from our dome to your home...

merry, merry!

no tree in the cat house

so this isn't about the dome. i realized with lack of work going on with the dome that i'd need other things to blog about. well, i have no lack of cat stories. in fact, i entertained my niece and nephew with many off-the-wall cat stories while in tulsa a couple weeks ago. and, surprisingly, none were even embellished! i guess off-the-wall cat is an oxymoron, anyway. and since i have no idea how many people even read this thing, who cares if it's not all dome? in fact, i only know of 2 who read it regularly. ReBecca and Anna - this is for you!

this is not our house but could be if we had a tree.

photos

hmmm... memory is full on the camera - maybe i better upload the photos. what!? haven't done that since august? whoo-boy.
ok, time for a photo post! in no particular order ...


the top "skinned"












yours truly on the scaffolding nailing joist hangers

hiking and cycling went by the wayside this summer but i stayed in shape with "scaffolding repeats"

the first finished skinned pentagon!

the opening (someday to hold a window) between the 2nd and 3rd finished skinned pentagons

note the hi-tech tarp holders in foreground -
the wind can actually lift those in a storm. we had the tarp blown around quite a bit a few weeks ago.



from the front










workspace inside

now, isn't that just too cool? when i finish the inside, i want to show the geometry of the dome with wood. no sheetrock - i want wood, like tongue-in-groove flooring





victory!

other domes

i'd been looking for information about other domes, the how-to's and the people who built them. at first i had no idea how to find them (internet searches sometimes bring up the weirdest things!) and i was picking al's brain about different ways to frame up the openings, skylights and such. (al is the guy we bought our dome kit from - and in case you're interested, here's a link to his site - www.albatadomes.com) after awhile, he sent me a link to one guy's group, which lead to another, and to another... you get the picture - now i'm joining dome groups like mad. yahoo groups - there's a whole world there!

i've spent the past hour or so looking at photos and reading some posts - my head is spinning from all the info. some of these folks have HUGE domes - 2 floors or more, cupolas, linked together domes and building sections. some have built from kits, some from just figuring out how to do it. these domes are gorgeous. i am in awe.

a funny thing - at first, seeing photos of all these different domes intimidated me. i've seen some photos of guys on ladders that make me feel pretty silly about how i've talked about us on the extension ladder; photos of a dome with radiating floor joists that was - oh wow! - an incredible work of art; ones with custom windows to fit the triangles. but then, that intimidation turned around - seeing what others have done and how the planning and building of their domes have just become a way of life. and the advice they so willingly give along with words of encouragement. domeheads, as i've found out we're called, enjoy a unique way of life - definitely thinking (and living) outside the box. it sure has done wonders for my motivation.

a friend asked me sometime ago what artwork i was creating now and when would i post photos of it. my artwork right now is my dome and i can't wait to get back to working on it.

slowly but surely...

we're getting there!

working just a day a week on the dome makes for slow going. tooooo slow for this impatient person. it is frustrating but i gotta keep it all in perspective. we are getting it close to the point where i can work on it myself - or at least hope i can.

over the weekend we put up the final 2 hexagon pieces. we had left those and went on to the pentagons since we knew those pieces in particular would be odd sized and we were out of full sheets of plywood from which to cut them. tweaking of the shell this way and that way made that particular hexagon more problematic than others. we were right - they were off in size - but now they are up! yay! ed is especially glad to be done with them - it means no more balancing on the extension ladder. at least until we shingle. we also got the top plywood pieces on the last pentagon. not a bad work day - it is looking more and more like a dome.

again, the forecast held a slim chance of rain so we didn't put all the plastic back up. yesterday it was to be in the upper 50s, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain. i had been talking of a return to running and yesterday was going to be the day. ed emailed me in the morning and said it was great running weather. i replied and asked him how long it had been since he looked outside (the health room doesn't have any windows) - i told him it was quite windy and looked like it was going to snow. not long after, i stepped outside to ferocious looking skies, rain and HAIL! 10% chance, my ass. the return to running could wait one more day.

30%

weird post title. i suppose anyone who really knows me won't think much of the weirdness, though.

30%. 30% off would be a good deal - almost 1/3. 30% of the population doesn't sound like so much, although i guess that depends on the issue. 30% wrong on the test wouldn't pass you for a driver's license. 30% black in a color would make it pretty dark. 30% has a great range.

