items:

• Food and water

• A battery-powered radio, flashlight and extra batteries

• Personal hygiene items and prescription and non-prescription medications

• At least one change of clothing

• Copies of identifying documents

• Bedding

I'll admit it, the thought of going down into the shelter leaves me thinking that it will be claustrophobic, damp & smelly, but if it looks like this one pictured below, I may use it as another one of my "private reading hideouts" or possibly even a wine cellar. (BTW, since I do not drink wine, I may use it to store my drink of choice, Diet Coke).
 

This storm cellar looks like it would be on a cruise ship.   Eureka Storm Cellars

Our good friends and future neighbors, 

Tim & Tammy, built a storm shelter in their home. 

The hatch door is in the floor of their pantry.
 

 In their storm shelter, they have shelves with water and canned foods.

They also have a cable line so that they can bring a television 

into the shelter to track the storm. Luckily for them, they have only had 

to use this space once, and it was on April 27, 2011.

Even though a basement would have been a nice extra, the storm shelter will give our family the security to withstand anything that Mother Nature throws our way.