The dome is surrounded by fauna and natural vegetation of the Blue Ridge Mountains: red oak, evergreen Hemlock & rhododendron. 42 foot second floor wrap-a-round deck to view the beautiful countryside and northern flying squirrel, saw-whet owl, white-tailed deer and gray fox.
View of the dome driving up the driveway. The dome is nestled in the trees. Another one of Ai's domes had a 30" in diameter hickory tree fall on the dome during a 70 mph wind. The concrete dome had no damage.
View from the dome's second floor loft bedroom. Solid red oak spiral stairs, skylight over dining room, wood burning fireplace, dining room high profile entryway and deck off the entryway.
Photo was taken when the dome was lived in. Spiral stairs start in the basement stair well and lead up into the dome first floor and continue up to the second floor. Triangular skylight over sofa area. Seventeen foot high vaulted ceiling over living room, dining room & stairs. Loft bedroom, bath & WIC are at the top of the stairs.
34' dome on full basement with fireplace. Above each of the sliding doors is fixed glass - 2' tall by 7'10" long. The basement family room and kitchenette has ample light from 6’ sliding glass doors and 3'10"x 3' kitchen window. The Basement exterior walls were built from 8” solid poured concrete with French Drain.
View of dome and 260 ft long paved driveway ten feet wide. The driveway is directly off a paved North Carolina state road named Highway 80 South. Dome is one mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway and one hour from Asheville North Carolina.
Stairs access deck off the kitchen and back of the dome. On the right of the stairs is the basement's store room 4' wide by 3'4" window. Vent pipe above the window is exhaust for the monitor heater.
The basement door with two panes of glass accesses the mud room. The mud room window is 2'10"x 2'10". Flue pipe vents the wood burning fireplace.
South view of Blue Ridge Mountains from deck off one of the living rooms two high profile entryways. Blue Ridge Parkway is around one mile from the dome. Flying squirrels, owls and birds have been seen from this deck.
View from the second floor deck during the winter time. Property is 4.2 acres. Above the paved road, the road continues as gravel and accesses the well area and a cleared area for a turn around or another home site. Above this cleared area is two more acres which could be sold for two other home sites. The top part of the property is flat and has a full view of Mount Mitchell Tower.
Partial view of back of the dome and side of kitchen standard entryway. Deck on the right is off the kitchen. Part of the back of the basement has been back filled with french drain installed.
Back of the dome showing part of basement is back filled. The 3'10" x 3'3" window on ground level is the window in the basement kitchen. The window dormer above the ground level window is for the dome's second floor bedroom. On the left is partial view of ground level deck off the basement living room sliding doors. This picture was taken before the dome was pressure washed and painted in Nov 2015.
Partial view of two High Profile Entryways with center fireplace and exterior decks. Oak furniture and other furniture seen are free with the dome.
Photo from the second floor looking down into the living room and dining room. To the left is partial view of the faux brick hearth at fireplace. Beautiful high profile entryways allow for wondrous views of snow flakes in the winter or spring time greenery.
View from second floor showing living room and living room high profile entryway with six foot wide sliding doors with two foot tall by 7'10" long fixed glass above the sliding doors. On the far left partial view of the half wall that separates the loft bedroom from the first floor. High vaulted ceilings continue into the second floor bedroom.
View from the kitchen showing on the left full view of high profile entryway and on the right partial view of the second high profile entryway in the dining room. In the center is fireplace with glass doors and faux brick hearth.
Spiral stairs on the dome first floor access the second floor and the basement. A wall separates the living room from the dome first floor bedroom, bath and closet. Part of the wall only extends around five feet onto the second floor resulting in an open loft bedroom with window dormer. Visible behind the spiral stairs are two doors. The door on the right goes to the bedroom, door on the left opens into a bathroom. On the second floor to the left of the stairs is a walkway to the bathroom (shower, commode and sink) and walk in closet - on the right is the loft bedroom.
Dining room is to the left, center spiral stairs, living room and loft wall. Behind loft wall is second floor bedroom with window dormer. The high vaulted ceilings top center is around 17' tall. Wall above the sofa and wall above the kitchen can display art.
View from the Kitchen. The Kitchen has half wall dividing it from the spiral stair case and dining room.
Dining room High Profile Entryway. Wall above kitchen can display art.
View from inside the kitchen looking out. Heater is called Monitor which vents to the outside.
View from Kitchen showing oak railing around sides of solid oak spiral staircase, fireplace, and one HP entryway.
The Dome was built as a vacation home for the owners of American Ingenuity. High vaulted ceilings are over the 322 sq.ft. living room/dining room, fireplace and spiral stairs.
