“It takes more than one brain to brainstorm.”

Lars and I have a sense of the size and basic shape of our Mandala.  I like the Yin/Yang , privacy/connection balance of the basic Cypress design; a Mandala with an open center ‘great room’ with wings radiating out from  the circle. From a passive solar perspective , it’s clear that we want the large panoramic window views and the “open face” of the home to be south-facing. It also makes sense to place the kitchen in the sunny morning east wing with a doorway and deck for outdoor space. We like the master bedroom and en suite nestled in the privacy of the west wings and we want to  enter into our home from the north. Located in the centre of the home is the ‘heart of the home’, the hearth. Our plans are to install a small soapstone hybrid stove in the open area of the main floor. It looks like we have years worth of firewood just from clean-up around the site and we can bring scraps of kindling home from the Mandala  shop.

The sq. footage of the main floor is 1580 round feet.

The elements of the daylight basement downstairs are, a 1)  bedroom for teenage Poppy with a sunny south- facing window 2) an office space for Lars with a south-facing window 3) storage in the hallway 4) a ventilated root-cellar  for food storage in the cool back corner 5) downstairs shower bathroom 6) a mechanical/utility room for laundry, heat recovery ventilating system (HRV), hot water tank, and a 6 kw boiler for the in floor radiant heating system (we also plan to supplement this with the heat from a pile of decomposing wood chips and horse manure).

The sq. footage of the basement is 726 round feet.

It’s delightful to play with these floor plan ideas and get input from Leigh and Kai, the creative designers at Mandala. It’s very much a back and forth dialogue of insights and ideas.