Realization: “It is fun to move to a much bigger house. It is the opposite of fun to move to a smaller house.”
Well currently, our yurt looks like you opened the roof like a stein, poured 1.5 box trucks full of our possessions inside and closed the lid.
Space Is At A Premium
But this is the Payoff.
Sunrise Out Bedroom Window
Better Than An Alarm ClockBack Deck View
Over the last week there has been a lot of organization, spring cleaning, and of course Spring! And with the glorious emergence of spring, comes focus of a Big Deck! Our original order was for 1080 sq ft of decking. But, that did not cut it. Looks, like the deck will finish out about 1150 sq ft. This is essentially going to be our back yard due to our goal of No/Low maintenance.
Back Of Deck 50ftWest Side With LookoutFirst RailingBob Installing Low Visibility Dowels In RailingLuis Pre-Drilling Railing
Ok, the plan was to quickly weed out the Junk, separate the stuff that we want to leave behind that we think we may need in the future for the next cabins. (Move Out) Pack and move the rest to the cabin. (Move In) Keep the stuff in the cabins we will use and store the rest in temporary storage until needed. (Move Out). Luckily, I have a brilliant woodworker and builder, and now treasured friend in Bob Willmeth. He has blessed me with very kind offer let me store some of my stuff temporarily at his wood working shop on Holiday Island.
When giving my 45 day notice, it serendipitously landed on March 13th. Well, that means our official first day of official permanent residency in Arkansas is March 14, (PI day), which is also my birthday…. How cool is that birthday present???
Only one thing stood in the way. The floors were not even started. How can we move in and and work on the floors at the same time?
So Bear and I drove the truck and Melissa and the girls followed in her van to make our final move to Eureka Springs. Then Melissa went back to Celina to finish getting her office ready to work remotely, and I stayed with the dogs putting all hands on deck to finish the floors.
Bear Learning to Drive
Here are some pictures from the adventure.
All Paws on Deck
Shower Before GroutBathroom FloorFlooring in the rest of the rooms after grout
Wow, when I stand back and take the time to look back in time and relive the steps that have brought me to this place, I have some realizations.
1) What we do affects other people. This is a serious responsibility and an awesome privilege.
2) Society and marketing have a bigger effect on you than you think. If you don’t believe that, move from 2980 sf house to a 937 sf house.
After going through our possessions we ditched the obvious junk and donating a lot of stuff. Then we moved 1.5 loads in an 18 ft box truck, 2 loads in a minivan, and one large 12 ft motorcycle trailer will be on the way soon with our large kitchen table, outdoor furniture and tools. Oh, and by the way we still have a 20′ x 8′ storage unit in Celina with extra things we still have to go through or use in future cabins.
In order to enlighten myself and gain a new perspective on this, I have subscribed to 3 blogs that have helped me change my perspective. This is a slow work in progress. I find the KEY to this is to always move forward. Look backwards ONLY for knowledge, experience and GOOD memories. Nothing Else! If you can not move forward, guard with all your strength not to go backwards. It is better to do nothing and hold your ground than to go backwards.
3) How did a family with a covered wagon make this trip. With best case scenario, it would take about 18 days to make this trip. And that would take care of the pickup load. (Maybe)
4) God is faithful to provide what you need, when you need it, if you just rely on him. (Full story to come later)
With the water and electrical infrastructure in place, and the walls, electrical, and plumbing installed. It is now time to start the interior finish out. We have installed green certified sheet rock. We hand cut all the joints and electrical box openings. We also applied the skip trowel texture entirely by hand. Our choice of paint was the same low VOC paint we used in our last house. Its something we could both agree on.
Make sure you click Read More.
Sunriseliving room from officeBear loves the shower before the water is connectedPaint going on in the bedroom
First things first. I wanted to apologize for the delay in posting updates. It has been very hectic with the new family member (Bella – “The Puppy”), work, planning, construction, blah, blah, blah…… Anyway, my goal is to have updates at least once a week. Also, I wanted to thank all the followers and subscribers. BTW you can register and get update alerts here https://eurekayurts.com/wp-login.php?action=register .
