A Healthy Home
There are specific aspects of a home that can create more health for you and your family.
The many aspects of a healthy home
- Is inviting and welcoming (What is one object you can place in the entryway of your home that makes you smile?)
- Is bright and warm, with as much natural light as possible(What is one action you can take today to get more light into your home? Can you open curtains that are often closed? Can you trim back an overgrown window plant?)
- Is inspired by and connected to the rhythms of nature (Bring in fresh flowers or tree branches to make a bouquet or try filling a bowl of water and placing it on a table surface in your home today.)
- Is simple, clean and relaxing (Declutter one shelf or drawer today!)
- Is respectful of the earth and uses resources naturally (Check your recycling area. Is it organized and easy to use?)
- Has layers of natural materials, rich textures and inspiring colours (Today, remove one item that is made of an artificial material and replace it with an item that is made of a natural material like wool, cotton, wood, silk.)
Natural materials have a soothing and healthy effect
- Is comfortable, practical, functional, and efficient (Identify one item or piece of furniture that is uncomfortable or doesn’t work properly. Recycle it and replace it today with an item that is functional and comfortable.)
- Utilizes nontoxic, high-quality materials and objects (Look in your cleaning cupboard, discard any products that aren’t natural. Replace with natural dishsoap, essential oils and baking soda.)
- Is unique; the style and objects have meaning for those who live there(Check your art objects, are there any that you are keeping for any reason other than absolutely loving it? Recycle any items and only keep meaningful objects.)
- Encourages physical, mental, and spiritual health (Ask yourself these questions; Where do I exercise? Where is my quiet place to contemplate? Where do I do my best thinking in this environment? Identify a spot for each of these activities today)
Carzebo
Our dream for this property is to reflect the repeating pattern of round
The way you enter the land is a spiral.
The pathways, hallways, stairways curve around..
And, of course, the buildings are round.
Even the carport!
Nestled in the trees
Functions for this space 1) a protected place to park our 2 vehicles 2) an attached room with electricity , door and window provides dry storage for sports gear.3) a lift up hatch door in the floor opens up to a root cellar for cold storage for food. The bottom portion of the walls are encased cement. 4) covered outdoor space for gatherings (remove cars first) 5) a woodshed between the little room and the hawthorne tree
Connections to this space 1) pathway to the main Mandala 2) pathway to pond 3) east facing micro-climate
Morning light coming through the trees
Art of this space 1) the shape 2) timberframe posts 3) metal work matching the house
Name of this space. We felt that the terms “garage” or “carport” just didn’t seem to fully do justice to the uniqueness and beauty of this building. So…I thought I’d ask the creative crowd on our facebook page what they would suggest. I offered a copy of our Mandala coffee table book as a gift for who ever came up with a prizewinning name.
There were lots of brilliant ideas for names.Ultimately, Lars chose “Carzebo” (like a gazebo for the car) as his favourite and Sherry Robinson won the prize!
Among the trees.
From the very beginning of this project,we’ve been getting to know the trees on this land. We’ve identified and mapped different species. We’ve given affectionate names to some. And, we’ve especially gone to great efforts to build around the hundreds-of-years-old Ponderosa pine tree that stands a breathtakingly tall and a breathtakingly short distance from the edge of our new home.
“Ponderosa” means ponderous, or large.
We carefully poured post and pier footings for the deck around the tree.
Ponderosa pine trees have deep grooves in the bark
A healthy Ponderosa pine can live up to 500 years.
This is during the construction phase. The roof of this outdoor room that circles the pine tree will be a living roof
A Ponderosa Pine can grow up to 50 meters tall.
”When I die, she said, I’m coming back as a tree with deep roots & I’ll wave my leaves at the children every morning on their way to school & whisper tree songs at night in their dreams. Trees with deep roots know about the things children need.” -Brian Andreas, Deep Roots
320 sq. ft. round Cottage
We built a small round building on the north meadow that is to be used as a guest space, retreat space, rental, or a separate office. This is an ultimate “flex space”! Here’s a short video of the set-up of the building.
It took us 8 hours to set up the cottage to lock-up. As you can see in the video, it’s early February.
Within a week of set-up, we shingled the roof and installed the fascia and soffets. It’s looking trim, cozy and very attractive. This little prefab structure was created with very little impact on the environment and no set-up construction waste. It was quick to erect and will take little more than a candle to heat. Our plans are to install a composting toilet and solar panels. The cottage is sited for passive solar.
The south face of the cottage lets the sun in in the winter and is shaded by the deep overhang in the summer
East facing front door with plans for a morning coffee and basking deck. There’s a small burbling stream to the right.
The north side has no windows, for energy efficiency.
South Elevation. There’s a road to the west, so we chose -for privacy’s sake- no windows on that side.
