Building Mom's Yurt - A Blog

DIY Shower Building and Pebble Tile

2012-08-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

I really hate tile. I think I'd like my next shower to be completely stainless steel sheets. Or outside. Or on a boat. I just don't like tile.

That said, you can only be so adventurous when it comes to a shower. Especially when you're building one yourself. For the first time. And the potential disaster that could come from even a tiny mistake is costly enough to dissuade you from the above-mentioned stainless steel shower wall (not to mention the price tag).

Although the yurt bathhouse was cold in the winters and early mornings, I loved the shower. I loved the light coming through the polycarbonate paneled walls and ceiling, I loved the exposed copper pipe, the custom shower knob, and the fact that the water drained away through the deck boards to our mini grey-water field.

At times I yearned for a bathtub...

The shower building process was completely new to us (just like everything else we've done in the past four years...). Here is roughly how it went.

With the basics finally tackled, it was time for tile. I was really dreading this step because I hate tile (did I mention that already?). We spent an entire day over the hill, annoying the crap out of salespeople in the tile show rooms. Once they realized all we wanted was to dig around their warehouse for 'overages' and 'mis-orders' they became pretty unhelpful. Finally we hit the jackpot - a full crate of Italian 18" travertine tiles collecting dust in the way back of a warehouse. We pulled out piece after piece, each one completely different from the next. They were covered in fossils and geodes, and made up of layers and layers of who-knows-what kind of rock. This wasn't your ordinary tile. So we ~~stole~~ negotiated a price for what we needed and drove away happy. I mean, pieces of ancient rock that are polished and cut into squares? That's not really tile, right?


The travertine going in.

So there were the walls. Now the floor. Early on we'd decided to try for the pebble look, but avoiding exorbitant price tags, we opted to make exactly 5 trips down to Smuggler's Cove and come home with backpacks full of beach stone. I spent the next week downstairs, measuring the thickness of each stone with calipers, and epoxying them onto a tile mesh, grading thicker stones around the edge and thinner towards the center drain. This was really a trying project.

My custom pebble sheet.

Another pebble sheet awaiting installation.

The install.

The smallest, most awesome pebbles were individually installed around the drain.

Ultimately, 100% worth it. I LOVE our shower, especially the floor. Every time I step in I am amazed and gratified that every single stone beneath me was picked up by our hands off our local beach, measured, and glued. So much work went into it, but I wouldn't have it any other way... a labor of love and cheapness.

Marmoleum Flooring

2012-07-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

I've had an infatuation with Marmoleum for a long time. It goes way back, before we built the yurt, and long before we started our home. I couldn't believe I could purchase lime green flooring and not have to color, dye or otherwise create my own personal version of color heaven (this "crock-pot green" obsession started when I got THIS PIECE from Mom, which is now selling for the low low price of $728 on amazon. I'm obsessed - everything must match it).

There is plenty of inspiration for Marmoleum ideas on the internet - so we perused our options and Erin slowly talked me down from the ledge of "crock-pot green" bathroom floors. We liked the look of this guy's cabin floor. Random. Modern.

And this person's kitchen. Orderly. Stripey.

I was still hankering for the greens though...

We continued to research and discovered we were about to go down a costly path. Marmoleum, in any form - tile, Click, sheet - is expensive. Then there's the adhesive - also costly. We decided we would install it in our bathroom because we still needed bathroom flooring, it's good around water if you heat-weld your seams (we didn't), and our bedroom would be too expensive to cover in the stuff. We needed about 70 square feet, and began scouring craigslist for overages, extras, castoffs - we're those kind of people.

Lo, we found a store 1.5 hours away that was selling discontinued colors for discounted prices! We made the trek, picked up a box of beautiful grey sky blue 13" square tiles, and headed home where we promptly decided we didn't like the color. They are now for sale. Post in the comments if you want them.

