Desierto Cúpula
When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
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Building stage we are at as of December 2006:
We started designing the dome house at the beginning of 2004 after about a year of researching what
type of housing structure would work best for our lifestyle. We purchased the land in August 2004.
As of May 2006, we have been living on the land in a manufactured house on the western portion of our 9 acres.
The dome house pad on the eastern portion of the land is cleared and ready for the foundation and the dome
house's driveway is in. We could use help with making the wash areas of the driveways stable during monsoon
season. If you know of any company that could help us, please let us know.
Cleared site photos:
We are in love with the views from the house site:
The water well was drilled at the end of June 2006 and completed within days at the beginning of July by the
excellent water drilling company of Titan Drilling in Benson, AZ. Water was found around 475' and the
well pump was placed at 507'. Our storage tank is sufficient for several houses and our future pool.
Our local architect, Nate Riggle, was hired in March 2006 to be our go between for us with dealing with Pima County (we tried unsuccessfully for nearly two years to get our plans approved). He has since encouraged us to modify certain aspects of the dome plans to help incorporate various interesting architectural and flow areas of the house design. We have yet to receive County approval for building, but hope to within the next few weeks. The new plans are very exciting and have everything that we have ever wanted in a house.
Due to popular demand, here are some of the original drawings of our future dome home:
The modified drawings will be posted very soon.
Our house is planned to be extremely energy efficient and environmentally friendly. A few examples are: composting toilets with a grey water system, grid tie wind and solar energy, radiant floor heating, safe paint, and concrete and cork flooring. More details on all aspects of the house will be posted as it is built.
As we impatiently and unsuccessfully waited for our County to approve our building plans, we spent the
summer of 2006 making a fun play area for our happily
Radically Unschooled children, a 1/3 mile rock lined walking path and a 30' rock labyrinth all whilst
thoroughly enjoying the vibrant colors of the desert vegetation and the myriad wildlife that roam our land.
Dome raising is estimated to be the beginning of 2007. If you are interested in helping, please fill out the contact form and we will e-mail you with specific information.
Panoramic View from our dome site:
All photographs on this entire website are taken on our 9 acres of land in Sahuarita, Arizona. Large high quality prints of all the photographs are available for sale upon request.
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