Every Guy Wants a Big Deck!

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
Space Is At A Premium

But this is the Payoff.

Sunrise Out Bedroom Window
Sunrise Out Bedroom Window
Better Than An Alarm Clock
Better Than An Alarm Clock
Back Deck View
Back 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 50ft
Back Of Deck 50ft
West Side With Lookout
West Side With Lookout
First Railing
First Railing
Bob Installing Low Visibility Dowels In Railing
Bob Installing Low Visibility Dowels In Railing
Luis Pre-Drilling Railing
Luis Pre-Drilling Railing

More Finish Out, How Did We Get All This Stuff ???

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
Bear Learning to Drive

Here are some pictures from the adventure.

All Paws on Deck
All Paws on Deck

 

Shower Before Grout
Shower Before Grout
Bathroom Floor
Bathroom Floor
Office Floor after grout
Flooring 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.

http://www.theminimalists.com/

http://bemorewithless.com/

And my favorite, a guide to financial freedom:

Home

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)

 

Finish out begins.

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.

Sunrise
Sunrise
living room from office
living room from office
Bear loves the shower before the water is connected
Bear loves the shower before the water is connected
Paint going on in the bedroom
Paint going on in the bedroom

Bedroom

Water Heater
Water Heater

Office living room

Move in Date March 14

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.

Yurt Half RoofWith the Yurt completely dried in, I started preparation to move in full time.

Packing For Move
This is a picture of the box truck packed with my “necessities” . Bed, Fridge, Couch and TV….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bear was right at home, glamping.
Bear was right at home, glamping.

The Yurt

 

Well House Timber Framing
Well House Timber Framing
Well House with mini-me pump house.
Well House with mini-me pump house.
Mini Split purchased and Install
Mini Split purchased and Install
LG Compressor
LG Compressor
mini split energy guide
mini split energy guide
Satellite Service Installed
Satellite Service Installed

Mother nature wins
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
Interior Spray Foam

Now that the mini split was installed and the insulation was complete, we finally have heat.
Adding the plumbing and wiring
Adding the plumbing and wiring

Major Milestone Accomplished
Major Milestone Accomplished

At last! a working TOILET!

Research, Recommendations Needed

We are currently researching and need to buy the following.  If anyone has any input or recommendations please respond to this post.

Mini Split Ductless AC / Heater / Heat Pump (Yurt is approx. 930 sq ft with 17 ft ceiling)

Thermocore
36000 btu 18.5 SEER  12k 12k 12k
2421.45
2542.45 free shipping
Stack-able Washer and Dryer
http://www.sears.com/lg-4.3-cu-ft-ultra-large-turbowash-washer/p-026CO77996612B
Induction Cooktop
http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/KICU500XBL.html
Large Convection Microwave

Roof Insulation – Open Cell Spray Foam

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.

Foam Close up
Foam Close up
Fully Foamed
Fully Foamed
Foaming the Ceiling
Foaming the Ceiling

Ceiling Done

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…..

 

Fully Complete Roof
Fully Complete Roof
Fully Tarped Yurt
Fully Tarped Yurt

 

Ceiling (Not Included)

Starting the 5th of 40 rings between 54 rafters
Starting the 5th of 40 rings between 54 rafters

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.

End Of Day one (of 6)
End Of Day one (of 6)

Construction Continues – Rafters and Eves

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 Scaffold
Terry Preping the Scaffold
Completing The Ring Stand
Completing The Ring Stand
Scaffolding Erection
Scaffolding Erection
Preparing to lift the compression ring
Preparing to lift the compression ring
After Ring Hoist. Positioning the Ring Stand
After Ring Hoist. Positioning the Ring Stand

 

End Of First Day Of Rafters
End Of First Day Of Rafters
Bob Attaching The Rafters
Bob Attaching The Rafters
Most of the Rafters
Most of the Rafters
Adding The Bird-Block
Adding The Bird-Block
Adding the Eves
Adding the Eves
Rafter Tention Cable
Rafter Tention Cable
Rafters Bird-Block and Eves Complete
Rafters Bird-Block and Eves Complete

Initial Construction

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 decking
Adding the decking
Attaching the first wall
Attaching the first wall
Attaching the first wall
5 Walls
More Walls
More Walls
Finishing The 5 Windows In The Living RoomFinishing The 5 Windows In The Living Room
Finishing The 5 Windows In The Living Room
Finishing The 5 Windows In The Living Room
Taking A Break In The Skylight
All 27 Walls
All 27 Walls
First Rafters Going Up
First Rafters Going Up
More Rafters
More Rafters
Eureka Yurts and Cabins