We are considering life in a yurt or yome by Redsky Shelters for a few years (Zone 5-7) while we build a house. Any comments, suggestions ??
If you built a garage and lived in it at first, you would still have something of value when the house was built. Also would be easier to put in nessesary plumbing and heating that would be nesesary.
We've considered doing the same thing. One of the reasons we don't want to do something like put up a garage first is that we want to spend some time on the property before deciding where to build more substantial structures. In our case we're looking at Pacific Domes but the yomes look like they could work and are less expensive. We planned to use the dome frame later on for a green house (they sell a cover for that too). The Pacific Domes are more expensive but less than we pay in rent for a year now. It'll be awhile before we're ready to do that, though. Good luck!
We put a 30x40 SteelMaster building on a concrete foundation and parked the VW camper inside. The ex built screen frames that we popped into the ends and it served us well for the months (and months and months!) it took to finish the ends with garage door on the south and a wall of windows on the north (studio end). The main house was built much later and did not end up attached and now the studio in the garage can be rented out for additional income. The garage area is my storage warehouse and the outside entrance door opens into a laundry room. the hurricanes did not phase it at all. A yurt would be quick and convenient, but mostly you will be pouring good money down a hole instead of investing in future needs. Financially, it was not an option I had the luxery of choosing.
You might get by with living in one in zone 7, but I sure wouldn't want to live in one in zone 6 or especially zone 5. I don't like to be constantly cold, and when those sub-zero cold spells roll in I think you would be. Even my conventional home gets chilly during those sub-zero cold spells. Just my opinion, but seems to me they would be like living in an insulated tent which would be exposed to constant wind and cold. Bone chilling is how I picture one.
Wind goes around a round building, not through it. This is why teepees and yurts work in cold windy places. The yurt could be used later as a guest house. When building your home, you could build a smaller one because you would not need a spare guest bedroom (if you were planning on one) or an office. Or, if you decide to have animals you could turn it into a very nice barn. I'd like to build a yurt for the livestock, but hubby does not think it would work because we'd have to keep a door open.
We seriously considered using a yurt for the first few years, and travelled from Phoenix to Cottage Grove, OR to look at our first choice, Pacific Yurts. While they are very attractive and we were suitably impressed, we are both so thankful they we ultimately decided to build a small cabin that first summer instead of sinking our cash into something that will depreciate instead of appreciate. We have added on to the original cabin each building season, and now we have a 3 bedroom home with bathroom and laundry room.
While I like the look of them and I'm sure they would be very comfortable in the short term, they just don't seem very secure to me. The thought that they could be broken into by either animal or people would put me off completly.
The cost of a yurt that will be comfortable enough to live in for that long will be between $5,000 - $12,000. Depending on how much you want to rough it. I have a lot of trouble imagining one of those things lasting more than maybe 10 years or so. So basically, you end up flushing $12,000 down the toilet in the long run on disposable housing. Alternatively, you could take that money and build a small cabin. You can absolutely build something along the lines of a 400 sq ft. cabin for not much over $5,000 initially and finish it out more over time (assuming that the labor is all your own). For $12,000 you could even have a contractor put something like that up. 10 years from now, that cabin will still be standing. In fact, it will probably have appreciated. A fixed structure is an investment while a yurt is just a depreciating asset. Yurts are really neat and all but I've never been able to think of a good use for one except housing for migrant labor. The thing was invented by Mongolian nomads for their nomadic lifestyle. It's really the opposite of homesteading. -Jack
OK, I just went and looked at their website to see what this 'yome' is. This thing is the answer to a question that nobody asked. It's like a yurt, only more of a piece of junk with fewer parts. This thing is just a tent with some Buckminster Fuller mumbo-jumbo tacked on to give it more hippie street cred. Run far, far away from this heap of canvas. It's funny how many alternative housing options have come and gone over the last 30 years and in the end the most affordable, simple and lasting option for the homesteader or owner/builder is good ol' standard platform framing on various types of foundations. I've *wanted* to get excited about things like goedesic domes and yurts, but most of this stuff is just impractical and the enthusiasts seem to be more obsessed with the idea of the thing then they are concerned with solving real-world practical housing problems. -Jack
Agreed. And if you "don't know where on your land you want to build", then just bring an old used mobile home, if allowed. Lots cheaper, and you can at least sell it when your house is ready. BTW, I'm an appraiser.
I have some friends who have been a Nesting Bird yurt here in NW Florida for about 3 years now. It's kinda neat and seems to be holding up really well. They got the insulation package but even here in our mild climate it stayed pretty cold in the winter. This year they added some more insulation to the ceiling and that helped a lot.
We truly considered this option when I saw the cost of the yurt and got excited. However, you must build a platform for the yurt to sit on and you must have plumbing and electrical of some sort----all of a sudden, the cost was not so cheap. Another consideration for us was that the yurt worked great in the winter with a wood stove, but was horrendous in the summer with or without a/c. We talked with a couple in northern AR that had one and they literally couldn't spend anytime during the day in it during the summer. We opted for a used travel trailer that could be sold when we were done with it and easily moved.
There is a good web site on yurt living at www.yurtliving.com. Yomes are neat structures as well. I have seen their product and you seem to get good value for the money. Yurts come in larger sizes.
