Building a yurt

Building a yurt

It takes a triplet of things, at least, eh, to make a collection? Like, I definitely collect vintage tea towels, typewriters and mouldy things in my fridge, because I’ve got loads of all of those…

But two yurts wouldn’t make us Yurt Collectors right?

It just makes us Yurt Lovers, which sort of seems more reasonable, do you reckon?

This last week we put up our second yurt, a bigger, fancier version of the first. e are taking yurt living to the next level! It has proper windows and we plan on putting in a little sleeping loft and things. We are mega excited as this is our roots-down home now, and the little yurt will be a spare room for people to come and stay. (By “people come to stay” I mean “hide things that we should have got rid of ages ago but are hanging on to just in case we ever get invited to another Kids Shows of the 1980s fancy dress party or if I do decide to start using my leather hole punching tool more regularly or you know whatever”)

We’ve tended to have momentous first weeks of January over the last few years. Two years ago we moved to New Zealand on January 1st, then one year ago we walked on to this bit of land on January 1st and went “Woah, this is IT” and this year we finally get our home up. So mega. (We’re gonna really have to work on something for next year eh… but maybe we need to pull back on the momentousness… maybe like, New Year, New Gerbil or something.)

We love yurts because they are such a beautiful, affordable home… there is this concept, democratic architecture, a sort of movement all about houses for The People … homes that people can actually afford / build themselves / don’t just line the pockets of a tiny few. Yurts definitely fall into this, with their easy construction and simple design. (Thanks Mongolia, for this ingenious gift.)

We put this yurt up, a home that will eventually have the footprint not far off that of our South London home in a day and a half with a huge amount of help from friends … and only a few hairy moments (one involving a friend inching down the outside of the roof with some gaffa tape.)

Building a yurt video

And for those of you who want to get down with the actual construction of our yurt have a look at my latest Youtube video of the whole shebang from start to finish, with a retro 1990’s slideshow styling…

Anything new for you this year? Resolutions or dreams? Building a yurt? My resolutions, made just this moment, are to not collect mouldy things in my fridge any more, and to, where possible, slim down the chances of friends having hairy moments on our roof with gaffa tape.

Happy New Year to you! X