Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

House is secure, Lab went swimming.

 

Here are some more pics with a little insight about the install. We went through hurricane Andre in ‘92. At that time, there was no hurricane standard in place. All the destruction then, after countless inspections showed one common aspect, roof failure brought on by windows breaking and the hurricane winds entering the house and forcing the roof up and off the house. Fast forward to today. There are now in place what is called “Miami Dade Standard” if you go anywhere in the country and buy a window, garage door or anything associated with a roof, it will be stamped and have a seal on it stating it’s up to the National code.

We had our house built in 2005. I watched them insert a steel beam cemented in the middle of my foundation. They then put all the roof trusses on the house and each one is cabled to that bean to hold the roof down in case of air intrusion. The only way to keep air out is with hurricane shutters and doors. Pre-Andrew, none of this existed.

The shutters you see are post-Andrew. Since then, we now have accordion shutters which work just as it sounds. They are permanently attached to the window opening and you can do the whole house in an hour. My system is labor intensive and takes all day to do. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be home in time and paid $400 to put mine up.

My wife and I are now deciding if this will be our retirement home, or have a new one built and downsize. The house will be paid for this coming May, at that time, we will decide if we stay or go. If we stay, we will have every window replaced with hurricane windows that can withstand 150mph winds. That whole job, along with new doors and garage doors, will be about $42K installed. The problem? In order to protect a window from cracking, you still have to put shutters up.

The pictures will show the mounting system, the house when built had a system installed that is rather simple. There are bolts in a track the length of the opening both top and bottom. You unscrew the bolts, slip the shutter over the bolt and screw it down. The back of the house is all glass, those are the hardest ones to install. If you look at the one door uncovered with the glass, that door was replaced 3 years ago with hurricane glass. It brought a little light into the bedroom.

I know none of this is truck related, but you asked, and I’m bored. Lol