Randy South, Director of South Industries, and his family have decided to build a special, family reunion dome and name it South Sawmill Lodge. It’s located just a half-mile south of the sawmill site that Randy’s dad and granddad owned. (Continued…)
After two years of getting-in-there-and-getting-your-hands-dirty work, in August 2008, Christine and Jim Spurgeon moved into their new dome-home that they named Claddagh Dome. (Continued…)
In Marlow, Oklahoma, retirees Darrell and Jerrilyn Strube own a 50-foot-diameter, two-story Monolithic Dome home, with a 3000-square-foot living area, that successfully survived a wildfire and provided shelter before it was even finished. (Continued…)
Named for what? Yorkshire Terriers – the playful, frisky, cute pups Glenna Crockett raises in her Monolithic Dome home in Mesa, Arizona! “But that’s okay,” Glenna said. “It’s actually very fitting because my Yorkies helped me pay for my dome.” Built in 2007, that dome has a diameter of 42 feet, a height of 25 feet, a living area of 2067 square feet, and three levels topped by a cupola. (Continued…)
The Arizona Department of Transportation says that State Highway 179, leading into Sedona, “carries millions of tourists each year through one of the most pristine and unique areas of the world.” And Xanadu, the home of Nina Joy and Bracken Cherry and their three daughters, is one point of interest those tourists are bound to see. (Continued…)
Brigham City, located in Box Elder County, Utah, population 18,000, is home to Lori Hunsaker, editor of the Box Elder News Journal and owner of a beautiful 32′ × 18′ elliptical Monolithic Dome home. (Continued…)
On October 21, 2007, in Santiago Canyon, a hilly, wooded area of Orange County California, an arsonist and the dry, ferocious Santa Ana winds formed a devastating alliance. Together they created and quickly spread a blaze that forced 3000 residents out of their homes. The wood house of Melody and Phil McWilliams was one that was totally destroyed. “All of a sudden, there we were with no home!” Phil said. (Continued…)
The owners of this grand dome-home have asked us not to publish their names or their dome’s exact location. We do, however, have permission to share these photos with our readers. (Continued…)
Back when their children were just kids and Beverly and Kenneth Garcia took family vacations, they discovered beautiful New Hope, Alabama. “We were then living in Mississippi, but we fell in love with the New Hope area,” Bev said. “It’s gorgeous up here – the mountains and the lake and we like to fly fish.” Then and there Ken and Bev decided that when they retired, they would relocate to New Hope. (Continued…)
When Karen and Dan Tassell of Magnolia, Texas decided on a Monolithic Dome home, they agreed that Karen would do all the decorating, inside and out, and Dan would be in charge of construction details. (Continued…)
Roger describes their dome-home as “very energy efficient.” He said, “A couple of years ago, before the rates had gone up, I was happy to tell people that my highest (monthly electric) bill was $199. That was pretty amazing for a 3000-square-foot, all-electric house in Mesa.” (Continued…)
JRR Tolkien, best known for his authorship of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, once said, “I am in fact a hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands …. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour; I go to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel much.” Based on that description, it’s very likely that Tolkien would have loved the Hobbit House of Montana. It’s also equally likely that he would have been amazed to learn that this Hobbit House started as a Monolithic Dome. (Continued…)
How would you like to be the first owner and occupant of a new kind of house? “It’s a real kick,” said Gary Clark of Italy, Texas. Gary, vice president of operations at MDI, had recently moved into the first Orion — the youngest, newest sibling in the Monolithic Dome family. (Continued…)
We wonder what Bilbo, Tolkien’s hero hobbit, would have thought about the earth-bermed, 1400-square-foot, Monolithic Dome home, completed in October 2004, in Flag Pond, Tennessee. (Continued…)
Charlotte, Vermont is a traditional town. Its charter dates back to 1762, its name exalts Charlotte Sophia, the wife of King George III, and most of its residents live in very traditional, wood frame, New England homes. However, in 2007, construction began on Vermont’s first Monolithic Dome, the unique home of Trisa and Dennis Gay and their son. (Continued…)
Kay and Ernest Mudd moved into their 4900-square-foot, two-level Monolithic Dome home just about seven months ago, but they’ve already shown it to 1000 people. That number almost equals the population of their hometown: Dighton, Kansas. Located at the crossing of two state highways, K96 and K23, Dighton has about 1200 residents in its 0.9 square miles. So where did all the tourists come from? (Continued…)
At one time, Joel Emerson, a professional, creative brick mason, jokingly told Debbie, his wife, that someday he would build her a brick igloo. In the years that followed, Joel learned about Monolithic Domes, and in 2003 he attended a Monolithic Workshop. So what started as a casual joke became a serious project – with a little modification: Joel’s original brick igloo became a Monolithic Dome enhanced with brick. (Continued…)
