This morning Ramona said “One day our yurt will be like a proper house, aye mum?” Weeeelllll… it will still be made of fabric, but we WILL have proper stairs one day. So yeah. A yurt house, if you like?!
Ramona hankers after bricks and mortar a little bit, but also those widescreen tv’s that are in the more “normal” houses she knows. Juno, and the rest of us, love living in the yurt. The slogan of the yurt company that built it is “Yurts: at home in nature” – and it is SO TRUE. You really feel like that. It is solid and house-like in many ways, but you still hear the rushing of the river and call of the tui birds and the ducks quacking their heads off at dawn.
In our last yurt we tended to get a few leggy friends inside. (I’m talking about bugs. See the inside of our last yurt house and all the insect life there.)
So far we’ve been happily pest free. Apart from our farty puppy whom we love but drives us up the wall! She chews everything – including the plug right off the cord of our MacBook and barbies. (They are her faves.) The double glazing keeps the bugs at bay, but not our smelly puppy.
Our yurt house has a little loft inside that we sleep on, and over the next little while we are hoping to get some proper stairs up there and a nice banister. And we’ve got work to do to make the kitchen a little more organised, and a solid walls to go under the mezzanine. But if you are interested in our work so far please do check out my new video and try and ignore our filthy windows. Our dog likes to lick them.
We love living in our yurt so much and it felt like such a sensible decision (low impact, affordable, quick and simple to put up – see us building the yurt here) that we didn’t even think too hard about whether we wanted to do it. It is only when other people Laugh Out Loud (my mum’s hairdresser) that we remember it isn’t a very usual place to live. We have lots of friends who live in buses, yurts, tiny houses, earthships and more – so diverse home settings seem completely normal (often wise!) to us.
So just a little one from me, I wanted to give you the little tour inside.
If you’ve missed our yurt house journey so far click through to see our journey of the last 6 months:
- One month of yurt living was basically like a super long, awesome camping holiday.
- Two months of yurt living – we were still buzzing as we got beehives and more animals!
- Gradually, we began to realise that yurt life, like all of life, is a mixed bag. Hehe.
- By the 6 month update of our off the grid living we had realised that while we COULD have a robotic vacuum cleaner we weren’t going to get the internet and we were a bit bummed.
Keep tuned for the next installment! In the mean time, if you want to help your family fall in love with nature please check out my latest book, 30 Days of Rewilding. “A manifesto for a life lived in nature” – The Telegraph.
Hi Lucy! Can I just ask what size is this Yurt and the first one? We’re getting a 5m for a family of 5, i know it’ll be tight, but just for an idea… Thank you!
This is 9 metres. Our other little one (in the earlier posts and you tubes is 6 metres) but we did live in a five metre one for a year (although built a cabin and had a caravan attached. It was mostly our bedroom. Definitely doable but will need to build extra huts / get caravans as an extension, for a five metre one for five of you. In my opinion.
Thank you so much for your reply!
I thought it might be around 8m… yes, sorry should have mentioned, we’ll have an outdoor kitchen/eating area; we’ll be living in a 5m bell tent for awhile, so I’m thinking the Yurt will feel like an upgrade! And we’ll have the tent, if we need extra “indoor” space. And then we’ll figure something out… 🙂
Oh yes, upgrading is DEFINITELY the way! hehe. We went from campervan to bus to small yurt to big yurt. Now we feel like we are lviing in a palace!! x
I absolutely love this post. Look how well you guys have done despite the hiccups. WOW. I would love to do this for our family, the escapism away from busy mainstream life… we try our best with what we have though right? That skate ramp is epic! 🙂 xx
Ah thanks Natalie. We are still quite mainstream in a few ways – haven’t weaned off the supermarket yet for example! x x
I love this. I started reading your blog when I had my second child and you really kept me company on those long lonely breastfeeding nights when it feels like the rest of the world is asleep.
I loved reading about your life in London and I adored your retro house and awesome decor. When you moved out to NZ I admit I took a little step back as our lives seemed like a million miles away but recently (I’m expecting no. 3 in a couple of months) I’ve felt myself drawn back to your blog and your family adventures.
I don’t think I’ll ever find myself living in a yurt in such beautiful surroundings but reading your blog reminds me that having a bedroom each, with extra rooms and a million possessions is definitely not the most important thing in life. Actually, I am finding myself happier with each decluttering session I have but one thing I do know is that I am actually looking forward to those sleepless nights again so I can get my daily dose of Lulastic blog!
Ah yay, welcome back! And sorry you left 🙁 I need to talk more about the things that connect us all you know? Our hopes for our children and things 😀
It looks so comfortable and cosy Lucy! Down in Devon we have quite a few people doing the yurt living thing. I must admit there’s a real attraction about this sort of lifestyle for me. I’d just have to spend years persuading my husband to make the leap!
Thanks Molly! Ah, Devon would be a great place too!
Looks great! Maybe you already answered this, but do you own the land too? Or how did you secure a lease on the land?
Hello! Yes, we own the land, we bought it half and half with another family. We did woofing for a year on another’s persons farm in a little yurt too. 😀
I love reading about your life in N.Z……even tho I am not a young mom!!! I’m older than YOUR mom!!! Your yurt looks cozy and has lots of room…I didn’t see a stove …and what about electricity …and heat…if you ever need that!!! It’s still very cold here in Ontario…snow flurries tomorrow!!! I wish I was in N.Z. In a yurt!! Enjoy!!
Mean as mezzanine. Nice work fullas. Looks fantastic, and glad you are in before stinker winter kicks in too hard.
Hello Lucy!
Thank you for this wonderful glimpse into your little family’s life. We have now left East London and are in Australia…about to head to the Blue Mountains to put down roots and live more slowly and authentically. And your writing has been a contributing factor in my family’s sea change. This post really helped me today….it is so easy to get pulled back into the vacuum of thinking one needs a certain sized house..lots of stuff…striving to meet social expectations…striving to feel good enough. But your post guided me back to my own wisdom and my yearning to live simply and authentically in nature…doing what I love…with those I love….showing my child a different path to the one our culture sets out.
I’ve been reminded of Mary Oliver’s wisdom “You do not have to be good”. Thank you soooo much Lucy.
Love and light
Kumari Linley
Ah Kumari! So huge! Sending lots of love to you all as you take on this epic new path x x
Hi Lucy, you’re becoming our role model!
We’re saving for land to live in a yurt on when we move back to NZ from the UK. I’m interested in who you bought your large yurt from & why.
Keep the posts coming! Love them. x
There are 4 small yurts next door to me in southern Baja for rent if you are into high end camping and don’t mind bugs. One is even 2 stories and all have palapa roofs. They were built in 1997/98.
[…] from her Pacific Yurt on an organic farm. Her family moved from a South London terrace home into a yurt home and has never looked back. You can read about their adventures here. (The photo on the right is […]
Hi there, I’d absolutely love this. I wasn’t aware of ‘yurt houses’ before I read your article. I live in the UK also near the south east coast and I would love to do something similar. Can you please tell me if you need planning permission for ‘yurt houses’ or can we get away with a little eco ‘yurt house on a couple of acres of cheap agricultural land?! Thanks