yurts and cabins

[krazymonkey]

Show off your yurts cabins and homesteads. I want ideas. THANK YOU

[wy0mn]

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/wy0mn/FtWyoming.jpg
Just teasing! My cabin is being built from a 12'x20' storage shed kit. Zap my profile for links & pics.
Lex

[krazymonkey]

looks good

[flatwater]

I have checked out the yurts and there are a few disadvantages. plexaclass or plastic windows , basicly your living in a tent. They may be alright if your in a semi warm area that has no winters to speak of but they are used mostly for summer vacation homes , or learn to burn yak dung all day in the pit and wear heavy close all the time. I almost bought one because the price was OK but the garentee was not long and I found out I'm allergic to yak dung.
Flatwater

[krazymonkey]

I guess no one wants to show off pics of there homestead

[bookwormom]

oh I'd love to, but my pictures are on Kodak Easy share and you can do anything but easy share. I have not been able to figure it out.

[Drawbar]

We had a guy in town that decided him and his wife was going to live in a tepee. They chose a spot way out in the woods down this old abandoned road and started to live in that.

All went well until that first spring when the road turned to a quagmire and he had to hoof it through the mud for a mile since he could not drive his car to his tepee. That was when he decided he wanted the town to pay for fixing his road up. We fought against it because our roads are bad enough and we have no intention of fixing up an old road just because someone wants to live down there, especially that far in and in such poor shape. It would have been a huge earth work bill.

Adding insult to injury was his tax situation. He claimed his tepee was not taxable because it was portable. Pretty hard to argue against that when its some canvas and some twigs. And then he started pulling the wife and children card, talking about school bus access, trying to get the town to pay for firewood to keep his tepee heated and all manner of welfare talk. We all knew what he was and where he was going with all this.

Well he must have left a stick burning in the tepee or something because his tent caught fire. Funny how it spread to his sheds as well (all under the 10 by 10 foot taxable size). A few weeks later he had another fire when he tried to rebuild...must have cut a nail with his chainsaw or something and caused a spark to burn down his framing lumber? Its funny how strange things happen to people in this town who try to take advantage of it.

Anyway the guy moved on for some reason and the town passed an ordinance where people cannot live in temporary housing which prevents this kind of thing from happening. If I was you, I would check to make sure a yurt was legal residence in your town, and be VERY nice to your neighbors.:)

[Backwoods_Bob]

Well heck, I'll show off my place. ;D

We've been here ten years. Started with a travel trailer and built ourselves a load bearing straw bale cottage.
It's 20'x30' outside and 16'x26' inside with two lofts upstairs.
It uses a shallow frost protected foundation - nothing more than a grade beam over a 12' deep gravel filled trench - And a brick on sand floor.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P2230071-1.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P1010146-1.jpg

We're well off grid and have a solar array and a small windmill for electricity. The cottage is wired for 12vdc.

We built our big woodshed from mortared cordwood -

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/P3200187.jpg

Here is the barn my wife and I built for 3,000 bucks.
It's built into a hillside so the back wall we made from drystacked concrete bolck filled by hand with concrete, and the rest is a pole building made with logs I cut from our land.
We built the gambrel trusses ourselves, and have a nice hay loft upstairs that we can back a pickup full of hay right up to.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/the%20barn/P1010148.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/the%20barn/P1040031.jpg

Here is a shot of our rabbit hutches, just for fun -

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o320/etdbob/animals/P6070294.jpg


Anyway, enough about my place! :D
If your thinking of building a small cottage, I highly recomend load bearing straw bale! I don't think there is an easier way to build or a nicer place to live in.

[kawalekm]

We bought our land in 2004 and it already had a brick building started. It had a foundation, 4 walls, but no roof. The overall dimensions are 21X24 feet. Here we are with friends on the 4th of July weekend starting to lay the roof sills.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/startingtheroof.jpg

Here's what it looked like in November of 2006 just before the winter rains started. It's not quite finished here, but I got steel siding on the walls before winter.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/puttinginthewindows.jpg
This year's projects include running water inside the building, a front porch, and installing the two woodstoves I bought. Here's the cookstove that I'll be putting in the kitchen.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/Monarchwoodcookstove.jpg

[krazymonkey]

Thank you for the people that are showing off there homes. How much do you like that stove? We want to get one

[mistyriver]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/IMG_1076.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/IMG_0635.jpg

[mistyriver]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/IMG_0267-1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/IMG_0268.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/cookout.jpg

[Drawbar]

I have stayed out of this thread because I really don't live in a cabin anymore. But today I was thinking about how far my little"cabin" has come, so maybe I will share.

The purpose is not to show you what I started with. It was not much, a 24 by 24, one floor,one bedroom home. But you know what, that was all I needed then.

As I got older I added on,and with two very carefully planned additions, I have somehow morphed that little cabin into a 2100 square foot home. I would like to think its respectable.

I guess if I was to give anyone advice on building their own cabin, its to start small but plan for future additions. If you plan things right,your much bigger home in the future won't look like it was added onto, and added onto,and added onto.

From this...

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/images/Back_Yard2.JPG

To this...

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/images/Side_of_House.JPG

http://www.railroadmachinist.com/images/Cupola_From_South2.JPG

[Naughty_Pines]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/IMG_0267-1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/IMG_0268.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/lisainnorthidaho/cookout.jpg

Fine looking place you have there Mistyriver.

[rAcErRicK]

MistyRiver, absolutely beautiful. That one picture looking through the trees is like in a fairy tale. Just one question though, where are all the flintlock rifles on the walls, powderhorns, possible bags, tomahawks, 'n eagle feathers?
Trade blankets, 'n stuff ?
rick

[mistyriver]

{grin} no tomahawks or flintlocks but there is a shotgun and a Navajo rug hanging from the loft.

[mistyriver]

AS far as yurts, a poster on Homesteadingtoday named Morningstar lives in a big yurt in Oregon and her sister's family does too. Their yurts are from Pacific Yurts which you can find online and they are very nice. We almost bought one but decided the Idaho winters would be unbearable in one.
We were right. ;D

[krazymonkey]

so far every home I have seen is wonderful I hope to see more
Thank you all