The 200 year old cape where we lived, spending weekends fixing it and week days trying to pay off the mortgage!
The large two car garage at the old house – Adam’s favorite feature!
Half the sunporch at the old house. Our favorite, and most used, room.
The kitchen at the old house. One of my first big woodworking projects was creating the wine rack and spice shelves on the peninsula and creating a space for the dishwasher.
Most loads from the old house to the storage shed were made with this Jeep and trailer.
The garage during the move. It held tons of space for storage, cars, and working on motorcycles!
The 1979 R80 G/S motorcycle Adam had been planning on riding back to the old house to restore in the garage. Until the house sold mid-trip!
Instead the R80 was put back together in a 12’x16′ shed … once we removed the 80+ bins and furniture from it!
Deck construction! The main supports to the deck and yurt platform, including the tech-no-posts.
We used 4″ of blue foam insulation in the yurt floor.
The finished deck and yurt platform – a.k.a. the helicopter landing pad!
One end of the deck was an easy step to ground. The opposite corner was taller than the Jeep!
Sorting the yurt components after their arrival late in the day of Construction Day 1.
The lattice wall quickly went into place in the evening of Day 1.
The lattice walls attach directly to the French doors – which was the only component damage during shipment when the packing crate broke.
Autumn spent a lot of time reading aloud the instructions, which we’d been going over for about two weeks before the yurt arrived, as we worked.
Rafter Installation! Adam came up with the idea of using a drywall lift to support the center ring, which made the first few rafters (you need at least 3-4 installed to keep the ring even slightly secure) pretty much a breeze even with only two people.
We installed rafters late into the evening on Day 1, knowing it was our only non-rain window for the weekend. We only called it quits when we realized we needed to install brackets for the wind kit on the rafters and couldn’t see the screw heads to be able to drive them home!
We had all rafters and the components of the wind kit (brackets and wire between rafters) installed by noon of Day 2.
One of my favorite views of the rafters and center ring, which also shows the spiderweb of wire that is part of the wind kit.
After installing the rafters the next step was to install a rafter support below each as part of the snow load kit. Each had to cut to length (as the diameter of the circle dictates the yurt wall height so long boards are included in the kit). Once cut, each had to have four brackets installed (two top, two bottom). The bottom brackets screwed into the floor and the top brackets into the rafters like Autumn is doing here.
Then the lattice walls had to be attached to the rafter support in two places, which Adam took care of.
The end result created a stiff cage, stronger than our old house!
NOW we could finally move on to the three layers of the top cover: the thin, cream inner cover, the insulation, and the white outer cover!
This wire weaves around the top of the lattice wall and hooks above the door. It is what gives the flexible and light weight wall the strength to support the rafters, top dome, and fabric!
With the installation of the top dome, the roof was finally covered from the rain.
Attaching the green side wall to the clamps of the French door was one of the last steps!
The completed yurt in the afternoon of Day 3!
The inside of the newly completed, and very wet, yurt! We spent quite a bit of time pushing puddles out the door with a broom.
A long view of the inside including the French door and center skylight/dome with the fan brace installed across it.
Close up of the center dome and fan brace. I love the symmetry of the rafters.
After the floor was painted, one of the first pieces of furniture was our futon … and somehow a hammock!
As we moved in furniture, the yurt took on a more home-like feel. This is the old oak table that Autumn moved in by herself and the German shrunk that we moved in together!
Autumn stacked our dressers, which made them look like one massive piece of furniture since they matched, to save space.
The early kitchen was a makeshift workbench scavenged from the old garage, which was put to good use!
The very old grill which became a key feature of our cooking when Autumn started using it as an outdoor oven.
We used an antique icebox (ice goes in the top compartment) during most of our time in the yurt. Besides the summer development of slime mold blocking the water drainage hole and the small space, it worked! And kept us on our toes.
The silver material is the same NASA designed insulation used in the yurt. Adding it to the old ice box added a day onto our ability to store items before needing more ice.
Before the yurt arrived but after the deck was built, I relieved my desire to build something with some raised garden beds next to the deck with no real plans to use them. Adam surprised me by buying and planting seedlings!
The garden grew really well, becoming the best in produce and least in weeds!
One of the first items constructed was an under yurt storage room for odds and ends as well as to house our future batteries for the solar bank. Here Autumn has built the first two walls.
