Are Yurts a legal habitable structure on Big I

[mikewj]

In this economic downturn, several campgrounds in No California are offering yurts as low cost accomodation for short term rentals.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...1EHK7V.DTL

[YurtGirl]

Wow, hadn't tuned in for a while! Funny how the subject of yurts hits all kinds of people so differently. Some people get downright twitterpated! StillHope, ahh, it's been a while! Hope you're well. Have to correct one point: insulation at 28k??!! Whoa! You can get a couple big yurts for that, with insulation included and all the great upgrades! I think that was a typo. No worries, I think you meant full roof and wall insulation with a liner for about $2800. Just FYI, when you add a K to a number it's a shortcut for adding 3 zeros.

Well, we've found an insurer for residential yurts and I expect more will follow. (Yurts have long been insurable as structures if they are in addition to a permitted, insured residence. They've also long been insurable as business structures and as camps. Financing has long been available for the latter two uses as well).

We postponed the yurt makers conference because my dear, beloved, phenomenal little brother passed away this last June in a motorcycle accident. He was also our main builder, so his loss hit us hard on several levels. We didn't have the heart for the conference. But we decided to reschedule for late February, because it's important to us and would have been important to him. We'll have a day for the public to come too.

We recently formed N.A.Y.A. (North American Yurt Alliance), so named because of the engineered style yurts that evolved in North America. Many of the large yurt companies and smaller ones alike will be coming together through this alliance and we'll be tackling all kinds of fun stuff in the future, many of which have been discussed in this thread.

And just a note, the soft gutter systems do suck. I agree. But there are regular, hard gutter systems to be had that really do work great. And JDirgo, I'm sorry, I got you confused w/ john rabi, I was sure he knew better than to say that he didn't know of any yurts that were permitted, because we had spoken about that before. Multiple times. So I apologize Jdirgo, my mistake.

Currently financing is either done through personal loans, credit cards or the old fashioned way, building a bit at a time as you can afford. I like that latter route; the more people we can help jump out of the banks financial prisons, the better! But if you must finance, because yurts are so much cheaper than most modern building, the interest rate is a fraction of the cost in the end and you pay it off much more quickly.

A hui ho! Long day, bed time.

[StillHope]

quote:

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Originally posted by StillHope

30' yurt was about 16K or so 2 years ago(you have to add second door to get it permitted and other stuff).The installation was about 28K .

Note : the price is not exact,the info is 2 years old.

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Yurt girl,I think you misread it .I didn't say anything about the price on insulation.
I said- the total price for building,"installation".

Anyway,it looks like yurt business is making some progress.
Good luck on the conference.


___________________________
Whatever you assume,please
just ask a question first.

[YurtGirl]

Yurt funny, StillHope! I still get a kick out of those...
Total cost for platform and yurt, labor and materials, @ 28k, yes, that would make sense. Thank you for correcting~

[David M]

Any real life data on the effective life of the covering material in our climate.

David

Ninole Resident

[YurtGirl]

There are two yurts in HPP that have been up going on 20 some-odd years... I think 23? Not under 20... He's replaced the exterior material once in all that time, just a few years ago. Replaced one dome skylight as well. The rest is still lovely as ever.

The manufacturer's warranty on the duro-last roof is 15 years. That's doubly warranteed, once from the durolast makers, once from the yurt manufacturer.

[mdd7000]

Don't mean to be rude, but aren't yurts similar to mobile homes in that they are depreciating assets rather than "normal" homes that appreciate over time?

[YurtGirl]

Mdd7000, no worries. I don't take it as rude, just not informed/educated on yurts much. "Normal" homes depreciate in value as well, with no way to bring them back up to value except for costly repairs/remodels.

If we all keep going forward in the mindset of building bigger structures that use more and more of our limited resources and leave more and more of a carbon footprint so that we can buy, build, sell for profit, buy, build, sell for profit, or buy, build, mortgage ourselves to the hilt so the banks can sell for profit... then we're continuing down a path that leaves us all stewing in our own greed created stress, loss and destruction.

Yurts are nothing like the box mobile homes of the mainland. They are an indigenous structure out of Mongolia and surrounding areas that have been used for over a thousand years. They are beautiful, made of very strong and durable materials, and have evolved to meet current structural codes. I see no reason why a yurt would depreciate any faster than a house. When the exterior needs changing, you change it. Voila. Value's back up. I don't think it's typically a house that is appreciating over time anyway. It's the whole shebang. Not because of the house necessarily, but because of rising costs of property in general. If you can keep your structure in good repair, clean and free of defects, improve your property with good infrastructure and care, then you can be pretty certain that the cost is going to rise. If you build something and don't take care of it, the cost isn't likely to go up much. At least that's my understanding.

[Kapohocat]

Kele and Normand aka Da Banana Boys arent PunaWeb members and are on dial-up so I am posting for them.

They said if you want to stay in their yurts a few nights - here is their website - isleofyou-hawaii.com

They had write up's in the NY times, and Nov 2010 Islands Magazine. They like their 2 yurts - had them 9 yrs now. SB only had to offer supervisory advice to my tool challenged friends to set the yurts up.

If you are interested in yurts, these guys may be some one to use as a resource for the pros and cons as they arent sales people for yurts, just owners (and I got in a little publicity for their place, too![][])

[ericlp]

Hahaha I found your link funny. Here is another site in orchidland...

http://www.hanginloose.com/HanginLoose/Welcome.html

I guess you gotta be a nudest to buy a yurt!