Where to start? Well there has been a lot of progress over the past 2 months. Bob, along with his sidekick Luis and two of his friends Vicente and Jose installed the metal roof and skylight.
With the Yurt completely dried in, I started preparation to move in full time.
This is a picture of the box truck packed with my “necessities” . Bed, Fridge, Couch and TV….
Bear was right at home, glamping.
The Yurt
Well House Timber FramingWell House with mini-me pump house.Mini Split purchased and InstallLG Compressormini split energy guideSatellite Service Installed
Mother nature wins
With the yurt routinely getting down to the mid 30’s, it was a very challenging environment. But, when the temperature inside dropped in the single digits, I had to take my extraordinarily generous neighbors offer to use his house while his family was out of the country on a mission trip. Wow, what a blessing to have the option! Interior Spray Foam
Now that the mini split was installed and the insulation was complete, we finally have heat. Adding the plumbing and wiring
Major Milestone Accomplished
At last! a working TOILET!
The day has come. After acquiring bids, meeting with salesmen, comparing schedules, waiting on the arctic cold front to back off. The Insulator is coming. We have decided to do the insulation in 2 phases. First, we will spray the insulation directly on the outside of the ceiling. This required caulking all the edge joints in each piece of tongue and groove and putting metal air conditioning tape over the knots to prevent bleeding of the insulation through the ceiling. We went over the ceiling twice to try to make sure there were no leaks. But, In the end the foam show us where we missed… We had about 6 or 7 bleeds. But overall, the guy doing the spraying said it was remarkably prep-ed.
Well, the ceiling is finally done. This week has been absolutely UNBEARABLE. 14 degrees and a 7 – 10 MPH wind. There was no flex in the schedule due to a very small window of temperate weather with no rain. This was needed to schedule the foam insulation. They can not work if the temperature is below 40 degrees. Note to self, build in September, not in November. In any case we got it done with the help of Jose and Vincente. The Yurt was tarped Friday 1 hour before the rain and snow began to fall. Now we wait for Wednesday when the forecast is for 0% chance of rain and a high of 55…..
One teensy weensy over site on my part was the fact that the beautiful ceilings on most of the yurts in the gallery on smiling woods yurts is not included. On further inspection, it is stated on the website and in the manual… I have no idea how I could have missed that. As a result, we were scrambling to come up with suitable wood for the ceiling. After about 2 days we found a hardware store that had enough supply and would deliver. Once the wood is delivered, we have the joy of making about 5000 cuts and painstakingly fitting, tacking and caulking each piece.
Well, the walls are up. It took a full day, but they are up, and I am feeling good about the progress and the quality. Next step, the most intimidating step so far, float the compression ring and install the rafters. In order to “float” the compression ring, we had to make some calculations for the height of the compression ring. Once done, we used several stories of scaffolding and built a stand for the compression ring to rest. Then we used a rope to hoist the extremely heavy ring to the top of the scaffolding. Once the ring was in place, we started attaching the rafters one at a time in opposing locations to compress the ring in opposite directions.
Terry Preping the ScaffoldCompleting The Ring StandScaffolding ErectionPreparing to lift the compression ringAfter Ring Hoist. Positioning the Ring Stand
End Of First Day Of RaftersBob Attaching The RaftersMost of the RaftersAdding The Bird-BlockAdding the EvesRafter Tention CableRafters Bird-Block and Eves Complete
Over the weekend, two of my life-long friends (J.B. Conant and Terry “T-Man” Wilson) joined me, Bob (GC) and Luis (Bob’s Assistant) in Eureka Springs to help on the initial contruction phase. Over the next 5 days we poured over the construction manual and pictures. Below is a progression of the build.
Adding the deckingAttaching the first wall5 WallsMore WallsFinishing The 5 Windows In The Living RoomTaking A Break In The SkylightAll 27 WallsFirst Rafters Going UpMore Rafters
