Milestones

So last week we reached a couple of milestones.  The baby is officially halfway through gestation and the yurt now has a faucet!  Running water inside - woot, woot!!

Before we get ahead of ourselves though, a lot of other things have happened since January...
Along with a lot of planning and changing of minds, we did achieve a few big things

Solar Power - 
We built an insulated box underneath the yurt to hold 12 golf cart batteries (440 AH) and installed a control panel consisting of a battery charger, 1000 W pure sine inverter, breaker boxes and fuses.  Also installed a battery monitor which we use to track input, consumed energy, state of charge, voltage etc and lives inside the yurt.  Initially ran our little Honda generator to charge the batteries so we could have power overnight and a few weeks later we built a solar panel mount up on the hillside and added 3 x 250W panels giving us a total of 750 watts of panel.  For more info on this set up, do send us a message and my DH will get back to you.

Kitchen - 
In February we took a trip down to Sacramento and hit IKEA for a kitchen :)
We purchased a bunch of cabinets and had them installed in a few days.  We didn't have a countertop yet so used temporary boards etc to function.  We were cooking on our 2 burner camp stove and washing dishes in a tub until we put in a few braces to hold up the sink we had picked up at IKEA with a bucket underneath to catch the grey water.  Eventually and after a few 'remodels' of the kitchen layout, we picked up a 20 inch Danby range converted to propane and a 5.5 cubic foot chest freezer which we converted to a refrigerator with a Johnson Controls thermostat.  (Chest freezers have better insulation than refrigerators and being top opening you only lose warmer air not cold which means very little energy consumption).  Eventually we also cut a curved countertop out of a spare piece of 1-1/8 inch plywood that we had lying around from the deck construction and took it to a local sheet metal guy who wrapped it in zinc with a built in sink and back splash.  In the meantime we had drilled a hole in the floor and installed a drain for the sink so we no longer had to haul buckets of filthy water down a ladder.  Initially we had a pipe outside running into a bucket and a gravel drain pit a little further on but after finding a mouse drowned in there we quickly trenched and laid a pipe running into the gravel pit and then seeping into the surrounding earth.  The countertop came back to us just a couple of weeks ago so the kitchen is almost complete!  We installed the faucet last week (just cold for now) so still need to add hot water and plumb the propane outside for the range.

A whole kitchen and then some in the back of the wagon

Kitchen beginnings

A few other things we worked on: we wired, installed many outlets and several fixed lights - 3 in the kitchen, one over the dining table and one over the living area, all very low wattage LED bulbs that do fancy tricks :)  Also started adding R15 stone wool insulation between the studs and putting up walls.  We built a beautiful plywood box for our composting toilet as per the Loveable Loo / Joseph Jenkins method.  We also have a 46" LED TV and nice speakers so we are definitely not slumming it!  Moved in officially on the 1st of March and other than having to come up to the main house (half a mile away) for showers, internet and laundry, we are rather self sufficient and loving it!

Adding stone wool insulation to the walls 

Oh and lights!

(More pictures to come...)

Gurty our Yurty

Let's talk about our yurt.

My DH has been talking about yurts pretty much since we met 6 years ago and after several years of living the city life in the Capital of NZ, a couple of travelling summers in USA and a stint in Portland, OR, we ended up back in NorCal where the in-laws live with no plans...

In September of 2012 we took a trip up to Oregon to buy a car and visit with friends and on the way back we stopped in at Pacific Yurts in Cottage Grove, OR.  I guess you could say we were inspired.  A couple of weeks later we ordered our yurt and took delivery of it in early November.  Yup, it was heading in to winter and it was getting cold.  And wet.  Not the ideal situation for putting up a yurt!

While we were waiting for the yurt, we got of our butts and started on the foundations and platform.  We also both got fulltime jobs on different schedules which didn't help our situation either!  However, we did our best and this is how we progressed.

Digging pier pads

Working hard

Honey, I think we have a mole problem...

Leaning tree felled and piers ready

We really had no idea it would be this high off the ground!

Nearly there

Framework for platform done!
We did put in more bracing later...

One little yurt in a box (or two)

1-1/8" T&G Ply floor going down

One frosty morning...

Platform complete.  Ready for Yurt! 

We have lift off!

Hat on

Studs going in to make it extra tough

Jacket on

Inside with space wrap foil insulation

It glows!

Floor all sanded and clean ready for poly

One shiny floor coming up

Picturesque, no?

Getting all cleaned up, ready for some -

Stuff!

Happy Little Yurt in the Woods :)
January 2013

It's a Tent... It's a Cabin... Nope, It's a Yurt!

When we told people we were going to live in a yurt, some looked at us blankly and others nodded their heads and then later admitted they had to look it up...

So here it is -
What on earth is a yurt?

Google defines it as:
A circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey.

And yes, that is a traditional yurt also known as a "ger" which literally translates to "home".  Our yurt is much more modern, made with modern materials such as treated canvas and vinyl, wood, steel cable and nuts and bolts.  So yup, kinda like a fancy tent.  Here are some pictures easily findable if you google image search 'yurt'.

Traditional yurt exterior

Traditional yurt interior

Pacific Yurts at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park in Oregon

Umpqua Lighthouse State Park deluxe yurt interior

Not too shabby right?  Very cosy and comfortable looking - both the traditional and modern version. Google will spit out plenty of information and a really awesome book is "Living in the Round" by Becky Kemery with everything you'll ever need to know about yurts.

Our yurt comes from Pacific Yurts a company in Cottage Grove, Oregon which has been building yurts since the late 70's.  More on our yurt later.