30% chance of rain. in gj, if the forecast was 30% chance of rain, we'd laugh. rain, yeah - bring it on. a friend of mine would always say 4" of rain there would mean 4 raindrops, an inch apart. of course, if we had gotten 4" of rain in gj we would have though the world was going to end! here in the mid-south, it's a whole different story. we've learned that 30% chance of rain means bring anything in you don't want soaked.

one day in the past month the forecast was for a quarter inch of rain - got 4. another time the forecast was for up to a half an inch. got 5. i keep buckets out now to catch the rain just for measurements. forgot to empty one once and found it overflowing - and that was from just 3 or 4 rains. that's more than the annual average rainfall in gj! it's so different here - green and lush and wet. very wet.

the reason i'm rambling on about this? we worked on the dome this past weekend and removed one of the tarps, thinking to replace it with a different piece of plastic. but the chance of rain was so small, i thought it would be great to let the dome air out - the tarps and plastic make it kind of stuffy inside. chance of rain was 20% on monday. was a nice day. chance of rain was 20% on tuesday, then it changed to 30%. ok, no time to put the tarps up before taking the cat to the vet. no problem, it's just 30% chance. the score? 30% = 2".

enough blathering about percentages. except to add that we are more than 30% done with the pentagons!

the pentagon plywood pieces go up so much more quickly than the hexagon pieces for several reasons. one, they are smaller and easier to handle. two, the pentagons got the least amount of tweaking when moving the walls in and out and held their shape more. last, but not least, we are not as high up on the ladders and that is a good thing.

it is going to be so cool. it IS cool now.

labor day

yes, it was a labor day. labor day weekend, emphasis on labor. in fact, pretty much any day that ed is not working will be a labor day, at least until we get to a spot where i can work by myself. i think he is secretly glad to be back to work and school so i'm not cracking the whip anymore.

we didn't do much of anything that can be seen from the outside, though - at least with the tarps on - so no new photos of the dome. i can't wait until we get the tarps off and can actually SEE the dome. right now it looks like we are having a giant tent sale in the back. plywood scraps, anyone? buy one, get one free? oh, nevermind... i didn't call this blog rambling for no reason, ya know... what we did do is put in more plywood triangles in the hexagons. we have just 6 more to go.

we had hoped to finish the hexagons up this weekend but it seems that the weather has other plans - hanna. at least we are not forecast to get the heavy rains that we got from fay. we must have had close to a foot of rain. this is our front yard. the photo was taken after the first of the storms in those couple of days. there were 3 good sized storms and each time the front filled up like this. you should have seen the back - a sea of buff colored clay all into the woods.

the dirt here is another story. when it's muddy, the clay sucks the shoes right off my feet. when it dries, it takes a pick and a lot of muscle to break up the dirt. it is much better suited for pots than gardening. i threaten to mine our property for the clay.

the skin

finally - all the struts in.

that took some time because, umm..., i dropped the air gun from the scaffolding and it took a couple weeks to get fixed. during those 2 weeks, we gained a much greater appreciation for people who wield a hammer. wow - no wonder my brother has popeye arms, as did my dad and uncle. i never felt my dad's presence so much as i did in those days of hammering. more often laughing his head off at me for fumbling around.

the next step - putting on the plywood skin. the plywood is all cut in triangles - there are 60 each for the hexagons and pentagons. dave came over to help us out again and we hired another guy to help him on the scaffolding. we knew we would not be able to get up on top to nail the plywood on. as it turned out, there was more than enough for ed and me to do on ground - cutting the wood. we hardly were able to keep up with dave and juan, who turned out to be a fantastic help. not only could he keep up with dave but he had no problem whatsoever climbing around on the gridwork of the dome. we'll most likely hire him again when it's time to shingle. they did the top pentagon and the top halves of the hexagons. ed and i have been plugging away with the bottom halves but, with school started back up now, dome work is relegated to weekends.

now, it this cool, or what?!

git along, li'l doggie!

the out of square foundation created problems that we didn't foresee. since we had to tweak with angles of the riser walls, move them in or out from the edge of the edge of foundation, the load of the dome shell made the riser walls go out of plumb. oooh - not good. we called a structural engineer who suggested using come-alongs. come-alongs, hmmm... new one to us. after i found out more about a come-along i realized i knew what one is, just didn't know the name. i just kept thinking of the chorus of old cowboy song, "the last round-up." git along, li'l doggie, git along, git along.

