Ebay is Building me a Geodesic Dome Home next to a Lake in Kentucky (USA)

[loucoins]

I am building, all by myself, a 29' Natural Spaces Mid Profile Geodesic Dome Home with three extensions. The dome itself is only 650 square foot and the three extensions add an additional 452 square feet to create an 1100+ square foot home. The interior open loft upstairs, which is accessed up steel spiral stairs (that were bought on Ebay) adds approximately another 325 square feet. Overall, the dome home contains a very comfortable 1427 square feet of living space.

The open floor plan provides plenty of room, and the four skylights add plenty of natural light. The design is easy to heat. The design is very resistant to wind storms and I have experienced several that have proven this to be true. The interior dome height is over 18 ft high which allows for eight foot ceilings in the downstairs office/bedroom and single bathroom along with an over eight foot ceiling in the master bedroom upstairs. Plenty of space everywhere!

The site is three waterfront lots over looking a 5000 acre lake in beautiful central Kentucky. The lake offers fishing, boating, jet skiing, swimming and I even have a private boat ramp and dock as well! There is an airport about 8 miles away, and for those that enjoy golf, the area has two golf courses. I prefer fishing over golf though.

This is all being built from my ecommerce business income only - NO MORTGAGE! Building this way is slow, but very rewarding and a lot less expensive than a "kit" house would have been! I have been building this dome for five years now and am still on schedule to complete it by the end of this year - November 2009 coincides with my 30th year anniversary of having been self employed.

I am planning to have a 30'x50' outbuilding built next door to the dome to house my ecommerce office and shipping facility - so I can fish AND pack orders all from the lake! This should all be in place come spring of next year when I plan to relocate myself to my totally mortgage free dome home on the lake!

I will be posting some pictures to this thread going forward. Feel free to ask any questions about geodesic dome homes that you like and I will try to answer them as best as I can.

You can read about the building process at this http://www.naturalspacesdomes.com/KYDome/kydome.htm



Charlie

[surplusdealdude]

An entertaining story on the website.

Looks like it will be a perfect house for you and Cindy.

Good luck. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[loucoins]

surplusdealdude,

Thanks for the post! I have been building this project for about 5-6 years now. Slow going doing this not only mortgage free but also 70 miles away too!

Charlie

[surplusdealdude]

Well, better to spend 6 years building it than 40 years paying for it. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[loucoins]

Well, better to spend 6 years building it than 40 years paying for it.

I agree with that wholeheartedly!:-)

Charlie

[surplusdealdude]

Uh - you DO realize that this is the CANADIAN ebay boards, don't you? -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[loucoins]

Uh - you DO realize that this is the CANADIAN ebay boards, don't you?

Yes. I hope it is OK for a good ol' boy from the US to post here! The US PS board was down for repair or maintenance and I got to poking around on some of the other boards and decided to post this on here.

Maybe I should have started off by saying Hello Canadians first?

Charlie

[surplusdealdude]

No, no, that's okay.

It's just that we occasionally get poor souls up here from the States who don't realize they've been switched to the Canadian boards, so it's usually a good idea just to check.

We have dome houses up here, too - they're really good for snow loads in Canada.

I would venture to say, though, that your idea of snow isn't our idea of snow.:^O -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[loucoins]

We do get snow here in Kentucky, but rarely over a foot and most of the time it is just a few inches.

The latest weather related problem we had here was a ice storm that wreaked havoc on Kentucky. Power outages were immense across the state.

One of the design features of the dome that I am most impressed with is the ability to sustain high winds.

At one point during the building process we had a 90 MPH straight line wind storm and the dome was covered only in tar paper at the time. The gable roofed extensions lost a major portion of the tar paper, but the dome portion of the house lost absolutely NONE!

I have heard many stories where domes survive hurrican force winds even - at least much better than conventional structures do.

There are many postives to the geodesic dome design. I sort of melded a regular house design along with a dome design by having added the extensions to mine.

Charlie

[surplusdealdude]

Yes, that was one of the features of the original geodesic dome - it's ability to withstand high winds because it's so aerodynamic.

That's why they were first used in the Arctic, where they get a lot of snow and wind. -------------------------------------------------------------------

It is our similarities that make us all human - it is our differences that make us all interesting

[ds2286]

Hey,

Veeeery cool house and story!

Welcome to Canada, hope you enjoy your stay!!

[snoopwiz]

Hmmm. Looks a bit familiar. The sellers name. His style of writing. Those photos. Where have I seen those photos before? Hmmmm. Betcha his name isn't even Lou. Kentucky, indeed. It behooves me......... 🙂

[loucoins]

HaHa!! Hiya Snoop! You found me!:-)

Charlie

[recped]

This board has been infected with Kentucky (blue)grass.

I suggest everyone run their infiltrator detection programs immediately.

[loucoins]

I suggest everyone run their infiltrator detection programs immediately.

Just spray Lysol!:^O

[purpleunicorncollectibles]

Hey Charlie (waving hello)

[loucoins]

Ha! Looks like several people cruise this board!

Hello PU!!:-)

Charlie

[art-in-the-making]

hey Charlie,

this is a fantastic example of what someone can achieve with some hard work and perseverance.

I think I saw some earlier pics a year or two ago on the US PS board.

My observation is:

Looks like we are witnessing the creation of another classic eBay niche...

the market for

Dome-shaped paintings!