Dometastic

  HOW DO I....? This is a hot topic in the tiny world of would be monolithic dome owners and in the greater community of alternative housing. It doesn't take much searching to find people frustrated by these two topics. Some people resort to some pretty interesting strategies to be able to build. This is the reason I am devoting one whole post to them. They really do make or break people's ability to build. If you read other info online, you will find lots of people asking but not many answers. Unfortunately, one solution may work for someone in a specific location/situation but not for someone else. All I can write about is our own personal experience in Connecticut. This may or may not be the same for others. It is important to note that we are currently (as of writing this in Feb of 2023) the only Monolithic dome in our state. If you live in an area where there are already other monolithic domes you are in a much better situation than we were. It is also important to note th...

  Before I get into the details of how and why lets take a second to appreciate that we actually pulled off yet another diy project with absolutely zero experience. Then we can go into what went wrong and how it could have been better and show our process. These first photos show the countertop after it as been sealed just prior to moving in. If you would like to see a video walk through right before we started moving in click HERE.  I show the countertop at the 2 min mark. This was a huge project for us and we pretty much dove into the ocean head first. This means mistakes were made, we had to be flexible in our expectations and we had to trouble shoot as we went. We were also doing this project under pressure to finish so we would meet our move in deadline. Not the best way to learn a new skill. Let me say first that I like how they came out, but they are not quite what we planned and I would do it differently if we could magically start over. I think we learned a lot and fo...

  I am giving the blower door test its own post because I think this will be of interest to people who are interested in monolithic domes. First let me say we were excited to find out our house was a 0.27 ACH50!  The last few weeks leading up to our final CO inspection were a whirlwind. One of the big surprise steps was a blower door test. We found out about it just chatting with our building department officials maybe 2 or 3 months before the inspection. It came up in general conversation because we constantly ask them questions and ask for their advice. Being owner builders, we have way more inspections than a builder would have (by choice) and we have been working with our inspectors for many years instead of the typical 1 year build. The best advice I can give other owner builders is to ask questions and encourage the building officials to tell you about what they will need to see next and what has to be signed off on before you can get to the next step. Think of them as t...

  We moved in 8 months ago! I can't believe how time has flown by. I do keep up with our instagram account but have let this blog and our youtube channel slide. If you like bite size updates come find us on instagram HERE or search up dometasticdome. I do promise to keep writing this blog and posting videos on youtube HERE . Since my last "push for the CO" post a lot has happened. Initially we were super busy doing all the final things on our check list to move in. Then we immediately turned to cleaning and beginning to move. Then all the unpacking and trying to make the house a bit more livable since we got the CO with only the bare minimum requirements to move in. Then we took a huge break because it has been a crazy amount of work to get to this point and we just needed one. In the fall we finally decided to try to start back up again but ended up with a bunch of big unexpected bills (unrelated to the house) that sent us into debt. We think will finally be able to buy...

  I am finding it hard to update this blog regularly as we make a huge push to finish all the projects that will get us a CO. Our goal is to be moving in a little over a month! All we do is march back and forth from home and day jobs to working on the house.  We have so much to do but so little left to get a CO. Because we do not have a construction loan, we are not tied to what a bank considers a finished house. Often construction loans can't be closed out until everything is 100% complete including trim. This is not the case for us, so we are concentrating on the projects that are required by our building department for a CO. The bar is surprisingly low.... a little too low...so we will go a bit beyond for comfort reasons. Required for a CO in our town. Potable water Septic system Enclosed building envelope that meets the minimum for safety and insulation requirements One sink One toilet No exposed wiring Heat Pass a Blower door test Nothing "unsafe" (this can mean a lo...