Life Above
the Treetops at Cloud Hidden
The
home of Jim, Melanie and Meili Kaslik
By Freda
Parker
photos by Jim Kaslik
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Story time in the treetops? That's the fantasylike environment four-year-old Meili Kaslik enjoys. When it's Meili's story time, she and her mom Melanie cuddle into comfy chairs in a cozy, glass-enclosed nook perching above the treetops at the Monolithic Dome home they call Cloud Hidden.
Jim Kaslik, Meili's dad, says, "Originally this nook, cantilevered off the dome, was planned as a breakfast area, but we changed our minds and made it into a reading nook.
"Now, between stories Melanie and Meili can look out toward North Carolina's Blue Ridge Parkway, into a forest area that includes public land, down into the valley or into the treetops."
In April 1998, the Kasliks began excavating the home site for Cloud Hidden, an over-the-center, six-segment caterpillar, built on a 2' x 2' footer.
After 2 1/2 years of diligent work, the Kasliks were able to move into their spectacular dome-home that looks like it's carved into the 45-degree-sloped mountain, on which it sits some 500 feet above the valley.
At its center or equator which is 14 feet above ground, Cloud Hidden is 85' long, 46' wide and 37' tall. Its three levels include 5300 square feet of heated living space, 2000 square feet of unheated living space and 1000 square feet in an elevated, two-level, stamped-concrete porch.
That porch embraces the entire front of the dome at its main or second level and circles into a private porch off the master bedroom at the third level.
Cloud Hidden's first-level basement contains the garage, workshop, storage, playroom and laundry. Its main floor encompasses a living room with a 25' ceiling and a sunken conversation area, dining room, library, kitchen, pantry and bathroom.
A spacious master suite and bath, two large bedrooms flanking a second bathroom, and a hallway balcony overlooking the living room make up the top floor.
Jim says, "We named it Cloud Hidden because we're in an area of frequent morning, valley fogs, and the tops of the mountains are actually above the cloud layer.
"Our dome is normally visible from many miles away, but on these mornings it is cloud-hidden. And from the perspective of the dome, looking out onto the top surface of the clouds for as far as you can see is like taking in our own private piece of heaven.
"The views are stunning," he continues. "Hawks soar overhead, and you can hear owls at night.
"For all these reasons, we chose a Monolithic Dome. Nothing else would give us the interior spaces, wide-open access to the views, and a feeling of security on a rather precipitous site."
The Kasliks discovered Monolithic Domes through the Internet. Jim recalls, "I was researching geodesics, followed a link to Monolithic, saw Eye of the Storm, and was blown away.
"I called to Melanie. She took one look and pulled out a picture of the Eye that she had taken a couple of years earlier while visiting Charleston. So it took us about a minute to agree that that's what we wanted. Then, it took us about four months with computer aided drafting software designing it, and here we are."
Even for a Monolithic Dome, Cloud Hidden sports an unusual size and shape. It's over-the-center. Its six caterpillar segments have narrow, 10-foot centers but huge openings.
One opening consists of three, side-by-side-by-side, 8' x 15' cutout arches, fronted by a 30' x 16' window wall, that take full advantage of the view. The dome's backside has an 18' earthberm. And the dome has an extreme porch.
Jim says, "These features required careful engineering, so we worked closely with Dr. Arnold Wilson (Monolithic's consulting engineer) to make sure every detail was proper."
Cloud Hidden uses no fossil fuels. Instead, a geothermal system keeps the home comfortably and economically warm or cool.
Geothermal -- also called water-source or ground-source -- heat pumps are electrically powered systems that use the earth's near-constant temperature to provide heating and cooling (www.igshpa.okstate.edu/GHPBasics.htm).
The Kasliks have a radiant floor heating system (RFH), consisting of 6500' of polyethylene tubing running throughout the concrete foundation of their home. In the winter, their geothermal system circulates heated water through the RFH tubes and brings warmth to the rooms.
During the summer, the system uses chilled water to cool the home's interior with a mini-duct, high-velocity air conditioning system.
Jim says that the superior insulation of a Monolithic Dome and the geothermal system allowed them to purchase a smaller, more economical heat pump. "Heat pumps come in different sizes," he says. "Ours is a 54,000 BTU (British thermal unit) per hour.
"That's equivalent to 4 1/2 tons of air conditioning. We estimate that our heat pump probably is one-third the size we would need if this were a frame house. We know of a frame house of similar size and location that has three times the heating and cooling capacity of our home.
"Here's another advantage of geothermal," Jim continues. "We can calculate in advance just what running the geothermal will cost. For example, right now if we ran it continually -- nonstop -- for a month it would not cost more than $95 to heat this place.
"That's pretty cheap for a house this size. Plus, the dome has proven itself so efficient and responsive to solar gain that we don't anticipate ever needing to run it nonstop."
Cloud Hidden sits on a mountainside and has a dramatic southern exposure. Jim says, "The trees are lower than we are so they don't obstruct the sun that beats down all day long. But we still hardly run our air conditioning.
"This past summer, we ran it a total of three weekends during periods of sustained high temperatures and no cloud cover. That would cool the dome over the weekend. During the week, we wouldn't run the air, and the dome would slowly -- four degrees at most -- heat up, and we'd cool it again on the weekend."
Jim has compared that to the experience of a neighbor with an identically sized and positioned conventional house. "I know it's not a scientific test," he says, "but the neighbor tells me that the temperature in her house rises about 15 degrees."
While they use air conditioning sparingly, the Kasliks run a dehumidifier virtually all summer. "We'd have 50% humidity without it. That keeps the inside a comfortable 50% relative humidity. In the winter the humidity drops naturally to around 30%," Jim says. They also use ceiling fans.
The Kasliks blended a variety of grays, accented with bright colors, for both the interior and exterior of their dome. On the inside, the flat walls are natural plaster and the dome walls are a muted gray, with a slight hint of blue or green depending on how the light hits. Furniture and accessories provide accent, and the bamboo flooring used throughout adds a warm, golden glow.
On the outside, Jim sprayed two coats of a neutral gray, synthetic stucco over the Airform, using a handheld hopper gun attached to an air hose. Wild flowers, seeded over the slopes, burst into accent colors. They change from blue bachelor buttons in the spring to a variety of white, yellow, orange and red flowers during the summer, and finally cycle into purple blooms in the fall.
Following their landscaper's advice, the Kasliks hydro-seeded Love Grass over the remaining area. It's a thin-blade grass that grows thick, falls into graceful wisps and needs no mowing -- a definite advantage for homeowners living on a 45-degree slope.
Finally, to enhance the look of a dome rising out of the boulders, the Kasliks recycled boulders they excavated during the preparation of their home site into a 120' long, 10' high wall that stretches along the front of the dome.
Jim says, "Our excavator used two machines and chains to lift each boulder -- some as heavy as four tons. We would spin each by hand and inspect it to decide which side we wanted facing out.
"Then we'd create a secure base and coax it into place. The wall looks like it's been there forever."
Understandably, Cloud Hidden, with its dream-home, over-the-treetops ambience has attracted its share of attention. Recently, HGTV, the cable network that, in May 1998, produced a segment on the Eye of the Storm, featuring commentary by Monolithic's President David B. South, traveled to North Carolina to film Cloud Hidden.
Related Links:
- "Cloud Hidden" Receives Quality Home Comfort Award
- Cloud Hidden Designs
- Fine Homebuilding Magazine Features Monolithic Dome Home
- Life Above the Tree Tops
- Monolithic Domes and Property Value
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