{"id":587226,"date":"2023-08-15T19:47:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T16:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/this-2-1-million-retrofuturistic-dome-home-is-an-inhabitable-epcot\/"},"modified":"2023-08-15T19:47:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T16:47:50","slug":"this-2-1-million-retrofuturistic-dome-home-is-an-inhabitable-epcot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/this-2-1-million-retrofuturistic-dome-home-is-an-inhabitable-epcot\/","title":{"rendered":"#This $2.1-million retrofuturistic dome home is an inhabitable EPCOT"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nThe owners spent 25 years renovating the space to accentuate the home\u2019s spherical shape\n<\/div>\n
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\"On<\/p>\n

(Photography courtesy of Conrad Rowsell and Dianne Weir-Rowsell)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The legendary American renaissance man R. Buckminster Fuller was responsible for a few futuristic architectural ideas, one of which was the geodesic dome, an ultra-strong spherical structure composed of small interlocking triangles. Most people have only ever laid eyes on these domes as tourists\u2014say, at Disney World\u2019s EPCOT Centre or Montreal\u2019s Biosphere, built for Expo \u201967. Now, just off a dirt road in Fergus, Ontario, an inhabitable dome is on the market and move-in ready, provided you have $2.1 million to spare.
\n\"TheOwners Conrad Rowsell, a retired auto worker, and Dianne Weir-Rowsell, an associate director of health services at the University of Waterloo, have lived in their beloved \u201cdome home\u201d since 1998. When their real estate agent initially showed them a grainy, black-and-white photo of a strange, orb-shaped structure that looked like it had plopped down from outer space, they knew they\u2019d found what they were looking for. \u201cOur first impression was that this was a lot of house,\u201d says Dianne. With a ceiling apex of 32 feet and a total footprint of 2,600 square feet, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom dome was nearly trip<\/a>le the size of their previous home, a 950-square-foot wartime bungalow located in downtown Kitchener, Ontario, within earshot of emergency vehicles zipping in and out of a nearby hospital and fire station.
\n\"AThe couple dreamed of living somewhere with plenty of green space, similar to their hometown of Roddickton, Newfoundland. On their first dome viewing, the yard was overgrown with weeds and the outbuildings\u2014a chicken coop and treehouse\u2014looked a little forlorn. But the promise of 20 acres and the added challenge of restoring a one-of-a-kind home were enticing. \u201cIt seemed like this place was put here just for us,\u201d says Conrad. They snapp<\/a>ed up the dome for the grand sum of $212,000, a very 1998 price.<\/p>\n

The dome\u2019s original owners were, as Dianne says, \u201cchildren of the \u201960s,\u201d which meant that, on move-in day, the Weir-Rowsells were greeted with an abundance of blue shag carpeting and metallic-blue wallpaper. They tore it down almost immedia<\/a>tely. \u201cWe really wanted to accentuate the shape of the house and the wallpaper disguised it,\u201d says Dianne. They painted the ceiling and walls a dome-amplifying light beige, an onerous job that required rented scaffolding, a whopping 32 gallons of paint and a three weeks of work. To offset any coldness created by the new, vast white space, the Weir-Rowsells ripped up the carpet and installed warm oak flooring and accents throughout. They purchased a regular-sized six-foot tree for their first Christmas, then found out that only a 14-foot tree would fill the room. \u201cWe could barely get it through the front door,\u201d says Dianne.
\n\"AOnce Conrad and Dianne began accentuating the home\u2019s spherical shape, they found they couldn\u2019t stop. They removed one of the kitchen walls in favour of an open-concept layout that made the home\u2019s roundness more visible from the dining room. They also knocked out all the basement walls and created a circular seating area at the front of the house.<\/p>\n

Curved walls come with their own unique set of challenges: kitchen backsplash tiles, typically sold in 12-by-12-inch sheets, had to be installed individually to ensure they covered every crevice. Off-the-rack curtains don\u2019t fit the dome\u2019s triangular windows, so the Weir-Rowsells\u2019 windows remain bare. (The dome is far enough away from the road that privacy isn\u2019t a concern.) Also, the home\u2019s acoustics are flawless, sometimes to a fault\u2014any conversations had in one of the two upstairs bedrooms can clearly be heard from the main floor.
\n\"TheStill, the dome\u2019s perks far outweigh its quirks. Conrad created a series<\/a> of trails where the couple could walk their dogs and go snowmobiling in winter. When the eavestroughs need cleaning each fall, he simply walks around the perimeter of the house and fishes the leaves out out the chest-height roof with his hands. The home\u2019s biggest bonus, though, might be its energy efficiency. \u201cIn the winter time, we turn the heat on and everything\u2019s warm in five minutes,\u201d says Conrad. The Weir-Rowsells\u2019 energy bills total $2,400 per year, an amount that includes heating the outdoor pool. The house is also a perfect spot for entertaining. \u201cWhen our daughter was involved with sports, we would have up to 90 people here for special functions and it never felt crowded,\u201d Dianne explains. Their favourite part of hosting guests over is seeing the look that washes over their faces when they enter the great room. \u201cIt\u2019s blatant surprise,\u201d she says.
\n\"AnAfter 25 years of dome life, the Weir-Rowsells are ready to move back east for a dose of salt air. They\u2019ll retire in Roddickton, where they already own a (typical) bungalow, Conrad\u2019s childhood home and a cottage that\u2019s only accessible by a 20-minute boat ride. None of them are a kooky space-age dome, but they\u2019ll do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n