New, modern yurt build in Mongolia

[UKadventurer]

A little update for the 2 people following this thread.

I might have mentioned before that I'd had lumbar spine surgery in late May. Well, I re-herniated my disc (or herniated a different disc) a few weeks ago, which limited my abilities (again) but I'm feeling well enough to do some physical work again. I faithfully wear my back brace all day now.

So, I'm not just the architect any more but also the builder. My tool set is not a patch on what I used to have in the USA but one must make do. I've got a few drills (lightweight mains and battery plus a hefty hammer drill for concrete work) and just one basic circular saw at the moment. I'm tempted to add a power miter saw, a belt sander, a planer, and a jig saw. I'll probably need them for interior work (shelves, bed, kitchen counters, etc).



The other reason for doing it myself is the fast approaching freezing temperatures. Also, I did not think it would be especially physical work. Hah! I was wrong about that. 4 metre long lumber 10cm x 10cm (4"x4") green lumber can be quite heavy and I'm not supposed to lift more than 10kg, according to my doctor. I'm a bad patient.




Following the style of the gers (10cm square post and beams with wide spacing), I'm continuing that style in the bathroom. The frame is mostly up with some additional 45 degree bracing to be added in the corners. Photos show temporary bracing with 5cm x 15cm rough cut lumber. Final braces (knee?) will be 10cm x 10cm smooth planed 4-sides. Also the exterior and interior doors still need to be framed. The 15cm thick wall and roof steel sandwich panels are coming on Thursday and I'm hoping to have helpers to install them. Otherwise it'll just be me and the wife which isn't appealing. My mother in law is the lady in the photos. She's been amazing, coming up to the camp every weekend and building rocks retaining walls and helping with any and all construction. She has no experience with any of it but she follows directions and never grumbles. That being said, she grew up in the countryside so she's no stranger to hard work. Now she has an office job, retiring next year, so perhaps she relishes the physical work for a change.

I'm particularly impressed with her rock work, although she got advice from her son, my brother-in-law. Unfortunately, they can only work weekends. He comes less often. I wish I had them full-time.



This is where I'm up to now. There was a cold snap though and I couldn't get much done with my limited tools and the very cold weather. I measured -26C (-15F) this morning and it never got above freezing. There was a nasty northerly wind all day too. So, we hastily added several mylar backed foam layers to the side door openings because this cold snap is expected to last 4 days and nights.

The night before the snow we put up a tarp on the framework, just because I thought it was a good idea.



There was a bit of snow, maybe 10cm (4") in the morning. We continued working on Sunday, since it wasn't that cold .... yet.



Today was too cold for me to get much done. The snow stuck around on our slope.



This captures the temperature and the nice rock work, in my opinion. You can even see the loose rock about 50 metres away on the mountain. It's free for the taking, within reason. There's many tons of it, so we barely scratched the surface of the loose rock that is available to us.

Finally, we adopted ANOTHER cat. A stray that has been coming to camp for several months and living rough in the mountains. It was incredibly shy and nervous but now lives with us. We have 3 rescued cats now.



I call him Ginger, for obvious reasons.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by UKadventurer

A little update for the 2 people following this thread.

You´re right, it´s a little bit lame, but it seems worldwide the only serious place where Yurt discussions are running over longer times and on more than one single topic.....

Thanks for sharing and keeping @Bob & me updated.

Wish all the best with your health, quick recovery & progress with the work.

Originally Posted by UKadventurer

I call him Ginger, for obvious reasons.

Why not "Genghis"/"Chinggis"?

[Bob Rowlands]

I have all those tools sitting idle in my shed. Sure do wish I could be there to help you. Unfortunately I live on the opposite side of the earth.

Nice cat. I like cats. We've had four house cats. Peanut and Sasha. Then Patch and Smudge. All are long gone. Our little mutt, Happy, my wife adopted as a stray back in 1978. Our cats and dog were all very loving pets, had good lives, and were just as sweet as could be. Men don't usually cry but I swear I came pretty damn close at their end.


Thanks again for update. Be safe. Work deliberately with control. Don't over do it.

