We have had numerous requests for us to feature a customer who has an individual use of our product, so we have a guest blogger for this entry.  Rosa Lee is a Pacific Yurt owner who has lived in her yurt for several years. We hope you enjoy her “yurt story”.

I found myself in my early fifties divorced and by myself for sixteen years with the children grown and on their own. I wanted to build a new home but wasn’t sure that I wanted to be obligated with a big mortgage during my retirement years.  I had seen a yurt in Idaho several years earlier and liked the feel of it so began to consider the possibilities of building my dream home inside a yurt instead of a traditional house. I’ve always lived my life a little on the adventurous side and when it came to finally building the home of my dreams it was no surprise to my family that I had decided to build a yurt instead.

First I did a lot of research and decided that Pacific Yurts was the best yurt on the market.  Then I headed to the local building and zoning department to see if I could actually get permits to build a yurt. With their approval, I then visited another 30’ Pacific Yurt and started laying out strings on the floor to see if all I wanted would actually fit inside the yurt. I wanted a large gourmet kitchen as I love to cook. I wanted a king size bed so that my five small grandchildren could all sleep with me so I needed a bedroom large enough to accommodate it. I wanted an office as I worked from home and I wanted a nice living room with a big screen HDTV. I also wanted a loft for an extra sleeping space and of course I had to have a bathroom and laundry area. Believe it or not, I found that I could get all this inside that 30’ yurt and so after much research I placed my order with Pacific Yurts.

I had already been busy clearing a place in the woods for my yurt and had a very good friend with earth moving equipment that helped me prepare the site. He told me that his son Shaun was just starting out in the construction business and he might be able to help me with this project. Fortunately Shaun was able to share my vision for the yurt and he quickly became the most valuable person working with me to complete my dream. I told Shaun that I wanted to keep three rules in mind when building the yurt. It was to be Simple, Bold and Elegant.

Our first step was to build the 30 foot round platform. We used 2×6 tongue and groove flooring so that when the yurt was finished the flooring could be sanded and stained for hard wood floors. Shortly after the platform was finished my yurt arrived. I called on three other friends to see if they would help. We started on a Friday morning with Melva reading the directions and me, Hurly and Roger doing the work. Eight hours later we had the complete yurt structure up. Shaun drove by that evening to see how we were doing and he was amazed that we had been able to set it all up so quickly. The next day Stephanie, Todd, Melissa, Adam, Missy, Ron, Billy and Linda (family and friends) all arrived to help finish the installation. We worked about 10 hours that day and at the end of the day the covers were all on the yurt. The following day we ourselves sat back amazed that the yurt had gone up so easily.

Now it was time for Shaun to come back and work his magic in creating the floor plan with the interior walls that I had drawn out. Everything that Shaun built had to be free standing as nothing could be attached to the yurt structure. It was such a pleasure to work with Pacific Yurts staff as they helped during the complete building process and they were able to answer all of our questions and give us ideas on how to make everything work.

I contracted a plumber, an electrician, a heating and air man, a cabinet maker, a tile worker, and a stone mason during the next four months to complete my yurt. Everyone that came out to help me was excited to work on such an interesting project. People came from everywhere to see what was going on and I had become known as the Yurt Lady.

I had also recently joined an APA league and was playing pool on a team. A good friend of mine had met a man on a different team and she was talking to him about me, her adventurous girlfriend. He too was quite the adventurer and had been Alaska’s business man of the year with businesses in both Alaska and Australia.  He was a pilot, a scuba diver, and a world traveler. Recognizing our similar adventurous spirits, Judy asked him if he knew what a yurt was. He immediately answered, “Yes, it’s a Mongolian style tent” as he had seen them in Alaska. Judy said, “I thought you would know, so now you just have to meet my friend Rosa. She lives in a yurt.”

Although William came over to see the yurt, what he found was the woman of his dreams. And although neither of us had planned on a relationship we are now married and presently living in the yurt. William and I both have large homes but it is in the yurt where we are happiest.

At the yurt, William and I are now building a cob oven. We will also be going to the British Virgin Isles in October where we will charter our own sailing yacht to continue adventuring together.