Xanadu – Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined that name for his imagined paradise in 1797. Some two hundred years later, Ivan and Judy Sheinbaum began creating their Xanadu – a Monolithic Dome tropical island resort on Ambergris Caye in the West Caribbean nation of Belize. (Continued…)
The town of Jay, in northwest Florida, has less than 600 residents in its 1.6 square miles. But this farming community, known for its peanuts, cotton, soybeans and hay, has a history of more than 100 years and an annual Peanut Festival. It’s got something else too: a technologically sophisticated Monolithic Dome home! (Continued…)
Anthony (Tony) Clarke is one busy Aussie. He runs a migration office that helps immigrants to his country with their necessary, complex paperwork, is involved with industrial hemp, markets music videos and DVDs and serves his community as Justice of the Peace and a Knight of the Order of St. John Hospitalier. Nevertheless in April 2001, he found the time to travel to Italy, Texas and take one of Monolithic’s dome-building Workshops. (Continued…)
For most Americans going to see a movie is no big deal! But what if you had to leave the country to do it? And what if you had to make sure you had valid, picture ID with you so you could re-enter the US? Believe it or not, that’s exactly what going to a movie entails for Dianne and Bryan Bremner, two sixty-something retirees who built a Monolithic Dome home in Republic, Washington, 25 miles south of a border crossing into Canada. (Continued…)
About ten years ago, the Pembers decided to build a new home, and, after investigating alternatives, decided to make that new home a Monolithic Dome. So Dale, a professional plumbing contractor, enrolled in the Spring 2001 Monolithic Workshop. What he learned, coupled with his years of experience in construction, convinced Dale that he and Ida – occasionally with help from friends – could build their dome home. (Continued…)
Most folks just don’t associate Florida with tornadoes. Most think of Florida as hurricane country. But Harrilyn and Rudy Watts know better. They live 21 miles south of Chipley. It has a population of about 3600, a motto that describes it as “A small town with a proud heritage and a bright future” – and tornadoes. (Continued…)
After retiring his position as an American Airlines’ flight dispatcher at DFW, Don Steelman enrolled in one of Monolithic’s hands-on Workshops. What he learned and did convinced him of the innate qualities of a Monolithic Dome home. Impressed by the dome’s longevity and energy efficiency, Don and wife decided to move to Mohave Valley, Arizona and build a Monolithic Dome home. (Continued…)
Can the annual premium for homeowners insurance on the same Monolithic Dome structure for the same coverage drop? “Sure can, and did,” says Don Tuttle, who, with wife Shirley, built a Monolithic Dome home in Shamrock, Texas. (Continued…)
Jan Pregowski has three loves: God, his family, and – of all things, but to our delight – Monolithic Domes! Jan, a 53-year-old native of Poland, first heard about Monolithic Domes in 1985. Since then, he has worked on more than a hundred dome projects in various countries, including several in the United States. (Continued…)
Story time in the treetops? That’s the fantasylike environment four-year-old Meili Kaslik enjoys. When it’s Meili’s story time, she and her mom Melanie cuddle into comfy chairs in a cozy, glass-enclosed nook perching above the treetops at the Monolithic Dome home they call Cloud Hidden. (Continued…)
If you visited the Morrisetts’ new Monolithic Dome home in Anchorage, Alaska and asked, “Is everybody happy?” you would probably get an enthusiastic “yes” from the three humans and an affirmative bark from their dog. The reason is simple: the Morrisetts — David, who is 42 and a computer programmer, April, who is 39 and an office manager for a vending machine company, Joshua, their almost-4-year-old son, and Chewbacca their dog— all love their new dome home. (Continued…)
Most of us have experienced it at least once — that wonderful feeling when something we’ve planned for a long time finally comes true. In March 2008, Sharon and Terry Smith enjoyed such a euphoria when they moved into Palo Pinto, their new Monolithic Dome home. (Continued…)
“All great projects start with a spouse!” That was Robin Miller’s reply when asked how and why he got interested in a Monolithic Dome home. He went on to explain that Kati, his wife, had lived in several coastal states but never in the middle of the country until they married and moved to Illinois. When Kati realized that tornadoes occur in Illinois, she insisted on building a disaster-resistant home. So the Millers began researching and found Monolithic Domes. (Continued…)
The night after our home addition was inflated, some of the neighbors thought a UFO had landed. A soft orange glow radiated from the elliptical bubble. It almost seemed alive. Sound like something from a science fiction movie? The foam and concrete dome has something to do with science, but there’s nothing fictional about it. (Continued…)
What do you get when you combine an enclosed heated pool and indoor agriculture system? An Agrithermosphere — a building used entirely for agricultural purposes. That’s what Gregg Swiderski built in Marengo, Illinois on his 100-acre farm. (Continued…)
We have finally come to a breathing place, and can write of our “Birthing” of the dome. We finished the dome interior in six weeks! All cabinet work, floor coverings, sheet rock, and appliances are in and done. By doing the electrical, plumbing, and carpentry, I was able to save a great deal of money as well as frustration. We are moved in and have been living in the dome for the past four weeks. (Continued…)
