From Rugged to Round

I thought after our treehouse adventure that maybe we should move on to something a bit less rugged and a lot more round.

When I was about nine years old my mom took me to meet some friends of hers. They had this huge dome home sitting on a cliff, in in the woods, in Oregon, overlooking a lake, with a huge deck and hot tub. The sun actually set while we were there – it was like nothing I’d ever seen. I was amazed, and as you can imagine, completely smitten. I’ve had a thing for any round home ever since.

Like this one:

This home and a virtual multitude of other cool homes are built by Deltec Homes. Deltec has this to say:

“In a time where technology increasingly separates us from our roots, many of us choose to retreat to nature and to the peace that can be found there. Deltec is incorporating this desire into its homes and homebuilding. What better way to escape from the rigors of our hectic lives than retreating to a space designed with nature in mind?”

Heck yeah! (Says the girl permanently attached to her computer) but I can feel where they’re coming from.

Deltec Homes located in Asheville, North Carolina, is well established (they began in 1968) in the home industry as, “the major supplier of unique, panelized, circular structures… used as primary and secondary residences, multi-family units, and commercial projects.” So they’re big but still very down to earth. I talked to them today on the phone and they are a seriously nice company; friendly, helpful, all that good stuff.

Do you love the curvy kitchen? I want the curvy kitchen… and this room:

Very relaxing… much like the treehouse but you know, more upscale.

Deltec has a Q&A on their site that discusses the energy efficiency of their homes, how to build, costs, and amazingly the hurricane-proof qualities of these homes. Which they cover in a realistic manner:

“There are no hurricane proof home designs that we know of, but based on our homeowners’ experience, a Deltec home comes about as close as you can get. Deltec has never lost a home to high winds in almost 40 years of business.

Names like Katrina, Andrew, Ivan, Hugo and Charley represent billions of dollars in property damage and destruction. To Deltec homeowners, they typically represent just some lost shingles.”

Another perk is speed. Some of the homes can go from this…

To this…

In about five days. (Sadly, as Deltec says, “rainbow not included”) To give you an idea of what a round home looks like on the inside, here’s a floor plan:

They have too many cool things on their site to show you in one post. So, I’ll likely save the rest for another time. In the meantime you can go check them out for yourself. They have tons of pictures, videos, and much more good info at their site.

I’m out for now but I’ll leave you with this…

Now, do you love round homes as much as me?

[All photos courtesy of Deltec Homes] Thanks Deltec!