The completed under yurt storage room – it had a dirt floor though we put down rubber matting from the old garage. The window was both for light and as a means to vent battery gasses.
Planning on only using one solar panel to start, we purchased four deep cycle batteries which lived in the under yurt storage room between the window and door.
Out of the materials to build the under yurt storage, Autumn somehow found enough scrap to build an outhouse! It was supposed to be a temporary solution until we could afford a composting toilet and eventually became the permanent choice.
Our initial placement for the solar panel was just to place it on the deck. The railings blocked some of the light, but it was at least in use until we could afford the attachment, which was also back ordered, to mount it to the extra tech-no-post we’d had installed.
Adam discovered the solution to an expensive and back ordered mounting kit was to build a wooden frame. He attached it to the deck with strong hinges and by adjusting where the leg rested on the ground the angle could be changed to account for the difference between summer and winter sun.
About this time we had an every weekend yard sale going to not only make some money, but to unload the mountain of stuff from the old house. When you down size from over 2000 square foot house plus basement plus massive garage … you have a lot of crap to get rid of.
The items for sale included furniture. There really just isn’t much room in a 500 square foot yurt for a lot of anything.
One of Autumn’s early summer projects included building an outdoor shower. We used a low cost hot water on demand heater designed for outdoor use and only costing $70!
Because we had so many people drive by the yurt JUST when one of us would go outside to use the solar shower that we rigged from the highest point on the deck, Autumn decided to make the outside shower invisible. Do you see it in this picture? 😀
The inside of the shower had a jungle-esqe feel between the natural screening on three sides and a large boulder that it fit snuggly against. Autumn built a seat and shelves inside and the whole thing rested on a pallet she screwed decking into.
The heater came with a shower head which worked great. The biggest giveaway to its location was the steam coming from the forest on the cool nights. Our last outside shower was November 1st!
Being in full sun, the yurt got HOT on a sunny day. We’d follow the shade around the yurt and spend a lot of time outside, including our two Cairn terriers.
Or we’d go down to the lake and hangout on a rough dock on a tiny right-of-way Adam’s parents had access to. Everyone enjoyed swimming breaks!
Especially the two dogs!
Even if all we did was hang out and float.
But with fall coming, we needed to finish installing the snow load kit, which included perimeter blocking to be placed between each rafter support. These are the small horizontal pieces of wood.
The instructions said to install them flat against the lattice, but most people online made them into shelves, which sounded like a good idea to us!
We also purchased a small, but very efficient, Morso wood stove. In August it was on sale, which was great. But with the August heat, we didn’t worry about installation right away.
The wood stove installation began with adding a 4″ x 16′ beam supported by the deck and a concrete footer. This would support the chimney.
Then Adam had to cut a hole in our new yurt’s wall. Conveniently an 8″ dinner plate made a great template!
Then he had to cut the lattice woodwork to install the through wall fitting.
Outside, Adam constructed a metal asbestos chimney with an easy clean-out option.
Happily everything worked great when we lit our first fire!
Autumn began constructing the “wedge” which would hold our indoor shower and composting toilet while also serving as bookcases, kitchen cabinets, and platform storage in the fall.
Adam hated the wedge as, even though it was needed to house the shower, it disrupted the perfect circle of the yurt. AND it caused a lot of rearranging inside!
The front of the wedge housed a built-in stereo, DVD player, and flat screen TV on the outside and inside (behind the TV) was a set of shelves that functioned as a medicine cabinet.
The wall opposite the shower became the kitchen with the old garage worktable refitted into a counter. The 12″ deep walls housed the 16 gallon cistern and a multitude of shelves, including a custom made wine rack!
Inside we created a small shower using a corner shower base, but the walls were too short for the walls. We used plastic board instead and rigged an ‘L’ shaped pipe for a shower curtain.
On the far side from the kitchen and next to the dressers, Autumn created built in bookcases (sorry, horrible picture but it was the best I had!)
Between the door into the interior and the front wedge lay a tiny, awkward space that Autumn created a mini-bookcase for that we dubbed “The Bad Book Nook” because it held all of the travel and adventure books that inspired us to live our lives!
Autumn made the platform on top of the wedge big enough to sleep on (as Adam demonstrates in this picture) but we used it mostly for storage.
