Ellen Ruby Blog's: New York Dome Home Was Built To Rotate

Wednesday, 5 August 2020

New York Dome Home Was Built To Rotate—Will a Buyer Give It a Spin?

A home built as a prototype for a new style of dome home can be yours for $919,000. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Canaan Road in New Paltz, NY, is a curvy delight.

“When you see the house, it looks like the top cap of a mushroom,” says its owner, Angelo Baccellieri. “It’s really very sunny inside, with a bright interior.”

There are no corners in the 2,300-square-foot home.

“It’s completely round, so there are no edges. Some people say it has good energy. It’s warm, it’s weird, no corners, no end. It’s infinite,” says Baccellieri.

Built in 1999 by a man from France, the home was supposed to be a prototype for a prefabricated dome-home business in the United States, Baccellieri explains.

The concept didn’t take off, and the home was in pre-foreclosure when Baccellieri snatched it up for $580,000 a couple of years ago.

Exterior of home in New Paltz, NY
The Baccellieris

Downstairs, there’s a wide-open space with curved windows and gorgeous wood ceilings. A wood deck surrounds it.

“It’s all one room in the downstairs, with an open kitchen, living room, dining room,” says the listing agent and owner Caroline Baccellieri, Angelo’s wife.

Two bedrooms are found on the main floor and share a bathroom. Up a spiral staircase and into a loft area, you’ll find another bedroom and bathroom.

The kitchen is full of high-end countertops and appliances. Everything you see in the listing photos is included in the sale.

“I’m selling it fully furnished. Some of the pieces were custom-made for the house, so I’m not going to take them with me,” Caroline Baccellieri says.

The Baccellieris say they decided to sell the home because they don’t use it much and the market is hot right now.

There are also income opportunities if a buyer desires. It’s currently listed for $356 a night on Airbnb. The dome has rave reviews and plenty of bookings, and provides a steady income.

The location is also desirable. It sits on 2.3 acres in the middle of 28 acres of forest in the Mohonk Preserve, near popular rock-climbing, hiking, canoeing, and other recreational areas.

All the surrounding trees create a private retreat.

“You can’t see any other houses from the house,” Angelo Baccellieri explains, adding that the perfect buyer is probably someone who likes to be far from people and secluded in nature.

“This puts you right in the middle of 28 acres by yourself, literally in the forest.”

Angelo Baccellieri says that many Airbnb renters come from New York City, which is about two hours away, and that the quirky town of New Paltz especially appeals to renters from Brooklyn.

The house is also close to New Paltz’s Main Street.

“It’s a lovely town with a lot of great restaurants, lots of farm-to-table, a lot of organic, very young,” Caroline Baccellieri says. “A lot of millennials from the city have summer homes there.”

There is one more quirk to mention, but the Baccellieris have yet to test it out.

It has a small motor that can slowly rotate the entire home. It takes about an hour to move about 90 degrees through the revolution. While alerting the Bacellieris to this feature, the original owner issued a caveat.

“He warned me if it starts to rotate and gets stuck, then the door is not where it should be,” Angelo Baccellieri explains.

“The door could be off a cliff, and I don’t want to chance it, so I haven’t rotated it. The motor is there, and the chain is there, but if it got stuck, I’d be in big trouble.”

If you’re confident in your ability to make the dome home rotate without a hitch, it’s ready for you to take a spin.