Bob

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by TSRalex

Why not "Genghis"/"Chinggis"?

Quoting myself - but after posting yesterday I remembered an old, related pop-song & want to share it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeXG9-wyzw0

[UKadventurer]

Originally Posted by TSRalex

Quoting myself - but after posting yesterday I remembered an old, related pop-song & want to share it:

That's great. I have seen it before of course but it's always worth seeing again.

As you know, Chinggis Khan is his actual royal name. Temuujin his birth name. Very few boys get named Chinggis and there's probably a reason for it. Gengis is the westernization which is odd because we can say "Ch" without problem.

Mongolians get annoyed when people say Genghis but I tell them they call Shakespeare's Hamlet, "Gamlet" and Harry Potter, "Gary Pooter" so there are mistakes on both sides. They blame the Russians for the "H" to "G" switch. I can accept that. However, I've know idea how "Ch" became "G" for Chinggis.

I digress. I'll ask if she wants to call our ginger, "Chinggis".

[Bob Rowlands]

You know I've heard Mexicans on the jobsite say chingas a few times. Hmmm...I wonder if they were talking about their cat? lol

[UKadventurer]

Originally Posted by Bob Rowlands

You know I've heard Mexicans on the jobsite say chingas a few times. Hmmm...I wonder if they were talking about their cat? lol

I know that curse word. My first wife was Mexican-American. I thought "Chingas" was her nickname for me. Or "Cabron".

Anyway, my current wife says boys don't get called "Chinggis" often because it's too heavy. Meaning a heavy responsibility to be a great leader, unite the Mongolian tribes and conquer half the world. Instead, they'll call them Tengis or Temuujin.

Hey Bob, I decided to invest in a whole slew of additional tools. I intend to make our own furniture - after the bathroom is finished - so I think I can justify it. I need hobbies, being retired, and I've enjoyed home improvement all my life - except for my long stint as a renter, wandering around Asia.

We're hoping to have the well house and the bathroom finished with interior and exteriors by the end of this week. Photos to follow.

[Bob Rowlands]

Well, my wife is 100% Portuguese, so.. um...I can relate to that. haha I got a shed full of tools, it's really too bad I'm not there. Looking forward to more on this here dy no mite thread. Thanks man, I appreciate the build along.

[UKadventurer]

We made good progress during a very long work day yesterday (Friday). 13 hours to be exact.

I invited my long-time handyman, Paul (an Americanized Mongolian) to help out. He brought his adopted brother, Billy, who is usually a horse specialist but is very handy too.

All the sandwich panels arrived without plastic wrapping, so they were already quite scratched and dented from loading, transport and unloading. That's quite disappointing but this is Mongolia and normal quality control is severely lacking. I should almost certainly repaint the panels and I hate painting. Also the outside colour isn't particularly pleasing on the wall panels (light grey), whereas the roof is a decent chocolate brown, but is scratched up too.



First, wall panels go up. The wall panels were all 2.5m long so every panel needed some sort of cutting to length and/or angle because the roof has a 5 degree lean angle.



We worked into the night with work lights, head lights, torches/flashlights, etc. At the end of our 13 hour work day but we got up every single panel and PU foamed all the crevices. The gross exterior structure is complete.

We haven't done the connections to the gers yet which is complex. There's still loads to do. Trimming the excess PU foam, adding edge trim on the roof edge and the wall exterior corners. I'm just looking forward to when we can walk through from one ger to another without dressing for outdoor weather. Oh yeah, having running hot and cold water will be AMAZING.



The next morning it looks like a bombsite or maybe just a typical construction site. We had a light snowfall too.





Finally a gratuitous cat photo. This is "Blanco" for obvious reasons.

[Bob Rowlands]

Your bathing area is gonna be heaven. This thread is so good I was talking to my wife about it, and got her in here to check it out. That lead to a short conversation about the real important things in life. Warm bathroom. Hot water. Sauna. Warmth in the winter, shelter from the wind. Frequently folks that have all that take it for granted- UNTIL they are 'camping' and don't have it. Your place is looking GREAT U.K.! You are gonna love it! NICELY DONE!!! Thanks.