This Mandala has 322 of living space and sits on a post and pier foundation. It has 16 wall panels and is 21′ ft. diameter. The skylight is a 3′ ft. skylight. It has double paned, low E, Argon windows and skylight with an insulated french door.The roofing shingles are Lifetime, matching the roofs of the house and the “carzebo” (Mandala shaped carport). We’ll side it-like the main Mandala- with locally sourced, FSC certified cedar siding after wrapping it in a 1 1/2′ layer of Roxul insulation
Outdoor Rooms
Some homeowners want to stop designing their new home at the edge of the front door.
We like to encourage the understanding and use of outdoor rooms in the design of a home, because we know that the feeling of “home” is encompassed in the land around the house as well as in the house itself.
“I don’t divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are all one.” Luis Barrangan
This covered kitchen porch has a magnificent view
Beyond encouraging connection to the land and to nature, there are other advantage to outdoor rooms. They can be beautiful and they can reduce energy costs by providing natural cooling spaces. And, less materials are used in building outdoor rooms so useable square footage is gained for less money.
Another cost savings choice is to link the outdoor eating area with the indoor kitchen.Simply add a covered porch to a southeast wall near the kitchen and incorporate a door and a pass-through window in the design. This provides the pleasure and fun of gathering and eating outdoors without the cost of a second outdoor kitchen.This southeast facing eating porch is also the perfect site to place wooden boxes and clay pots planted with easy care vegetables and kitchen herbs.
Another outdoor room idea is a private, covered porch area directly connected to the master bedroom. Such a room can provide an intimate sleeping space that is optimum for star gazing, a natural way to cool off in the summer and a way to enjoy nature from the comforts of home. The outdoor room featured in our Magnolia plan is designed to step down into a private patio area. This is a quiet and beautiful place for reading ‚ sitting and enjoying the sunset.
Outdoor Room on the West Side
We‘d love to hear your response to these ideas and to read about your experiences in creating or living in outdoor rooms.
The day that History showed up.
This whole hillside was once a family farm and the road sign still bears the family name, Heddle. Pearl Buck once wrote “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. “ In this particular circumstance, “yesterday” found us. His name is Fred Heddle.
He is a sweetly stooped, blue eyed, and wrinkled old man who had raised farm animals, children and dreams on this hillside. He’s in his nineties now, and living in an old folks home in town.
It was a sunny August afternoon, we were surveying the footprint of the house site when our dog , Inca , barked. Old farmer Heddle, accompanied by his nephew, clambered over the bank of our pond. He wore a light cotton shirt with a straw hat perched over bright eyes. ”Are you building a round house here?” He asked “Like that one over by the lake, the one with 26 sides?” (No one else has ever noticed, or at least commented on, the exact number of facets of the red Mandala beside the lake)
So, we talked about round houses. About using less materials to create more living space. About the natural thermal dynamics of a round shape. About the inherent strength of the structure in high winds, heavy snow and earthquakes. And, about the greater accuracy and less waste of building it in the shop and trucking it out to the building site. He asked curious, ’farmer practical’ , very intelligent questions and nodded his head in approval about the whole thing.
Then, Mr. Heddle shared about being born in the blue house down the road. He talked about how his father and grandfather chose this piece of land because they were looking for abundant sun and water. “Soil you can make.” He described playing up on the hillside with his brothers. “Long before T.V.. We would disappear up there in the morning and be gone all day.” He looked up at the hills with eyes deep in memory. “We knew those woods like the back of our hands. Up there , there are caves, climbing trees, bear and deer.”
He turned back to look at me with a welcoming glow. I basked in his alert mind, his description of his life, interest in our project, his interest in the breed of our dog, the roundness of our house and , it seemed , our very existence and presence on “his” land.
Old farmer Heddle’s knee was arthritic. “Walking is easier for me.” It got stiff standing too long, though the ground was uneven with loose rock in places and I worried that he might fall. He reminded me of an overgrown ancient elf, a joybody in a creaky shell peering avidly at everything around him.
He spoke clearly and fondly about the hay field on our land. About the orchards and the best places to get firewood. As he spoke, I felt warm and saw his memory images of kids swimming in the old Kettle Hole, boys trudging after recalcitrant cows and autumn-fat black bears perched in the big old cherry trees.
My heart sang, really. I felt welcomed and connected to the history of both this land and to the people who had lived here before.
It was like a benevolent old angel had appeared from behind the berm just especially on that beautiful August day in order to gift us with a blessing. And the blessing was a celestial go-ahead to put our roots deep into this ground, this family farm, Old Man Heddle’s home.
Now, our home.
The perfect spot on planet earth for this house
Paint. Colour. Air. Leaf.
When you build a Mandala, the shell-to-lock-up part of the process happens rapidly because those parts of the house come in a kit.
However, the finishing part of the building process takes the same amount of time as any other construction.
