22 • Thursday, January 26, 2012
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Disaster DIY
OVER THE MOUNTAIN Journal
Artistic Flair Charlotte Ann is an artist and her work can be seen throughout the Adams home. Whether it’s her actual paintings or table tops she likes to put her creative spin on their home. Below is a sampling of some of Charlotte Ann’s work and style.
Each of the girls’ rooms has a painting by Charlotte Ann using their footprint. She transforms the tiny feet into angels.
Charlotte Ann and Bobby Adams are building their home back after it was damaged in the April 27 tornado that tore through Cahaba Heights.
Cahaba Heights Family Recovers, Remodels After April Tornado
W story by
Laura McAsliter • Photos by Daniel Taylor Photography
When Charlotte Ann and Bobby Adams purchased their Cahaba Heights home, they knew it would be a fixer-upper. Little did they know just how much fixing the house would require.
A couple months after they purchased the house -“literally off the courthouse steps, it was a foreclosure,” Charlotte Ann said – disaster struck. Their home was directly in the path of the early morning tornado that tore through Cahaba Heights April 27. The family of four was lucky. They were unharmed, but the condition of their house and yard was another story. “My girls said, ‘Our house is broken,’” Charlotte Ann said. “We lost all our great big oak trees in our yard. They said there were 70,000 pounds on our kitchen from the trees. If one had fallen about five feet to the right, we would have been crushed in our beds.” Charlotte Ann and Bobby, along with their two daughters woke up before most of the damage was done and headed for safety in a closet in their basement. The falling trees would trap them there for most of the morning, but Charlotte Ann’s brother eventually came to their rescue. When the family finally made it out of the house, it was difficult to assess the damage because the enormous
oak trees uprooted by the storm covered their home. They knew the roof would have to be repaired and ceilings replaced. A chimney near their 5 year old’s bedroom also caved in, damaging a wall in her room. For the most part, the house was structurally sound, but it wasn’t livable. The family moved out and sought shelter at a cousin’s house. “The four of us lived in a bedroom together literally for four and a half months,” Charlotte Ann said. “It was hard. I tried to stay busy, but there was really nothing we could do but just sit and wait.” The Adamses were somewhat fortunate. First, when the family was trapped in the basement after the storm hit, Charlotte Ann was already on her phone looking for a tree removal service. Someone was at their home removing the trees the same day of the tornado. Also, Bobby is a contractor and owner of Adams Building Company, which has its good and bad points, according to Charlotte Ann. “I’m not a paying customer, so sometimes I have to wait,” she laughed.
The coffee table in the kitchen used to be the girls’ toy train table. Charlotte Ann stained it and tiled the top. The carts provide extra storage. Charlotte Ann even made use of the toppled trees from the tornado. The plant container is actually the bark from one of the oak trees that fell in her yard.
Instead of closet doors in their bedrooms, Charlotte Ann hung decorative curtains.