Homemade dome, designed and built during our family vacation trip in Ochotnica Gorna, Poland.

1. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If
you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.”
Steve Jobs
homework

2. My family and I took a two month vacation to Poland. We move around the largest cities, but finally we spend more time in
Ochotnica Gorna, a small and lovely village in a long valley in-between the woods, at almost two hours from Krakow city.

3. So I have plenty of time to relax, what I´m not used to... so after a long time travelling I start to feel quite anxious, what else can I
do?

4. Ok... let's build something! We have lots of wood, space, hard work friends, a computer and of course... an Architect. ;^)

5. So I propose to build a six meter diameter geodesic dome, what is easy to made, just small and modular parts. Also not so big, because
we just have our strength to assemble it. My wife´s cousin was excited about the idea and decide to make it in order to use it like a
Russian sauna for the extreme winter.
Let's start playing...

6. Then I finished the 3DCAD development. I decide for the struts section to be one by four inches. And for the node, just a three
inches wood cylinder. Then I take the measures from the 3DCAD and make some simple plans.
All the parts will be screwed.

7. Now, it's time to start the hard work... We look for the place, the tools and the materials. We got it all! In the beginning we were just
two, my wife's cousin, Janusz (John) and I, but fortunately our neighbor Rafał (Raphael) offers to help us. :^)

8. After getting all setup, I needed to start drawing over the wooden boards the different parts, one by one. This took me several days,
cause the boards were very uneven, but good company makes the time fly.

9. Finally with all drawn, Janusz and Rafał started to cut the pieces, I was impressed how they use the chainsaw... like a butter knife . They
did all the first cut very quick.

10. After the first cut, the second task was to get the proper angle for the pieces. So Janusz´s cousin, Łukasz (Luke) lent us his angle
cutting machine and finally with that, we can finish all very precisely. We cut more than 250 pieces.

11. Let´s go to field!
We then draw the circle in the ground and mark the ten support places for the foundation struts. The holes were about fifty centimeters
deep and one foot of diameter.

12. After the holes were done, we put there the stud bolts and some big rocks and then Janusz, with his cousin Paweł (Paul), started to
prepare the concrete for filling the foundation.

13. After the work was done, our resident supervisors start the quality verification, check the levels and the concrete strength and the
proper drying. Meanwhile we took some time to prepare an outdoor lunch.

14. First ring done and leveled!
Now is time to assemble the triangles...

15. Doing fine!

16. Time for a break and celebrate our good work. All the pieces were fitting very nice, after this we improve our technic and start to
assemble very fast... even with the beer. :P

18. This day we were very happy, because the ring finally got closed for the first time (before we don't, because of the open access) and
after this point we were sure that the work will be a big success!

19. So the days were running and the work still without problems, of course while we were getting close to the upper levels, we need more
strength to fix the parts, because the structure start to work in response of its own tensions and compressions...

20. The fourth!

21. Fifth ring done! Now it was getting really hard to access and screw the cylinders, so we put some extra boards in the top surface in
order to be more comfortable and secure.

22. Now the countdown!!! The last pentagon 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Perfect closing! Not even one piece, need to be cutted or changed to finish
the structure.

23. Just some more simple weight tests and fooling around :^)

24. The structure is finished now, next step the cover...
Special thanks to my new friends; Janusz & family, Rafał , Paweł , Łukasz and f course my lovely wife for the patience

25. To be continued...