Yurt Living...

Spirit Mountain Yurts has the best prices I've seen by a long shot. I considered buying one a while back, but decided against it because I didn't want to deal with mice. They also have a fortress model, which has solid walls on the inside but still the same on the outside.

Figuring out a snow load model, 30ft which is only 710sf, I came up with $30000, with the average windows, doors, insulation, canvas cover and shipping. Thats 42$ a sf. In their video she says total all done finished would be about $30 sf. she lies! I didnt add in anything but their options, which are things you need like doors, insulation, wind bands. So on top of the $42 sf you still need to add, electrical, plumbing,cupboards,heat source etc. and I didnt add in the solid inside walls or building costs if you hire it out. I bet it gets up into the 65$ a sf when you do cupboards. Dont forget you cant go buy general cupboards. Not to mention the best canvas sold is only rated for 15 years. I just built a nice sided, energy star rated insulated home for round 50 sf., metal lifetime roof etc.

I think you are better off, just building your own yurt with blue prints, stick frame, from scratch. Installing a nice metal roof, solid walls and it will be better sealed from rodents.

I also didn't like all the add-on costs, but when I was looking it didn't get anywhere close to $30,000. I think it was a little over $16,000 with everything I wanted...which included most of the options. That was a few years back, so she may have raised her prices and not updated the video. I don't know her, but I spoke with her several times and she was always very helpful and seemed like a trustworthy person. Anyway, every other yurt company was charging a lot more for similar packages. I did decide not to do the yurt, though. I would build something solid if I were to revisit the idea.

ETA: Here's the price list for the fortress yurt: http://spiritmountainyurts.com/fortress.htm. I can't see how you could get to $30,000 unless you added a LOT of windows and doors. One door, two windows, and the standard roof and walls and stuff are all included...the upgrades are not required. I don't think I included the gutters in my estimate, but I added a french door and a window to the included ones, as well as the snow load kit and the wind kit, plus the upgraded roof and walls.

Helena,

I know you said you researched it so you may have already seen this. But here a link anyway. I know there is one just above us but can hardly see it from the road. It has been lived in every since we moved here in 1999.

Living Off The Grid and Sustainably in an Upstate NY Yurt

People said we couldn't live here either in this old house, since it was a deer camp basically We are still here. Sometimes what is hard for others, doesn't mean it will be for you. Just know what you can or cannot do.

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