We have wanted to live in a Yurt for almost as long as we have been married. When we finally had the chance to pull the trigger and live in a Yurt… We said NO! Why did we kill our Yurt Dream?
When we were first starting to think about homesteading, we didn’t have much money and we owned no land. We were looking for cheap solutions to moving to a piece of land and building our own structure, when we discovered Yurts.
Yurts, a round tent like structure that is quickly assembled and can be used as a home year round, quickly became our dream home. We pictured our own little place, heated by fire in the winter and cooled by the afternoon breeze in the summer.
We never did build that yurt. Fast forward years later, we were moving on to our family farm in PA, and while we waited for K’s parents to build their new home we realized we would need a place for our family to live for a few months.
The dream of the yurt resurfaced. We needed a inexpensive structure that could house us for at least a few months, that we could put up quickly. The yurt seemed like a perfect idea.
But a harder look at the yurt, and the expense, made us decide otherwise.
HOW MUCH DOES A YURT COST TO BUILD?
Our large family of 6 wanted the 30 diameter Yurt, which would give us about 700 square feet of living space. Living in PA, we would need to get the strengthened yurt, with stronger walls and roof for snow loads.
Also living in the yurt through the cold PA winter, we would need a insulated roof and ceiling. When we were all said an done, the structure alone was going to cost $16,000. That didn’t include the cost of site work and building a platform to place the yurt on, running plumbing or electric to the yurt, or building the room partitions inside.
Why We Said NO to the Yurt
On the family farm there was already a Pole Barn build, with insulated walls and electricity run to it. The shell was done, and upstairs above the pole barn was 1000 square feet of unfinished space. We figured instead of adding the cost of $16,000 for a yurt shell, we could just finish the space above the pole barn, and have more space, in a structure with a much longer life span, for less money.
It was a no brainer. The yurt dream had to die… once again.
Maybe someday K and I will wind up as empty nesters, living our days within the round cozy walls of a yurt. But for now, that remains just a dream.
When I read this, is literally sounds so stupid, that people can not just build their home without it costing so much. Seriously, a yurt should be like 100 dollars. The fact homes cost so much is literally retarded and the fact people allowed for other people to tell them they would charge them for a space to live makes them retarted.
Ever bought a 2×10? a pound of nails/screws? 100 dollars would not even pay for the materials to be delivered- get in the real world.
I’ve been interested in building my own yurt for decades now. I’m 6 9 and using thin ash “ribs” for the wall, and for the top of the yurt. deciding on the size you want, I’m wondering about doors and windows. Or I might just build a yurt over a hot tub and call it good. But building a larger yurt will cost a larger amount of cash. I’m planning to just build a very small yurt, learn from that experience, and build a larger more comfortable yurt. Please remember, as I recall, it was the Mongols of central northern china. they were a nomadic people. So their yurts had to be light enough. To load however many ponies, were necessary to carry the now rolled up walls and roof. I would imagine that the yurt was put up for the night for shelter.
And in the morning, if the army is moving, the yurt would be taken down, and loaded back onto ponies. To be set up again, that evening.