How was your transition?

[Dan R-M]

I'm putting this out there 'cause we're thinking again of making yurt livin' our first priority in getting over to the garden site. Put us down as serious flip-floppers.
And we're trying to think this through as well as possible before committing to getting a real, honest to goodness, solid yurt.
For those of you who live full-time in your yurt, what was your transition like? I want a good cross-section of positives and negatives.
We're looking at moving 1/4 mile from our current place, which is my Mom's house. And it's great - has amenities like running water, electricity indoors, internet, heat. A mere 1/4 mile away we will have none of these, at least at first. We'll carry water till we have the well figured out. We'll have power in a nearby shed for a fridge. And we'll put in a little wood stove. We'll have to go somewhere else for internet.
Of course, there are enough upsides to give us reason to make this move, but I would love to hear from folks how they cope, what surprises they might have faced, what secret joys they experienced, and whatever else might come to mind. This will help us a great deal in envisioning what we're getting ourselves into.

[Marshall Eppley]

Dan there are ways around things being hard wired I get my internet via tethering my cell the main thing is electric which you all ready have for water at our place we have a 30 gal plastic barrel set on a rack for our water and a portable Coleman toilet which we dump in the out house.( the wife don't like spider's).wood stoves are great we have one and we also have a vent less gas blue flame that does a great job when the fire goes out. where there is a will there is a way.

[bss]

Our transition was gradual, over the course of a little less than a year. Because we were moving far away (500 miles), we had to get everything dialed in, built/fixed, belongings moved, etc over the course of about 10 or 12 short trips when we had days or a week off here and there. I certainly didn't go in blind, having built yurts and stayed in yurts before but they were always someone else's. Lots of windshield time no doubt, but these multi-day stays were very beneficial because we had the luxury of being able to iron out the wrinkles and really get a solid grip on yurt living before diving in.

We live very comfortably with grid power, backup generator, well water, composting toilet, and wood heat. Our stove and small-ish (2.5gph) tankless water heater are plumbed to a 20lb propane tank which, on a fresh fillup, lasts us right around 6 weeks. Surprisingly we actually happen to get 3g cellular coverage here at our yurt. I use a simple mifi device which is flashed to prepaid wireless. It's $5 per month and works great. It's usually pretty frustrating trying to stream video with it, but that's okay because I should probably spend my time reading, tinkering or building or inventing things anyways.

The "bad" things? Well, that's a tough one because "square" houses are really the only point of reference most folks have as far as lifestyle/conveniences go. What I am saying is - a yurt is so different from a stick house that it really isn't fair to try and compare. So try to judge your yurt experience on its own merits and modify it according to what fits, what makes sense, what flows (design-wise), and of course your needs. It's damn tough to have a conversation during a rainstorm, but you already knew that. You will find it quite easy get in tune with the ambient noises of your surroundings, your weather patterns, birds and other small animals, and you may even notice your hearing become a little more acute. No, seriously. And having a well-built good sized shed is key.

"A house is a home when it shelters the body and comforts the soul."
-Philip Moffitt