We are building a dome house.

We will call it Hale Honua (ha-lay HO-new-ah): "House of Sanctuary."

 

July 30, 2007:  The Herald Tribune (Sarasota) writes about Hale Honua:

Couple say dome home will withstand Category 5 hurricane

The only problem is that I spell both half of my names in lowercase, not just my first name!
 

July 9, 2007:  Fleeting visitors II:
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July 8, 2007:  Fleeting visitors:
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June 17, 2007:  Work progresses on Hale Honua.
It's been a while since we updated this log, but we are working
on the interior walls now.  This is the wall between the garage &
one of the rooms in the Studio.
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June 15, 2007:  Another visitor to Hale Honua.
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July 19, 2006:  A Florida gopher turtle vists Hale Honua.
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Be sure to check out the artwork this gopher inspired!

June 12, 2006:  Painting the dome.
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You paint a dome like you eat an elephant... one bite [or paint roller] at a time!  Glad they don't make elephants THIS big!

May 2, 2006:  The garage is cut open and the airlock removed.
This means the dome is strong enough to stand on its own when opened to the air.
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May 2: The garage is cut open.

May 2: The airlock is cut away.

April 10, 2006:  Exciting news!  The dome is started!
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March 31: Laying out the circle for the dome.	March 31: The airform for the house.
April 3: Rebar in the dome footing.	April 3: Rebar for the walls.
April 9: Footings inspected and filled.	April 9: equipment under the airform & the airlock doorway.
April 10: It's up!

 

March 2, 2006:  More news about the durability of domes:
Monolithic Dome in Oklahoma Wildfire – even unfinished – did not burn.

 

February 23, 2006:  No, this isn't at our house site...
it was a beautiful pink tree in the fog in Sarasota this morning.

More pictures later this week showing progress on the house!

 

February 16, 2006: the newly worked site.. we made it a larger space, but the house space is a 60 foot circle .. & now the septic is in & it has been sodded... getting closer!

 

 

This plastic blob will be our new house – eventually!

 

A view of the lake behind the house site.

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Information on Dome Homes

Our home will be built in Florida, a state that weathered four hurricanes in 2004.  We want a structure that is hurricane-proof!

This dome in Pensacola Beach, Florida, took a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004.  As the aerial photograph shows, the adjacent house was completely destroyed, while the dome itself sustained only minor damage.

At the time Ivan roared through Florida, we were in Texas, learning to build our dome at the Monolithic Dome Institute.  This is a great site to learn more about domes for residences and commercial/industrial uses.