Local Magazine Spotlights Couple’s Dream Dome

Erling and Barbara Rosholdt were both working in the construction industry when they met and fell in love. So when it came time to build their dream retirement home in Virginia, it made sense that they would do it themselves. In a feature story in Louisa Magazine, the couple recounts how they attended a Monolithic workshop in 1998 and then proceeded to build their three Monolithic Domes, as a Y2K project.

“I was skeptical,” Barbara recalled in the magazine interview. “Once we went to (the workshop in Texas) and I stepped inside a few of them, I said this is great. We can build one.”

Their 3,000 square foot home is so energy efficient that they never bothered to hook up the radiant floor piping that they installed. They do have a heat pump, but it rarely runs. “If it’s 100 degrees outside, it says 70 degrees in here,” Erling told the magazine. “And without heating at all, it’s never gotten below 40 degrees, even when it’s in the teens outside.”

The Rosholdt’s “do-it-yourself” streak even extends to their food supply. They have a garden and an orchard that provide 30 percent of their food supply. “With a 43 percent increase in food prices, why aren’t people learning how to take care of themselves?” Erling asks. “The point is people should learn how to grow some of their own food.”