DIY Network

Sedona Dome-House: Finishing Touches and Final Advice From "Be Your Own Contractor: Vacation Homes" episode DBCV-101

David Walske discusses the installation of the triangular interior panels -- of which there were more than 100.

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In this episode of DIY's Be Your Own Contractor: Vacation Homes, viewers met homeowners David Walske and Rick Goldstein and got a close look at the unique geodesic-dome house they built in Sedona, Arizona.

In this final segment, some of the finishing and interior details are discussed.

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Finishing Touches

"No matter what type of structure you decide to build," says do-it-yourself contractor David Walske, " you're going to reach a point when you suddenly realize that there's a tremendous amount of finish work to be done. Often times it can come as a shock."

David and his partner Rick Goldstein opted to spare little expense on this important aspect of the construction, and were fortunate enough to find a skilled finish-carpenter who was ideally suited for the job. This was extremely helpful since some of the interior woodwork was relatively complicated. The interior panels were pre-manufactured, but the work was still formidable since 110 of the panels had to be fitted and installed inside the dome, many of them overhead. During this portion of the process, David set a goal for the number of panels to be installed each day, and worked with his sub-contractors to try and achieve that goal on a daily basis.

In the end, the completion of the dome house took about 2-1/2 years and the project went about $50,000 over the original $200,000 budget. The time and expense was ultimately deemed worth it by the owners because of the spectacular look and feel of the vacation getaway.

"There are so many sacrifices involved in putting together something like this," says homeowner Rick Goldstein, "so you really have to put everything else in your life in second position. I think if you do that going in, and are clear on the priority of the house, it's fairly easy to proceed, but you have to set the priority first."

	Homeowner David Walske
	Homeowner Rick Goldstein.

"Take My Advice"

Here are a few parting thoughts from the do-it-yourself contractors:

David: "For anyone brave -- or foolish -- enough to tackle the job, I'd feel like saying, 'Go for it.' I'm glad I did it. But it is not for everyone. Make sure you're up to the task."

Rick: "I think I expected that all along to have a million questions. That's sort of the cliché of doing it yourself. There's gonna be a million questions, so I knew that. What I didn't really expect was that beyond how many there were a billion more questions past that."

David: "No matter how locked down you think each component is in advance, there is an ever changing flow of questions that come at you, especially on an unusual site like this. Uh, you have to really be able to think on your feet, uh, and make those kinds of decisions. . . You have to keep on top of every detail. I actually had an analogy that I applied to this project. Iit was that of being an air traffic controller and having a number of planes in the air. Your immediate desire, your immediate reaction, is to land all the planes, ut if you land all the planes at once you are going to crash them. So, it's very important to realize that you are going to have to let certain items continue to circle your building project airport until you can properly land them."

RESOURCES :

More information on dome houses:

Natural Spaces Domes
Website: www.naturalspacesdomes.com

American Ingenuity Domes
Website: www.aidomes.com

Monolithic Domes
Website: www.monolithic.com

sedonadome.com
Website: www.sedonadome.com

GUESTS :

David Walske and Rick Goldstein
Homeowners
Sedona, AZ
sedonadome.com
Website: www.sedonadome.com