Starting My Yurt Life on Orcas Island, WA

[OrcasGuy]

My wife and I have owned a beautiful little piece of ocean-view land on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of WA state for about 9 years now. Over that time we have enjoyed camping up there in the summers, but we love spending time there and finally decided we needed a more "permanent vacation home." Since we do not have the money to build a house, our little community on Orcas does allow yurts to be constructed as temporary residences....although they also don't define temporary...so we are just GOING FOR IT. We plan on using the yurt throughout the year as much as possible to spend more time away from the hectic life we live here near Seattle.

Platform Construction
I began digging the holes for my platform a few weeks ago and decided to go with the 12" x 12" concrete piers currently sold at Home Depot. For the most part, I dug about 8-10" into the ground, tamped the soil, laid down some gravel and leveled the pier. The frost depth in the San Juan Islands is supposed to be 12" but I thought I would be okay digging 8-10" since we are pretty close to the water and really don't get prolonged periods of freezing cold. I'll let you know how that works out.
Over the last 2 weekends, I have placed 13 piers in the ground that will serve as the base for my 16' yurt (which we recently ordered from Colorado Yurt Co. It should come in April) I am super-excited to be starting my "yurt life", because I find my time in the islands to be the most relaxing in my life and I can't imagine any better way to spend time there than in a yurt. I'll post a few pics of our site and concrete pier setup (I've been using the PacificYurt 16' platform plans).

 

[Jafo]

That certainly looks like a perfect spot. It must be a bear getting that stuff up there! A 16 footer is probably perfect for that spot. I built mine last Spring and enjoyed it all. You are going to have the time of your life up there.

Please keep the pics coming as I would love to watch your progress!

 

[Marshall Eppley]

Looks like a great start to a new beginning. the only thing about having a place like this is having to leave to return to the ho hum part of your life feeling we know well. I know I hate when we have to come home from our place in southern West Virginia.

 

[OrcasGuy]

Thanks for the nice comments and encouragement Jafo and Marshall. Even without the yurt I typically dread coming back to the mainland from the San Juan Islands. It is such a beautiful and magical place. I'll definitely keep the pictures coming.

 

[Groovyyurts]

This simply looks like a wonderful place! Happy yurting!

 

[OrcasGuy]

I thought I would post a few more pics of our yurt platform construction. A special thanks to my good friend Travis for his hard work last weekend. I now understand why yurt manufacturers recommend that you have building experience to build a platform. Lucky for me, my buddy has experience and a father who works in commercial construction who let us borrow some tools.
We had to brave some elements during the build as you'll see in the pics.
We still have some work to do (cutting the plywood and cross-bracing), but other than that we accomplished a lot.

 

[OrcasGuy]

Some more pics of the construction, our site and my buddy Travis. I am hoping to get back out to the island next weekend to finish up the platform.

 

[Jafo]

Looking good. Can't wait to see the rest. Again, what a great spot you have there!

 

[OrcasGuy]

Thanks Jafo....and you were right...it was a bit of a pain getting all the materials up there. Luckily my buddy has an 8' x 16' tool trailer that we were able to load up.

 

[OrcasGuy]

I finally finished my platform about 2 weeks ago...but did not have a chance to post pics as I have been super busy at work. My wife, daughter and I went out there and finished up cutting the plywood deck and completing the cross-bracing to sure it up. It's been a lot of fun getting the family involved, as they are now as excited as I am to get the yurt up. We are hoping to get up there in the next 2 weeks to complete the construction of our yurt home away from home.

Here are some more pics of the construction

 

[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.