Thinking we'd already exhausted our local flooring stores for options, both of which would only special order Marmoleum flooring and, as Marmoleum dealers, had to install it themselves, we were stumped. Then we remembered what awesome, creative, DIYers we are, so we went back and talked the salespeople into parting with a few large scrap pieces of Marmoleum sheeting in brown, dark grey and light grey for a grand total of $50. Win!

We decided to forgo the expensive Forbo Marmoleum flooring adhesive, and on recommendation from another website (can't remember where) we purchased a tub of this stuff for about $5 from our hardware store:

Designing the layout of the scraps proved easy enough, and we carefully cut each piece to size with a razor knife. Oh yeah, they also tell you you need to rent a 100 pound roller to roll the seams. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you don't need one. We made one with a sonotube and some leftover concrete, carried it upstairs and rolled it around on the freshly installed floor. Like I said, DIY.

It is not easy to take photos of bathrooms.

We are out of toilet paper. DIY Marmoleum Floor.

Dark grey, brown, light grey, brown, dark grey, brown, light grey. DIY Marmoleum floor.

Overall, it is awesome and I absolutely love it. It is my favorite of all our 4 floors. Warm on the feet, classy, and cheap. I think it would be the perfect yurt floor - durable, comes in sheets or tiles, seemingly endless color choices, and inexpensive if you do what we did. Its environmental score-card is also worth mentioning - its impact on the natrual world, from the extraction of the raw materials to the disposal of the product at the end of its useful life, ranks it First as a nature-friendly floor covering (and we even used scrap - it doesn't get greener than that!).

Speaking of green... in the end, I'm glad it doesn't match our crock pot, or our bedroom wall.

Kraft Paper Floors

2012-05-09T18:34:00.001-07:00

Casual visitor: I really like your bedroom flooring. What kind of wood is that?

Us: Um, the paper kind.

Paper floors?

Mm hmm. Our bedroom flooring is paper. A while ago, when construction was just a pipe dream Erin and I smoked every now and then, he brought up the idea of paper floors. He'd seen something obscure about it on the internet, and he thought I would love the idea because it's so cheap. I hated it.

Fast forward like 5 years... we're out of money, we still need a bedroom floor, and all of a sudden I love the idea! We found an online instruction video which was really helpful, and brainstormed ways to make it our own. We decided we didn't like the "patchwork" pieces look, and wanted to create something that could be mistaken for wood. We decided to go with planks.

1 gallon of Varathane Water-Based Poleurethane, a roll of brown kraft paper, and a gallon of Elmer's Glue later, we were ready to begin. We cut the paper into long-length-planks and short-length-planks that together would span our whole room. We also made three different plank widths - 8", 10" and 12" - to give the floor some variation. Each plank was individually crumpled, flattened, and re-crumpled three times to get the grooves we wanted.

Our kraft paper floor

Once we'd glued all the "planks" down according to the video, we ended up with a few spots that needed to be cut out and re-planked. This was a pain, but pretty easy. When the whole thing dried we stained the floor with a dark (almost black) wood stain to make the grooves and crinkles stand out. Most of the stain was rubbed off, but it added a lot of character to the overall floor. We put on 6 (?) coats of the polyurethane and called it good.

Kraft paper floor next to dark stained English oak

We love this floor - it looks great with our lime green bedroom wall (Benjamin Moore's "Feel the Energy", in case you were wondering.)

As far as yurt floors go, I think this would work swimmingly. If you don't want to spend much money on real flooring, but you want to avoid the plywood floor look, I say do it. Our bedroom is around 200 sq. ft., so pretty big, and we used a 100' roll of paper. The subfloor here is plywood, and before papering the floor we went around and filled every screw hole, nail hole and crack with putty so the paper wouldn't have mini-divots throughout.

I have to say, I was skeptical in the beginning, but this turned out quite nice, and I would recommend it to anyone trying to put in a unique floor on a very tight budget.

Color Your Yurt

2012-03-31T18:59:00.000-07:00

It was a tough decision. I'm glad Mom was in charge of making it instead of me. I hate decisions that involve picking colors because I will forever believe a better option existed that I failed to pick. Luckily, I think Mom made the right color decision for her yurt. It looks great on the property - it stands out, but not too much.