Sviet Raikov, a native Russian, who attended a Monolithic Dome Workshop in 1994 and returned to Moscow with one of our Training Paks, reports the completion of a 36’ X 18’ dome home — the first of its kind in Russia! (Continued…)
Although they have toured nine domes, the Siglers would have liked to have experienced life in a dome before making the major investment of actually building one. Seeing the Eye of the Storm on Sullivan’s Island was the decision maker. “That home was proof that domes could be built beautifully,” said Valerie Sigler. (Continued…)
If you said Joe Gora is a man who loves his dome home, you would be right. After completing two Monolithic Dome Workshops, Joe designed and built Free Will, a 42′ × 18′ dome with 1585 square feet of living space, on a double lot in Marietta, Georgia. That process took 18 months and culminated with Joe celebrating Christmas 2000 in his new dome. Since then, his delight with Free Will has not waned an iota. (Continued…)
On a sunny morning in 1991, at a home site on Sullivans Island, South Carolina, George Paul, designer and builder of dome structures, anxiously watched an Airform inflating. Paul had watched many such inflations before — but never with this much anxiety. (Continued…)
In 1999, Kim and Robert Reynolds designed and built a Monolithic Dome dream-home, a 5/8th sphere with a diameter of 50 feet, a height of nearly 29 feet, two stories and 3500 square feet of living space. Shaded by more than 80 live oaks, the dome sits on five wooded acres among gently rolling hills, seven miles northwest of Bandera, Texas. (Continued…)
You’ve probably heard of a house of cards — one built by stacking playing cards to make a structure. But have you heard of a house built of credit cards? Figuratively speaking, the Gary E. Clark family of Ann Arbor, Michigan did just that. They built a house of credit cards — or, more accurately, financed with credit cards. (Continued…)
“Confusion isn’t necessarily bad,” said Bill Click, referring to the confusion of tax appraisers and insurance agents. Two years ago, Click and his wife moved into their Monolithic Dome home in Bandera, Texas, located about fifty miles west of San Antonio. “We have five acres of land,” Click said. "We’re on a hill and we have a great view. (Continued…)
Karen and Randy South and their seven sons and two daughters have liked their Monolithic Dome home since they first moved into it in 1996. After all, what was there not to like? Their nearly 4,000-square-foot dome home adorns a 1,260-acre butte that overlooks the beautiful Snake River in Menan, Idaho and provides them with a unique area for observing and enjoying wildlife. (Continued…)
It was love at first sight when Sylvia and Keith Wortman found their 10-acre plot in Fairplay, Colorado. At an elevation of 9,953 feet, the area had an intriguing history dating back to the 1850’s Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, spectacular scenery and natural beauty that included Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pines. Sylvia and Keith saw it as the perfect place for the Monolithic Dome dream home they had been envisioning and planning for many years. (Continued…)
Irie is Jamaican for alright. And Irie is the name owner Jerri Hudson chose for her new, 1000-square-foot Monolithic Dome home that sits on a 40-acre, wooded site in Missouri. Since moving in this past November, Jerri has found her new home both comfortable and secure — exactly what she wanted. (Continued…)
Helen and Pat Meylor call their Monolithic Dome home “Trinity Dome” because of their belief in the Holy Trinity and because it is a tri-dome structure. (Continued…)
Keeping up with the Joneses? That’s some challenge if you’re talking about matching what the Scott Jones Family of Colorado did in building their Monolithic Dome home. This Jones Family, Scott, Luann and their children Gregory, David, Melissa and Jeffrey, completed much of the work for their two-story, 46′ × 23′ dome as a do-it-yourself project. (Continued…)
Bob Warden may call it “Eagle’s Eye.” But his new Monolithic Dome home suggests a castle. It even has a tower that looks medieval and a balcony on which you can easily picture a princess awaiting her knight in shining armor. Eagle’s Eye sits among stately trees, on 46 acres of quiet forestland, undisturbed by the big city sounds of busy Cincinnati, 45 miles west of it. (Continued…)
Asked how their life changed with their move into a Monolithic Dome home, Ken and Nola Hanson — like the educators they are — quickly gave their favorite example. (Continued…)
A Monolithic Dome home, with a diameter of 55 feet, is owned by Lynn Cain and Mike Forsyth in Canada. It was designed by Mike Forsyth and built by Canadian Dome Industries in the fall of 2005. This dome incorporates the concepts of a passive solar house with a Monolithic Dome. (Continued…)
Comedian George Burns once quipped, “Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city,” and his audience probably laughed and nodded in agreement. But there’s a unique family of eleven adults in Yuma, Arizona, who — while they might laugh — would not agree. This group — related to one another either biologically, through marriage, or simply through friendship and a shared sense of values — all live at Yumadome. (Continued…)