I recenly wrote an article for Dome Times Magazine about buying an older Dome. Our Dome is about twenty-five years old. There are challanges when buying a home of non-traditional construction and hopefully my article will help those of you interested in buying or building your own dome.
Over the past several months my husband and I have been discussing the possibility of adding a couple of extensions to our Dome. I started researching and found several very informative web sites. These sites are not necessarily about extensions, but they do show you what other people have done to their Domes and several sites offer a variety of floor plans. Below are links to some of the web sites I visited. As I find new links I will add them to this page.
Dome Times Magazine
EarthMountainView.com
AIDomes
Natural Spaces
Good Karma Domes
Oregon Domes
Eric Randall Dome Links
Concrete Dome Kits
Geo Dome
Timberline Domes
Domes Northwest
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Friday, December 24, 2010
Geo Dome Christmas
Many of you may wonder how you would decorate a Geo Dome for the holidays. Actually it's quite fun and not as difficult as you would think. Outside most of your walls, if not all, are only about four feet high so no ladder is needed to hang lights. We used the ladder in three sections (the peaks), but didn't go to the top of the peaks because we didn't have a sixteen foot ladder.
Inside we have a ledge in the livingroom and entry area; so we were able to decorate that as well. It's too hard to describe so I'll just post some photos.
Inside we have a ledge in the livingroom and entry area; so we were able to decorate that as well. It's too hard to describe so I'll just post some photos.
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Halloween
The fun part about living in a Dome is that it is so great to decorate for the different holidays. We had a Halloween Party a couple of weeks ago. We had a haunted grave yard, a giant spider crawling up the side of the house, ghosts in the trees, a scary bride and groom and strange talking heads the floated up and down, and a dancing, laughing broom. We actually had the party two days and so that people who couldn't come on the 30th could come on the 31st. A good time was had by all.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
We purchased a Geodesic Dome Home in January 2009. It was a bit of a challenge to find financing because the house is considered non-typical design and construction. "A" Frame Houses and Log Homes also fit into this category. After a few weeks we were able to obtain financing and moved into the house the end of January 2009.
The people that owned the house previously had the flat walls inside the house painted in dark green to show off the angles. The first thing we did was paint. The dark green made the house look small and maybe even a little strange. Once the paint was finished we loved the house even more. It really made such a difference.
Our next project was the kitchen; which had 30 year old appliances. Since we were working with a kind of tight budget for cosmetic changes, we opted on paint and new appliances. That was the extent of any cosmetic changes to the inside of the house.
Last summer we had two concrete patios poured. One at the front entrance and one at the back. We began the process of do it yourself landscaping, built a pole barn and fenced in a pasture area for horses. Little by little the house and property (4 acres) are becoming ours and we love it.
I've added a slide show to this blog of some before and after pictures to give you an idea of how we've made this once battleship gray Dome ours.... I will be adding more pictures in a day or so.
Energy issues: As long as we've lived in this house our electric bills run between 100 and 200 less than people that live in a traditional home.
The bedrooms upstairs are small, but quite functional. We have a queen bed, a chest of drawers and a tv stand in one bedroom and there is still plenty of room. We have the second bedroom set up as a sitting room with a TV and a futon. The Masterbedroom on the ground floor is huge, with large windows on one wall. In looking at my slide show I realized they are not in any order and that I have no pics of the Master bedroom or loft area. I'll try and remedy that as soon as I can.
Please Visit http://www.rlarsenbooks.com/
The people that owned the house previously had the flat walls inside the house painted in dark green to show off the angles. The first thing we did was paint. The dark green made the house look small and maybe even a little strange. Once the paint was finished we loved the house even more. It really made such a difference.
Our next project was the kitchen; which had 30 year old appliances. Since we were working with a kind of tight budget for cosmetic changes, we opted on paint and new appliances. That was the extent of any cosmetic changes to the inside of the house.
Last summer we had two concrete patios poured. One at the front entrance and one at the back. We began the process of do it yourself landscaping, built a pole barn and fenced in a pasture area for horses. Little by little the house and property (4 acres) are becoming ours and we love it.
I've added a slide show to this blog of some before and after pictures to give you an idea of how we've made this once battleship gray Dome ours.... I will be adding more pictures in a day or so.
Energy issues: As long as we've lived in this house our electric bills run between 100 and 200 less than people that live in a traditional home.
The bedrooms upstairs are small, but quite functional. We have a queen bed, a chest of drawers and a tv stand in one bedroom and there is still plenty of room. We have the second bedroom set up as a sitting room with a TV and a futon. The Masterbedroom on the ground floor is huge, with large windows on one wall. In looking at my slide show I realized they are not in any order and that I have no pics of the Master bedroom or loft area. I'll try and remedy that as soon as I can.
Please Visit http://www.rlarsenbooks.com/
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