I dreamed the roof of my house was burning. The fire was extinguished in
time to save the house but it was an experience fraught with terror, both my
own and the cats'. In the end, I got a whole new roof paid for by insurance.

The roof here does need help. It had new shingles not long ago but in
several places it dips or sags (not sure if a professional roofer would use
a special term for this) and there is much mold in the attic.

I hope it holds up until I can get up there with a jack and prop it up,
maybe put in new rafters or whatever is needed. I plan on using borax to
kill the mold, and probably should remove and replace the cellulose
insulation, as I'm sure it's loaded with mold spores.

I'd also like to at least put a floor up there and use the space for
storage, as well as let the cats have access, thus expanding their indoor
territory a bit. The attic is much larger than the basement - which also
needs a lot of work to make it comfortable retreat from severe weather.

There's an old floor furnace still installed here, hidden under the living
room carpet near the edge where the (tiled) dining area (currently in use as
my office, since I have no dining room furniture) starts. The hole in the
floor that's now filled with the unused burner will eventually become an
entry to the basement.

As of now to get into the basement you have have go outside first, which
makes it impractical as a tornado shelter, particularly for the cats. So
that's the main reason I'd like to have a "trap door" and ladder to go down
there. There's not enough room upstairs to make an actual staircase going
down, and not really enough space in the basement for a staircase either.

There used to be stairs to the basement, starting over the crawlspace area,
but it must have been a long time ago, when the upstairs room where the
stairs began was not a kitchen. That opening would now be directly in front
of my refrigerator.

I want to make a way to give the cats continuous access to the basement,
which they won't have from a (mostly closed) trap door in the dining room
floor. They'd have not only the basement itself to explore, but also the
crawl space under the rest of the house. I'm sure there must be a few types
of crawlies down there that they can hunt, and their territory would be
enlarged, and they'd get used to going down there, which would make it a lot
easier to get them down when severe weather is a concern.