why i even know that song is beyond me.

we know come-alongs quite well now. used 4 of them to get our riser walls in plumb. and then used one to pull a hexagon that was needing to get moved a bit, and then also a pentagon that got out of whack. once we realized how they could be used, they turned out to be great tools. my chorus is now "come along, li'l doggie, come along."

keeping the dome dry has proven to be another challenge. how do you put tarps over that, you ask? well, using a trick i saw the arborist use, ed threw a line with weights over the dome, attached a rope to that and then pulled the tarps up, overlapping at the top. it would have been so much easier had we one large tarp but we managed. we are quite anxious to get the shell shingled, though, so we don't have to mess with the tarps. because of one thing or another, we've had to do the tarping at least 4 times.

once was in the middle of the night. i had the (not-so) bright idea to duct tape the two overlapping tarps together and use them as one before we left for vacation. it would have worked out well had the tape held but, alas, it did not, as we found out when we got home from denver at 10:45pm. with heavy rain forecast the next day, we spent a few hours with flashlights in the middle of the night putting the tarps back on.

learning new toys

the weeks after the dome raising were perhaps even more challenging for us. we found out that the foundation was not only not in square but the opening lengths were not straight - they bowed out. one length was off 2". we needed to grind those down. so, off to camp davito (our pet name for dave's place) for a loaner grinder and lesson. it took us a week to get all the grinding done since it shook us up (literally) so much. my hands still feel the vibration of the grinder at times. and it was really hard on the ol' backs to bend over that much. that was one tool ed said he never wants the opportunity to use again.

since our embedded j-bolts followed the outside of the foundation and with the newly ground down edge were too close to the outside to use, we also had to grind those off and use anchor bolts to secure our sill plates. enter another toy that ed never wants the opportunity to use - a hammer drill. thankfully chris came to our rescue and did most of that. bless him - it was just 2 days before he, sheela and kaya moved (to bangladesh!) and they had tons more packing to do but he still took the time to help out.

a neighbor came by amazed at the progress - all the struts, all the angles, all the work. he was impressed. but i think was impressed him the most is that, with all the blood, sweat and tears we shed, ed and i are still talking to each other. if you want to test the strength of a marriage, build something together.

dome raising day 2

specs - the shape of the dome is a decagon with 5 sides being 6' wide (the riser walls) and 5 being 12' wide (the openings). the openings in our dome will all have either a window or door. it's approximately 30' across and 15' high. it will have 2 skylights, too.

the next day we continued on up. we tied the pentagons together with struts over the 5 openings and then started adding the lower half hexagon sections. at first it was just dave, ed and myself - and was difficult work. not only are ed and i a bit shorter and not as strong, but neither of us are exactly fond of heights. dave was very glad to see chris arrive. ed and i were then the ground crew - fine by us!

after the lower hexagon halves were up, the rest was put together strut by strut. it was a time-consuming process, but really very simple once we figured it out. think tinkertoys.

dome raising day 1

what we've all been waiting for...

a nice day, if a tad warm, good company and a buttload of work. what can I say? i'd like to say that it all went off without a hitch but i never was good at lying. we did get it all worked out eventually - actually, we're still getting it worked out but i'm getting ahead of myself.

brothers dave and andy were here as well as our friend chris. all that dog and baby-sitting paid off. i have to mention that all 3 of them are taller and stronger than ed and i are so their help was doubly appreciated. later in the day, nieces, sister-in-law, chris' wife and their little boy were here. that crew also helped.

getting the first riser wall up was a snap - until we realized how out of square our foundation is. we had to move walls, tweak them, mess with angles - in short, there was a lot of ummm... challenge that day.

but we got them all up and tied together with some bracing. then it was time to put pentagons on the risers. yes, it takes 5 people to put a pentagon up, although it looks like i'm not doing anything, doesn't it? by this time... whew. i was wishing i was the type that wants to go to the beach for vacation, not build something.

that's dave on the scaffolding, ed at the left, chris, andy and me. it's mostly dave's stuff - tools and equipment - that we're using. scaffolding, mega-sized drill, air nail gun, grinders, etc. he's got a lot of nifty toys. he calls our framing hammer a girly hammer and brings his own. but then, he could probably use a 10" sledge hammer to drive nails - he's got popeye arms.

