Dometastic

There is a sudden lurch forward in our project that was so stuck. I have spent quite a bit of time writing emails and on the phone. For months we have been stuck waiting for spring and working out our engineer problems. It feels good to have finally gotten things moving again even if we are stuck jumping over wacky hurdles just because we are building something new to our state! Yes there is such a thing as competitive Bunny Show Jumping! Things officially started with both structural engineering firms and it is now time to name names. The dome engineer responsible for the superstructure and the instructor of the group is Chris Zweifel of ZZ Consulting in Idaho. He will not only engineer the dome but also teach the CT licensed firm how it all works so they can take official responsibility. On the Connecticut end, we have hired Elizabeth Acly of Cirrus Structural . Elizabeth and her staff engineer Sergio Guindon, will be handling the basement/garage as well as the floor that...

I am sure you have secretly placed your bets on the outcome of "How do we dig our test pits?". I am positive that if you know Mr. Dometastic you have placed your bets correctly but couldn't foresee the delays that have happened. We did buy the excavator BUT it needs a repair to a tred before we can move it. The tred is loose and needs a new part. Lucky for us the part is a whopping $40 and we know someone that can fix it. This means it will not be ready for the test pit holes that have ALSO been delayed..... just not enough to get the excavator ready for them. We are hiring someone to come with a backhoe for the new test day of May 31st. The excavator is scheduled to be repaired the first weekend in June. Hopefully all goes well and we get it delivered shortly after. Mr. Dometastic was not this kid when he was in kindergarten but he sure wishes he was! Mr. Dometastic has always looked at fun sports cars but his practical side just won't let him go for it. ...

It's been a few weeks since I have written about our progress. It was hard to keep writing when we were so stuck. We have worked out our engineering problem but it isn't official yet until contracts are signed. We are STILL waiting to get formal proposals to sign. We are hiring two engineering firms! They are willing to work together to engineer the house. Imagine that....professionals cooperating and willing to learn from each other! I talked to more than one engineer that would "never use someone else's work". We are hiring one that is experienced in dome engineering (but not licensed in our state) to engineer the dome superstructure and then teach a firm licensed in CT how it all works. The second firm is licensed in CT and will need to learn from the first so it can take responsibility for all of it and be the "engineer of record". This CT firm will also engineer the basement and floor. We did end up choosing the company in CT that showed interes...

Things on the engineering front are starting to finally move! It is still painfully slow. It is kind of like a giant ice berg that is finally starting to move out of the way to reveal open water. We will take any movement at this point. It has been weeks of sorting things out with no real progress. We have found two engineering firms in CT that are willing to partner with Monolithic's engineer if that is acceptable to him. We are still waiting for a quote from one on our end but we found out from Monolithic that they actually called to talk to an engineer! Imagine that, doing a bit of research before submitting a quote. We are already leaning towards hiring them just for taking that initiative! It seems like a no brainer to me to do a little research on something unfamiliar before submitting a quote, but this is not the norm. If their quote is competitive, we will be hiring them just because they are willing to ask questions and seem genuinely interested in the project. We ...

This week we had our meeting with the town building department and they are super excited about the project. The great thing about our town is its forward "pro green" thinking. It does make a difference when you are working with everyone and not against them. During the meeting we talked about many details but the one big thing we needed was the towns perspective on our engineering dilemma. Once again, our project is in kind of a grey area of the building code. The town doesn't require engineering for residential projects but our house does need engineering done. The generic engineering for the 32' dome doesn't account for the rebar placement in the areas around openings and where the domes connect. The building department needed to decide if the house requires official engineering done (CT licensed engineer) or if it still falls under residential rules (no engineering). After much debate, asking various people and referencing the building code, it was determine...

There is one thing that is becoming clear about building a house. You must be ready to just wait. Wait for everything. When you are house shopping you actively go out and look at the homes that might work for you. Even if you don't find something you like, there is an element of action. With building a house the instant gratification of choosing isn't there. We have many more specific choices to make but it isn't the same. Our choices will eventually become a physical thing but at this point in the process they are all just paper. This waiting is just part of the process but that doesn't mean we like it. There are professionals from many fields that need to come together to build our house and they are busy people ( = waiting). There is also an order things need to go in (= waiting). This is painfully slow at times. For several weeks we have known we needed to meet with the town to clarify a few things (= waiting). The town meeting has officially been set for th...

Not much happened again this week. Our standard construction documents arrive tomorrow. We are still planning to have a meeting with the town before we hire an engineer. After more discussion with Monolithic I don't think the town will let us use an out of state engineer as if it was prefab. BUT, it doesn't hurt to meet with them and ask how much detail they need before going to get new engineering quotes. Monolithic has been helpful in trying to figure out how to make engineering the house go a little smoother. They sent us some generic engineering for a 32 foot dome (our house is several 32 foot domes that overlap). That at least will give our engineer a solid place to start. It will also help us in hiring an engineer because now we can actually show them what needs to be done. Talking to engineers about the dome wasn't the same as talking to finance people. Read about my ridiculous experience talking to banks about construction loans HERE . Instead, I just felt like...