Mustachian couple lives in a yurt

[mustachianteacher]

The article doesn't deal directly with finance, but this couple is definitely mustachian and pretty badass:

https://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/off-the-grid-yurt-couple-165229153.html

Edited to add: Definitely check out the slideshow!

[SingleMomDebt]

That's pretty cool! I am not sure I could live as such, but I know my soul yearns for it. 

[forummm]

I like it, but it seems like they could have done just as well with a "tiny house". Those are also portable and pretty nice. Here's a good video on one that was around $20k IIRC, and could be taken to other parks as desired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRkY-fg8t64

[deborah]

That's not a yurt. It is a tiny house shaped like a yurt! It has DOORS and WINDOWS and is on FOUNDATIONS.

[Zamboni]

Love it!  And I prefer the openness of it to many of the tiny houses, which sometimes seem cramped.

[patrickza]

I love the way they have given themselves a life. $40 000 is quite a lot of money I think. Couldn't it have been done cheaper and more mobile in a motor home or trailer?

[Rightflyer]

Wow. That brought back some memories.

We built a yurt, very similar to the pictures, and lived in it for 4 years while we built our shop/office and house. Yurt living has it benefits and its downsides but every time I go back into it I have nothing but good memories.

After we moved out of it, we used it as our office for our business. Then when we moved the business into the office/shop building we set the yurt up as a guest cottage (our new house doesn't have a ton of extra room for visitors). So far it has paid itself back in many ways.

The plan is to start renting it short-term to vacationers (we live in cottage country).

[EvergreenHills]

Wow. That brought back some memories.

We built a yurt, very similar to the pictures, and lived in it for 4 years while we built our shop/office and house. Yurt living has it benefits and its downsides but every time I go back into it I have nothing but good memories.

After we moved out of it, we used it as our office for our business. Then when we moved the business into the office/shop building we set the yurt up as a guest cottage (our new house doesn't have a ton of extra room for visitors). So far it has paid itself back in many ways.

The plan is to start renting it short-term to vacationers (we live in cottage country).

Could you post some pics of your yurt? I would love to see it. One of my dreams is to live in a yurt. How did you go about building one? I went camping before in Oregon and stayed in a yurt. Ever since, I've been enamored, haha! I really would love to live in one. I've researched them and found some crazy yurts that seem really cozy and definitely big enough to live in. My worry is always the downsides and the novelty of it all. I'm afraid after a month or so I'll be going stir crazy.

[EverCurious]

Nice! We'd love to live in a yurt, but fear of frequent tornadoes, floods, and ignorance of how to install piping and wiring for electricity and plumbing kind of intimidates us.

[arebelspy]

Nice! We'd love to live in a yurt, but fear of frequent tornadoes, floods, and ignorance of how to install piping and wiring for electricity and plumbing kind of intimidates us.

Seems like good things to learn, if your screen name is accurate. :)

[dz1087]

I just booked one of these in Santa Fe for the weekend of March 11th!  I'll report back with how it was.

[Goldielocks]

Anyone know the life cycle of a Yurt?  How many years until it wears out -- 15?
For $40k, I would build this instead (not portable, but lower utilities, very stable).

Monolithic Dome
http://www.monolithic.org/featured

Good for tornados, wildfire, sub zero, and desert climates.

[bobechs]

That's not a yurt. It is a tiny house shaped like a yurt! It has DOORS and WINDOWS and is on FOUNDATIONS.

Uhh-ohh.

The yurt police are here.

[Rightflyer]

Anyone know the life cycle of a Yurt?  How many years until it wears out -- 15?
For $40k, I would build this instead (not portable, but lower utilities, very stable).

Monolithic Dome
http://www.monolithic.org/featured

Good for tornados, wildfire, sub zero, and desert climates.

When we built ours, the vinyl manufacturer guaranteed the shell for 10 years.  Five years in and the shell is not showing any visible signs of wear (rips/tears etc).

The rest of the yurt will last as long as a stick built house...

[EverCurious]

Anyone know the life cycle of a Yurt?  How many years until it wears out -- 15?
For $40k, I would build this instead (not portable, but lower utilities, very stable).

Monolithic Dome
http://www.monolithic.org/featured

Good for tornados, wildfire, sub zero, and desert climates.

I've been up and down that website, but I can't find a price for any of those homes. Do you just estimate or did I miss something?

[bobechs]

Anyone know the life cycle of a Yurt?  How many years until it wears out -- 15?
For $40k, I would build this instead (not portable, but lower utilities, very stable).

Monolithic Dome
http://www.monolithic.org/featured

Good for tornados, wildfire, sub zero, and desert climates.

I've been up and down that website, but I can't find a price for any of those homes. Do you just estimate or did I miss something?

Not my post, but as I recall the Institute (the company in Italy, TX) sells primarily the inflatable form --as well as the technical know-how behind the whole system-- to either a future homeowner or a contractor who will complete the structure by laying in a foundation (usually poured slab with utilities embedded), and all the work to keep the form inflated while applying foam insulation, erecting the rebar reinforcement and spraying shotcrete inside the dome to complete the structure.  Then comes all the finish work; paint, doors, windows, trim, appliances, etc. etc.

None of that work is at all within their control so I don't think they can quote a price for it.  They have said in their materials at some point in the past, present or perhaps future (I can't point you to it if that's what you require) that the completed cost per square foot is 'comparable to' conventional construction, with the value proposition being the durability and low energy usage.

They will cheerfully tell you what a form of any given diameter costs f.o.b. factory and assist in planning.  I happen to know that residential construction costs in the parts of Oklahoma and Texas where they seem to be making many of their sales runs about $100/sf if that helps at all , andalso  they put in several rows of 25 foot domes just south of town as an apartment complex. I don't remember what they started charging as rent, but I thought at the time it was completed that the unit rentals suggested the cost of construction was less than $60/sf if they were turning a normal profit, which I assume they were, and are.

a picture of the place from space at

http://www.domeliving.com/morgan-meadows/morgan-meadows

No trees -- but hey, it's Texas

[Goldielocks]

Anyone know the life cycle of a Yurt?  How many years until it wears out -- 15?
For $40k, I would build this instead (not portable, but lower utilities, very stable).

Monolithic Dome
http://www.monolithic.org/featured

Good for tornados, wildfire, sub zero, and desert climates.

I've been up and down that website, but I can't find a price for any of those homes. Do you just estimate or did I miss something?

Oh, my husband went there a few years back and took the course, and has been pricing out the cost to do it locally on a piece of lower cost property ever since.   Most of that $40k  is for great windows , front step / porch and utility hookup/ service. 

There is only about $3k for the shell, then you tie in rebar and foam insulation, and spray concrete (shot crete) the rest.   Basic slab foundation.   Basic plumbing and electrical, if you keep it small.

The owners actually set up low income rental housing for local minimum wage affordability and still turn a small profit, (Texas).  Their costs are well under $40k per unit  (one bedroom units).

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

That's not a yurt. It is a tiny house shaped like a yurt! It has DOORS and WINDOWS and is on FOUNDATIONS.

Uhh-ohh.

The yurt police are here.

The Internet Yurt Police (IYP) don't take kindly to yurtesque structures running around masquerading as actual yurts.

p.s. I cut myself today to see if I still yurt.

[GuitarStv]

Stop, my sides are yurting . . .