At times, for the home-builder, it can seem endless!
At this point, we have completed the dry walling and exciting process of painting.
‘Color is consistent in only one thing: that it is ever changing. Light, space and other colors in proximity constantly change how color is viewed. Color is exciting because it is always moving, adding a sense of depth and focus to living and work spaces”
Layers of colours
I researched at local paint stores, the natural building supply store and on-line until I settled on what I think is the most amazing paint in the entire world, Yolo Paint
My reasons for thinking that it is the most amazing paint in the entire world are;
- What’s NOT in it. This is non-VOC paint that is LEED and Green Seal certified.
- The colours are incredibly beautiful, natural in tone, and vivid in purity. Yet, the texture is very different than regular paint. When I first saw a wall with Yolo paint on it, I asked “Is that a clay wall?”
- The colours have names like Stone, Aspire, Petal, Create, Thrive, Grain, Leaf, Air- which are grouped in palettes called The Colour of Hope, The Sprout Collection, Earths Colour Collection.
- The colour swatches are big- about 8×8′- they were much easier to use to conceptualize our colours.
- The swatches offer suggestions and ideas for complementary colour groupings.
- The two women who developed this paint in Portland , Oregon, are good friends and originally artists.
Lars and I spent considerable time playing with colour swatches , imagining light, elements and nearby colours.
After much deliberation , taking into account the upcoming vividness of ambiant light, nomadic rugs, the spectacular cedar Mandala ceiling, fir trim and timbers , we decided to paint a warm off-white (Air .01 and Air .03- “harmonizes yet stays light, warmer alternative to white”) throughout most of the home.
Air .01 in the study, Air .03 in the main Mandala
North facing study brightened and lightened with Air. 01
Fresh Paint in the Round Room
Here’s a photo of our friend, Brandon, brilliant painter and house builder in the centre of the main Mandala.He’s wearing just the right get-up for running an airless sprayer. We highly recommend spraying and back-rolling when you paint a new construction. It is so much quicker. We were able to paint the second coat on the entire house in about 6 hours!
We chose an intriguing and restful green colour for the Master Bedroom (Leaf .02- “it walks the line between green and gold, beautiful flow, creates open-hearted gathering spots, elegant master bedroom choice”). The ceiling will be natural cedar , baseboards and window trim fir, the floor will be a beautiful port coloured cork.
YOLO color on the master bedroom walls
Gathering
Our first “official” party in the new Mandala! Our Mandala Staff Christmas party
It was a bit dusty…. with a ”bring your own furniture” theme…Nonetheless, it was a wonderful success with music , good food, great conversation, camaraderie and sense of accomplishment and connection with the project.
A home beginning to emerge
Each person in Mandala has played a part in the creation of this beautiful and amazing space.
It was so satisfying and fun to relax with the families who are connected Mandala. One thing we noticed is; how very many children there are ….and, how musical they are! We also noticed how the circular great room lends itself to holding a large gathering, with ease and flow.
Our wish list for our next party? How about some lights? A couch would be great! A little less drywall dust would be wonderful.
But I wouldn’t trade the big smiles and warm hearts for anything.
Happy holidays!
Why Build a Custom Home?
Here at Mandala Homes, we enjoy spending time talking with;
Eco Wood and Stone Home
1) people who are dreaming about designing and building their own unique home.
2) people who are in the midst of designing and building their own unique home.
3) people who have succeeded in the extraordinary undertaking of designing and building their own unique custom home.
When considering the motivation that underlies the big accomplishment of building a home, a story by poet, Robert Louis Stevenson, comes to mind,
Stevenson describes an annual ritual enacted by the young boys of his Scottish childhood. Every September, the local boys would buy small tin lanterns called bull’s eyes. They would light the lantern from the fires of their home hearths, tie it to their belt, wrap up in a heavy winter coat and venture out into the dark night. Each boy would wander alone in the fields that surrounded the village, coat tightly buttoned up, with not a glimmer of hidden light shining through. When a youth met another boy in the autumn heath, each would open their coat and reveal to the other the hot smoking light of home.
Stevenson felt that this childhood game symbolized the constant light of our connection with the center of our lives and that the boys are a symbol of a human being who is wandering in the dark night of life; each with our own hidden home-light burning secretly inside.
He wrote “The essence of this bliss was to walk by yourself in the black night, the slide shut, the topcoat buttoned, not a ray escaping….a mere pillar of darkness in the dark; and all the while, deep down in the privacy of your fool’s heart, to know you had a bull’s eye at your belt, and to exult and sing over the knowledge.”
Designing and building your own unique home is akin to emerging from a pillar of darkness, to have a steadily burning lantern in your heart. It’s like having a “bull’s eye at your belt”. It gives you a constant reflection of your own creativity, a tremendous sense of personal accomplishment and a feeling of security, peace, and possibility.