Dome's kitchen showing half wall that separates it from the dining room and walk way to the bathroom and bedroom. Kitchen window is 5' wide by 2'9" tall. Counter tops are custom black ceramic tile. Oak cabinets.
Dome's 19' long by 11' wide first floor bedroom and window dormer. To the right is door to the living room and door to the walk in closet. Oak furniture is free with the dome.
Dome first floor 57 sq.ft. bathroom with tub/shower, commode and and sink. Oak trimmed medicine cabinet and towel bar.
Basement mudroom. Door on the left opens to the basement apartment. Door on the right is the exterior door. On the right not visible is window and circuit breaker panel and door to the store room. Oak bench in dome bedroom can be moved to this area to sit on and remove boots. Tiled Floor is in the mudroom, family room, bathroom, hallway and stair well. On the left not visible is a door to the stairwell with spiral staircase.
Photo is inside the 100 sq.ft. mud room showing the door and window in the mud room. In the mudroom is the circuit breaker panel, laundry tub,connection for washer and dryer and doors to access three areas - 1) basement 225 sq.ft. family room/kitchen, 65 sq.ft. bath room with sink, commode, tub/shower, 146 sq.ft. bedroom. 2) 155 sq.ft. basement store room; and 3) stairwell to access spiral stairs to the dome.
Photo of the basement family room, kitchenette and walk way to the bathroom and bedroom. The Doorway to the left of the refrigerator accesses the bathroom. Oak cabinets. On right are vertical blinds on the six foot wide sliding doors.
View from end of dining room looking into the living room. Love seat is in front of the fireplace. Sofa on back wall under a skylight
Partial view of 225 sq.ft. basement kitchen/family room showing vertical blinds over the two sliding glass doors.
Countryside view from the 12' long x 6' wide deck outside the basement sliding doors. Above the deck is the second floor deck.
(use arrows above on right and left side of main picture to view other photos in the gallery)
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Built from an American Ingenuity 34′ in diameter prefab dome building kit.
DOME FOR SALE W’ FULL BASEMENT & 2.2 ACRES $160,000
One Hour from Asheville North Carolina
To view an article with more info about the dome, view Dome For Sale.
The Ai dome is ideal for a vacation home for several reasons:
• Unique design that results in a fun home to visit and possibly rent out when not home.
• Dome can nestle into a wooded setting without concern of a tree impact or that a forest fire will burn the concrete exterior. See Ai’s tree impact link for info about 30” in diameter hickory tree falling on dome with dome suffering no damage. The concrete dome exterior is noncombustible so exterior is fire resistant. As a matter of fact all the materials in the dome prefab panel are noncombustible (concrete, galvanized steel, EPS and ½” Drywall by Georgia Pacific.
• Super energy efficiency: The 7” Eps insulation is comparable to 11” of fiberglass batting and is not interrupted by wood. The dome walls and roof have 30% less surface area than a conventional house; expect heating and cooling costs to be 50% to 60% less than conventional housing. As a result during winter time, when you are not visiting your vacation dome, the dome requires very little heat to keep the water pipes from freezing.
During the winter this dome is heated with a heater fueled by kerosene. The dome is located at 3,400 feet elevation in North Carolina. When not occupied the heater is kept at 48 degrees. Last winter of 2014/2015 the dome was not occupied and used 100 gallons of kerosene to heat the dome…heating costs were around $350.
When the dome is occupied in the winter, a wood burning fireplace and the sun from the south facing entryway heat the dome during the day. At night the heater is set at 65 degrees and keeps the dome snug. Heating costs for dome in winter when occupied is around $450.
To view photos of a Florida 34’ dome home and it’s electric bills, showing where it can be cool for less than $22 a month in the hot Florida summer months, click on 34’ dome. By the way it is even easier to heat an Ai dome than to cool one.
• Low Exterior Maintenance: The Ai dome has less exterior maintenance than a conventional framed house. The dome’s exterior is a shell of continuous concrete with incredible durability with nothing to rot, rust, warp, be eaten by termites. The exterior concrete is primed and painted with no shingles or separate roofing to blow off in high winds and no shingles to burn. Normal maintenance is to pressure wash and paint every 4-6 years. The dome’s expanded polystyrene insulation will not shrink, deteriorate, absorb moisture or relinquish its R-value. To view a summary of advantages, click on Advantages.
To view a video of the interior and exterior of the dome, click on YouTube Cabin Interior. To view part of the cabin exterior, click on YouTube Cabin Exterior.