the last pentagon up - we lost one helper by this time, gained a few more. sheela (chris' wife) and tessa (my oldest niece) are helping to stabilize that last pentagon. angela (my youngest niece) was our photographer and carolina (my sister-in-law) did kitchen duty. no small task for the hungry crowd.

prep

it was a kit, of sorts, that we bought from a guy in alabama. we got the plans, connector plates and templates to cut the wood. i opted for that since it was lots cheaper and i figured that, since i had been a picture framer, how hard could cutting wood be? it wasn't - there was just a lot of it. 160 struts, 1/2 dozen different angles/ends - 30 of this one, 35 of that one... i got a cool chop saw with $ saved.

yours truly cutting wood. it was HOT that week so i set the saw up under some trees. not a bad place to work.

after cutting the lengths, i took the wood to my brother's to use his band saw. the struts all need to be notched and using a band saw was the best way to do that. one morning i went out to find another place to stack the wood that was in my truck. right between the back porch steps and our heat pump was a just born fawn - and i mean just born. it was still wet and one eye hadn't opened all the way. i called ed out to take a look and then he called a wildlife place to find out what to do with it. we've got wildlife all around us but what did we know about new baby deer?

they told ed to just leave the fawn alone, that mama would come back for it or it would leave on its own. it was really tiny - smaller than my cats. we continued getting the wood out of my truck - although the stacking place was changed since baby was in it. within 20 minutes it was on its feet. talk about toothpick legs! he was probably about 18" tall. here's baby taking his first steps. and then he just slipped into the woods and was gone.

the foundation

early april
it took months to get the plans right and the permits (due to some royal screw-ups by people who should be responsible in their jobs - but that's another story). the day after we got the building permit, the concrete guys dug the footers for the foundation. it was kinda tricky since we'd had all those mega-size pine tree stumps and roots and they had to maneuver around a dogwood that we wanted to keep.

all last fall, winter and this early spring, north carolina was in a drought. perfect building time. but the day after the footers were dug, it rained. and rained. and rained some more. then we had a moat, not a footer. i pumped that moat out dozens of times - it took 2 months to get it dry enough by pumping, better weather and redigging it twice more. by the time they finally got down to dry enough subsoil, the footer was at least 3' deep in some places. that had to be backfilled with 20 ton of gravel and 2 dump truck loads of sand.

finally it was ready to pour. this is early june.

the slab - june 13

why a dome?

they are cool.

my dad built a round house back in the 60s and i always thought it was so cool. no corners - i like that. it gives the illusion of more open space. i'd love to live in one. our dome, however, is going to be a studio/workshop. maybe i can convince ed to do this again someday for a home - a dome home.

when we bought our house, we knew we wanted to build a studio/workshop. the design changed from a separate building to an addition and back to a separate building. and from a traditional rectangular pole-barn type construction to the dome.

the place where it would be built on our property changed, too. we eventually came back around to the same area that i had in my mind originally. the problem? trees - and a buttload of them.

what the back looked like before we started - probably october 2006









the logging operation - april 2007
we had a number of large loblolly pines cut down - they were close to 70' tall. they aren't pretty pines like in colorado - the bottom limbs are probably 25-30' off the ground so they are kind of funny looking. and because the wood is so soft, they are not exactly stable trees. they are the first to go in a bad storm and then they take the hardwoods with them. we still have many of them.

unfortunately we also had to cut some hardwoods when clearing the area. i felt bad about that. but they were pretty scrappy trees - didn't get much light with all the loblolly pines hogging the sunlight.

our friend chris is a tree guy. he doesn't think any tree is "scrappy." i told him that for every tree we cut down, i'd plant another. so far i'm still behind but i've planted a cherry i saved (that looks like charlie brown's christmas tree but is coming around!) and a variety of willows. the twisted willow especially will be very cool when grown. and i have a number of small oak trees in pots on the deck that chris planted. thanks chris.

getting started - with a blog, that is...

ok - i started. "about time," i imagine you more tech-savvy folk than i might be saying.

since my previous ramblings about our summer project that i sent to friends and family have basically been blogs, why not start one? a real one? well, time, for one. not knowing how, for another. and, last but not least, there was just always something about blogs that kept me from finding out more. i mean, who in their right mind would want to read about my life?

obviously more than i thought, since i had many requests for photos and stories of our dome progress. so, this blog is not exactly about my life - it's about our dome. it just happens to be a focal point in my life right now.