Starting My Yurt Life on Orcas Island, WA

[Jafo]

When you cut it from square to round, that is when the excitement starts!

[OrcasGuy]

Well....it took longer than expected, but we finally completed the construction of our 16' Colorado yurt this weekend....finally giving us our "vacation home" on Orcas. My wife, daugther and I headed out on the 5:30AM ferry on Sat AM to complete the drip edge and get the walls and door started. My brother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew then helped complete the majority of the construction by Sat evening. We celebrated by sleeping in the yurt that evening (all 6 of us and a dog). There was plenty of space and the yurt performed excellently over night, even with a pretty decent wind-storm taking place.

We are more excited than ever to start spending more time in the San Juan Islands and enjoying at least a slice of a more simple life.

[OrcasGuy]

Our new vacation home.

[Jafo]

Great! You are really going to enjoy it, and such a beautiful spot too! Now every time you come up to visit, you will have a bunch of little projects to do, but they will seem like nothing because you got the big one out of the way!

[OrcasGuy]

Thanks for you kid words JAFO and thank you for your site and encouragement. A big part of the enjoyment of doing this has been sharing it on your site. Thanks for creating a great community and for always being so responsive to posts. Thanks again!

[OrcasGuy]

Well...since getting our yurt up last weekend, we were anxious to get back out for a weekend to start doing some finishing work and just enjoying it. 2 things: 1) I was blown away sleeping under the stars and being able to stargaze through the clear

dome

and 2) it was some work cutting around all those L brackets but fun to get our wood floor down and start to settle in a bit.

Here are a few more pics.

Enjoy!

[Jafo]

The floor looks great. Must have been fun cutting all those round edges too lol..

[LDCooper]

Ran across your thread today and was excited! My hubby and I are seriously considering the islands or the southern part of the Sound to relocate and vacationing out there in a few weeks to check it all out. We have been joking about yurt living for years but are getting more serious about "researching" the realities. We are just tired of the suburban cookie cutter life and want something more community oriented in a great climate. Seems like if one's vacation home leads to happiness, it makes sense to live there year-round? And we're the crazy ones? LOL!

[OrcasGuy]

LD

Best of luck with your search. The Puget Sound area and the San Juans are some of the best places on earth to get out of hot, humid weather. This year we have had one of the driest, most beautiful springs ever. Not sure what you are looking for exactly, but there are a few lots available for sale in my wife and I's community on Orcas. The community is called Eagle Lake. It is isolated, but also nice to have neighbors around and a caretaker in the community. They allo yurts as a temporary residence, though there is no real definition of what that timeframe is. Not sure what your long term desires are, but we are planning to have yurt, then a vacation home that we would ultimately like to retire to. Best of luck....we have had a really fun time getting ouryurt up and enjoying the islands.

[bss]

Awesome.

I am so happy for you guys! And in the san juans? What an absolutely choice location too. Thanks for involving your daughter in the project. Unfortunately too few parents putting tools in their children's hands and teaching them to make something these days. Well done.