The wedge required a lot of rearranging, requiring the kitchen, table, and futton to swap places.
Only the dresser, wood stove, and German shrunk stayed put – because who was going to move them?!?
Outside the weather moved from fall to winter. Autumn kept the garden going as long as possible, making it through first frost until we lost the plants in a November freeze.
Our younger dog, Nemo, who is slightly neurotic, found great solace in a giant pumpkin Adam’s mother accidentally grew. While Autumn made a mess and tons of noise constructing the wedge, he’d sleep in the grass curled up against the pumpkin.
As the ancient grill succumbed to over use combined with cold weather, we started searching for a new over alternative. At first we looked at boat stoves but then Adam found a Camp Chef oven/stovetop combo that was half the price of a cheap boat stove!
However, that meant Autumn had to redo the kitchen again. This is the kitchen area before the Camp Chef.
This is progress during construction. Part of the challenge was that the Camp Chef is designed for outdoor use and does not have a heat shield. The best place to put it so that it could run off the same 20 pound propane bottle (located in the wedge wall) that the shower used was near the cistern.
Adam constructed a heat shield from an old metal sign. We eventually removed the top lid as well as it blocked a shelf. The burners were not powerful and the oven had no thermostat, but for small stove options it worked great!
Before the Camp Chef oven, Autumn did bake in the yurt.
Well not really IN the yurt. Really, it was outside in the grill.
But it worked, at least until the grill died, and tasted great.
But there was something so easy about being able to cook in the yurt and not out on the deck AND be able to see how things that you were cooking were doing … like popovers!
Especially when the weather changed to this!
We had several snow big snow storms over our first winter. They cancelled vacation plans and made getting to Wood’s Hole a challenge…
But all the snow did add insulation to the yurt.
To add to the warmth from the fire!
And cold weather brought the opportunity to make snow fireworks! All you need is sub-zero temperatures, boiling water, and some well placed sunlight.
Adam used the winter as an opportunity to roast coffee beans on the wood stove. At least a quick cool down was fairly easy. He just needed to take the pan outside!
The dark winter, made all the darker by covering up the top dome and sealing off two windows, put the three pack of LED lights to hard use. One was installed over the door while two others were fastened to the overhand of the wedge platform so that they shined on the kitchen counter and stove.
A coworker gave Autumn the idea to hang a red, wool blanket in front of the single pane, plastic windowed French door. It saved a lot of heat and most cold mornings ice would be frozen on the INSIDE of the door, including to the metal doorjamb.
Finally spring arrived with melting snow and warming temperatures.
But for only being a year old, the yurt showed some damage. The least was a worn parachute cord that held the top valence against the sidewalls, some fading, and damaged stitching. But the worst was the velcro around the windows.
With the plastic window covering off, like it is here under the awning, the black velcro is exposed to sunlight. Most of the hoops were shot, some of the stitching had pulled out, and sections of the velcro between the plastic window cover and the sidewall no longer stuck together. A new sidewall would cost $5,000 and might only fix the problem for another year.
Spring did give us a chance to start collecting rain water again. Adam rigged two of the exterior window covers to capture and funnel water into barrels, including adding an old CD to shoot the water into the barrel at the correct spot!
Spring brought a chance for new construction. Autumn designed between rafter support kitchen shelves so I could get rid of a jelly cabinet that ate too much space in the kitchen area.
The shelves wrapped around from kitchen counter to the German shrunk.
And we installed a wind turbine. Here Adam finishes putting together the turbine before we leverage it up into the tech-no-post that we’d originally planned to use for the solar panel.
We took down the deck railing and used its height and Adam’s strength to cantilevered the turbine into place while I kept the pole steady against the tech-no-posts and hoped no slips caused anything to land near the solar panel!
By the end of year 2 with the yurt showing a lot of wear and difficulties to keep going if we wanted to go away for months at a time, we decided to build a cabin. And one of the first steps was drilling a well and installing a hand pump!
Which we then used to fill our yurt cistern by transporting gallon jugs back and forth. But it was worth it to never, ever have to melt snow or ice for water again!
It was because of building the yurt, and problem solving the plumbing, solar, kitchen, layout, everything! that we knew we could build a house.
Because building an off-grid, small house using the Jeep as a generator for power tools and a chainsaw when that didn’t work, was really only a step bigger than constructing a yurt!
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