This past weekend I attended the Dallas Home Show. I usually go to at least one home show a year hoping to get inspiration or some new ideas. Everything is bigger in Dallas, and this home show was definitely the biggest disappointment for a home show as I’ve seen. I’m sure the few vendors who paid to be there felt the same way. About 75% of the booths were filled, many selling things that had nothing to do with homes, and the attendance was very low. The NARI guys did put together a nice display. Dallas does have some great remodelers and their marketing is always first class, but the reality is that the Internet is the new home show.
The inspiration I got was to listen to Elizabeth and start working on building a YouTube channel to show how we accomplish our projects. Very soon, we will be showing videos of the start, process and finishing of our projects, and I know this will be a great benefit to both our current and prospective clients.
The new idea I got was a very cool vault door for a safe room. http://www.rhinovault.com/SAFEROOMDOORS.htm
Our clients often ask about safe rooms, especially after times like this spring when we had so many storms and tornadoes do damage in our area. Safe rooms often are used to store valuables, so a vault door is a great feature.
If you are considering building a safe room, here are a few tips to guide you through the process:
- The reality is that you don’t need one. Regardless of what it is you are trying to stay safe from— weather, a home invasion or an apocalypse—the odds are extremely low that you will ever need to use it. This is definitely a luxury project.
- If you still want one, determine how safe you want to be. A safe room can be as simple as lining a closet with a double layer of ¾” plywood, which will stop most flying debris and small-caliber bullets. Or, it can be strong enough to protect you from a tornado that blows your house away and penetration by large-caliber bullets. The jury is out on what it takes to keep apocalyptic zombies at bay, but you’d probably be safe covering your home in stone and building in arrow slits for your shotgun.
- Here are a couple of web sites that show high-end and do-it-yourself safe houses.
http://www.rhinovault.com/
http://www.fema.gov/safe-rooms/taking-shelter-storm
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/perimetersecurity/a/How-To-Zombie-Proof-Your-Home.htm
If you want a safe room, I’d be happy to design and build one for you. They are very cool projects.
Be safe,
Mike
