Skip to main content

What is IT?!

I arrived home today to an email from the designer. The first draft of our house was sitting there in my inbox! Mr. Dometastic was the one who noticed it first and called me. "Did you see it?! Did you see it?!" Nope, I hadn't seen IT. I didn't even know what IT was. A very frustrating few minutes went by and I still didn't know what IT was. Finally after he gave me step by step instrutions that led to me turning on my computer I found out IT was an email.

It is very much a first draft and at first glance I could see several things that needed to be changed. The back and forth communication has really finally begun. Now to start clarifying and making some decisions.

Before we go back to the designer we need to iron out a few things. We sent her examples of the windows and doors we liked but nothing concrete. The next step is to really look into it because it impacts the augment (or bump out areas for the windows and doors) design. We need to actually pick out the company we plan to buy them from. Time for pricing.

I have found 2 companies that make round windows that could work for us. 

1. Marvin Rotary window

This is the really cool option. The window rotates inside the circle and you can have it open anywhere from just a slit to half the window. Online they don't tell you sizing or pricing so we will see what they say.....


This one isn't nearly as cool as the Marvin window but if we get the largest size (48" diameter) it does qualify as an egress window even though it is just a pop out venting one. This one is in an acceptable price range and does come with a screen. 

Decisions about our wall of windows in the great room.

Our first draft has a very large wall of windows/doors that opens to the deck. Right now there are 3 conventional sliders side by side in the drawings. Each standard slider is 72" wide so our opening is about 18 feet. Maybe a bit more because of the jam area but we will go with 18' for now. Our designer suggested that we look into a NanaWall door instead of having the 3 sliders. 


I think this would be so cool to have! At first I was worried because here in CT we have bugs.... lots and lots of bugs. But never fear, they have retractable screening systems that go with them. I admit I am a bit afraid of what the cost estimate will be but it doesn't hurt to ask! Maybe it will be the same as installing 3 quality sliders side by side. I can at least hope!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Radiant Heat and Drywall DONE!

  We are DONE with dry wall and everything is painted!!! It looks almost like a real house inside. I can top that news by saying WE HAVE HEAT!!! Lets take a moment to celebrate having a functioning heating system in a cold climate in the middle of winter! The marathon of drywall is done for now. We still have the master wing of the house to do after we move in but we would like to just pretend we are done for awhile. It was a long slow dusty process but it looks amazing. The flat walls are a cool white and the dome surface is a warm cream. All our color will come from materials not paint colors. We have plans for wood, metal and stone throughout the house. We are finally getting to install more lighting fixtures and finalize all the outlets and switches. To watch a five minute video walk through CLICK HERE . Greatroom floor outlet in the center of the room. We decided that since the room is 32' across it needed an outlet in the center where furniture would be. Kids bathroom sconces

Construction Video and Geodesic vs. Monolithic Domes

While we wait as patiently as possible for spring to dig holes for our new perc tests my posts will be directed towards general dome related things. Most people I talk to know what a dome home is but are clueless about the different types of domes. This post is to help show the differences between geodesic and monolithic domes with a few pictures of each. The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true and a video must be worth 100000 words. (Watch a video of a monolithic dome being constructed at the end of this post to really wrap your mind around the process.) Many people have asked me how a monolithic dome is different than a geodesic dome. The answer can be quite simple. A monolithic dome structure is all one piece and geodesic domes are made up of many pieces (triangles) connected together. Monolithic domes are sprayed concrete like some inground pools. Here are some photos of interior and exterior monolithic domes. Compare the above Mon

Spider Tie System Stem Wall Forms Complete

We finished building the stem wall forms last weekend! Personally I think they look super cool and I will be a bit sad to deconstruct them after we pour them. So much work to build them only to take them apart again and then just bury the whole thing underground. The original plan was to pour the stem wall on Friday October 11th but our weather was once again not cooperating. We are got yet another rain storm fueled by a storm/hurricane that thankfully mostly missed us. Because of this storm we are now scheduled to pour it on Monday October 14th. This was quite the ambitious DIY project for us. I can understand why we couldn't even get a company to put in a bid. Part of me is amazed that we pulled it off...so far. The truth will be in how it holds up to the concrete. It took almost 3000 screws to put the plywood skin on the Spider Tie towers and we cut 120 sheets of plywood! We joked that we were the Dometastic saw mill. Watch some videos of the process. It is