It was well over ten years ago that Josh and I first became enamored with the idea of building an off-grid house in the woods.  We liked the idea of being independent and in control.  We wanted to be away from the hustle and demands of our suburban workaday lives.  We envisioned a place that would be safe from the turmoil of and struggle of scarcity and violence.

Since then we’ve taken some big steps toward this goal and learned many lessons as our dreams began to intersect with reality.  We bought land in 2009.  We love it there, the view is amazing and the southern hillside exposure cannot be beat, but the place has challenges.  We’ve explored moving outright but homes are expensive in the wilderness too.  We’ve considered earthships and cabins and making it a really kick-ass campsite.  We’ve looked at other properties.  What we keep coming back to is the sun and the view and that we love this place.

So, what we decided we want to do is build a hard wall yurt using a kit from Smiling Woods Yurts.  These are beautiful buildings that come together quickly and are relatively budget-friendly.  This will be a real house.  Since fall 2016 we’ve been in the planning stages.  The sketches were completed in December.  Last week we got our engineer-stamped plans.

And now…can we do this?  Right at this moment it all comes down to budget.  We have a bid for foundation, cistern, and septic work.  There will be a lot of concrete.  It’s time to put together a serious budget to see if it really is going down for real.  It’s already more expensive than I had hoped it would be and we have a lot of miscellaneous expenses to estimate.

I will use this site to document the planning process thus far.  Check back for on articles on our plans and designs.  I will post about getting insurance, estimating solar electric requirements, obtaining water, filing building permitting, and about assembling this building.  We will need help with this project, both in the form of physical labor and knowledge and ideas.