I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[RainPilot]

Update... the winds are almost impossible to walk against without laughing. A whopping 5 knots or so. Again, I'm the blue dot. FWIW, I'm hunkered down with 3 roudy hooligans, watching the "Hurricane Heist". Hmnnn, any other weather related flicks to watch?

Ha. I immediately thought about Hurricane Heist when you said you were preparing. Watched it a few days ago, coincidence is a weird thing.

 

[The Chairman]

I think that was a suggestion for a movie to watch, not really a question about your current conditions...

Hah! We've been having cyclone warnings and watches all day, so I missed it. The announcers sure love to use the word "tornadic". All fine movie choices. I actually drove into Gainesville and got my hair cut instead. I encountered more rain on I-75 than I got here at the homestead. I have not seen a single downed tree or even limb on my drive through SE Suwanee, Columbia or Alachua Counties. No flooding either and the only debris was a 50 ft smattering of pine needles in Ft White. I've been gone a few hours, but I haven't seen any more than sprinkling here. I saw a puddle when I left for G-ville, but nothing as I got home.

I feel like I've been cheated out of a good storm. No, I'm glad that I didn't incur any damage, but storms are cool. The power, the fury, the sheer majesty and this one was going to be during the day. I got bupkiss and I here that Edd Sorenson got more than his fair share over in Mariana. I wish him well, and if I had a trailer for my tractor, I'd be heading over there to help him clean up.

 

[The Chairman]

Ha. I immediately thought about Hurricane Heist when you said you were preparing. Watched it a few days ago, coincidence is a weird thing.

I can't say the plot blew me away. The scenes of the Hurricane front were laughable. They don't look like that. They don't act like that. You really have to suspend reality through at least half of the movie.

 

[Akimbo]

Glad the wind didn't hit you. Any problems from rain? The media made it look like you would be in the heavy rain zone.

BTW, have you heard anything on any damage to NEDU, the diving school, or Dive Lab in Panama City?

 

[The Chairman]

No issues at all, but when I went outside this morning IT WAS FREAKIN' HOT AND MUGGY!!! yeah, yeah, I need to go take a look, so I'll be headed out in a moment.

I heard that Panama City had a lot of damage, but that Pensacola had escaped.

 

[Akimbo]

No issues at all...

Must be that charmed life you live.

Let me know if you want info on building with ICF (Insulated Concrete Form). My structural engineer told that my floors and walls would withstand F5 tornadoes. We designed the roof for a Cat 3 hurricane (130 MPH/209 KPH), which is unheard of in this part of the world. I didn't want to be 70 and faced with a failed roof. The topography makes flooding impossible and the lower shop floor is 168'/51M) above sea level (we do get Tsunamis).

All that concrete and steel is more for earthquakes than weather, but also is revenge on the termites that cost me a bundle when I had a stick-built house in San Diego. Do you have those voracious Formosan Termites on north Florida yet?

One of my favorite non-diving quotes is from my structural engineer "Yeah, I never liked building with vegetable matter either".

 

[The Chairman]

I like the idea of building with foam. That might be my choice for my house.

 

[Akimbo]

I like the idea of building with foam.

ICFs are really kind of fun, sort of like big Lego blocks filled with rebar and concrete. I use about 1/4 the propane as my neighbors. I had to do most of it myself because there were no contractors that would touch them, but you would have no problem in your area. Another thing that is nice is we get very few bugs in the house. One of the things that made me give up on stick-built structures was watching a continuous stream of ants walking through the walls like they weren't even there.

No termites, bugs, dry rot, or air infiltration -- which can create a new set of problems. You MUST have an HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator) or you will have a mold factory. We exchange about 30% of the volume/hour and recover about 90% of the heat that blows outside. It got so stuffy during construction after we were dried-in that we had to open windows and doors.

The thermal mass keeps the temperature VERY stable. The downside is it takes a long time to change the temperature up or down. We don't need AC here and the heating is radiant PEX tubing in the concrete floors. The calculated heating requirement with the very rare outside temperature of 20° F/-6.6° C is only 32,000 BTU (not sure what the common metric unit for HVAC is). 80K BTU was the smallest boiler available. It has not been below the low 30s here so far and the house stayed comfortable.

Edit: We are about 150 miles north of San Francisco in Mendocino, California.

 

[Akimbo]

There might be some useful design tips here: Mexico Beach Home Still Standing, Here’s Why | The Weather Channel

 

[The Chairman]

Now THAT'S interesting, but I can't get it to play for me.