We spent a long afternoon prior to ordering our yurt, sitting by the pond. We clutched our free yurt fabric sample sheet, held up at arms' length and folded over and over on itself, trying to envision the perfect color combo.

Colorado Yurt Company didn't, at the time, have a super-fun-add-colors-to-a-white-yurt video-game-like page on their website. If they had, our lives would have been infinitely easier. This "Color My Yurt" site is really cool, a lot of fun, and I recommend you check it out. Click around until it's just right, and then envision yourself in the perfectly colored yurt.

Oh, The Possibilities!

Go to it, kids.

Top 5 Places to Stay in a Yurt

2012-03-27T13:45:00.002-07:00

I recently came across a site for glamping (= glamorous camping). I've heard of the term before and it never sat right with me. This is probably because we'd been "glamping" for the last two years, and it kindof lost the glam aspect. Yes, there are amazing moments when you realize that frogs and crickets lull you to sleep every night, and you know exactly what time it started raining last night, and you gain a true appreciation for heat that manifests without wood and matches. Nice, but hardly glam.

Anyone have a spare bathtub?

We love camping. Any opportunity to get out of dodge and set up a tent is usually capitalized on, and camping in a yurt would definitely have seemed glamorous before we lived in one. Strangely, once we moved into the yurt, the jonesing-for-camping phase died out in favor of hotels, motels, and BnBs - anywhere with indoor plumbing and heat that started with the touch of a button.

Do not get me wrong - staying in a yurt, whether for a night, an extended vacation, or living there for a few years, is an amazing experience. I highly recommend it because it's unique. Depending on where you glamp, you will most likely have a to-die-for view, heat, kitchen facilities, and someone else will clean out your composting toilet, which really puts the 'glam' in glamping.

Mmmmm...crank up that hot tub! Glamping at its best.

These are, in order, the top five places I would choose to Glamp in-the-round:

1. Baja Wilderness Retreat - Baja California Sur, Mexico

2. Orcas Island Cabins - Seward, Alaska

3. Bjorklund Ranch - Santa Barbara, California

4. Bell Lake Yurt - Harrison, Montana

5. Treebones Resort - Big Sur, California

Know of any others I should add to the list?

Yurt Floor Plans

2012-03-21T11:07:00.003-07:00

Our yurt has an open floor plan. Yes, we could have added walls. We could have added a loft. Coulda Woulda Shoulda, right? As it was, mom never planned for her yurt to be permanent housing. She envisioned it as a ping-pong-art-studio-yoga-room-temporary-guest-quarters. After 3 years and four months, the yurt finally sits empty (minus some random furniture and ping pong table), awaiting further inspiration from mom.

While the open floor plan for the yurt is nice, I believe the overall feel of the living space could be greatly improved with a few carefully thought-out walls. Obviously, bedroom walls create a sense of privacy, even if they don't go all the way to the yurt ceiling. Closets create a space for your clothes and other belongings, evoking a sense of permanence (as opposed to a camping-feel). Kitchen counters and basic kitchen plumbing make cooking a pleasure instead of a chore.

In hindsight, I'm surprised that we put up with a "camping" feel for so long. This could all have been greatly improved with a few walls and some basic kitchen set-up. Behold:

Oh my Lord. This is a gorgeous yurt kitchen. Photo credit.

This yurt floor plans designates about 1/3 of overall floor space to bed/bath. Since our bath is outside, imagine the bath space as personal office space, or a second bedroom. Image Credit

Our 30 ft. diameter yurt has a lot of space that I don't think we utilized to its full potential due to lack of a proper floor plan. The idea of real rooms, a few walls, and an actual kitchen really up the appeal of yurt-living to me. And how 'bout a loft? Lofts are just fun!

AWESOME! Photo Credit

But where would the ping-pong table go....?

Behold the Beauty of the Earth

2012-03-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

It's not often I can't peel my eyes from an internet video (hello double negative). Erin found this one today and I was rendered speechless by the beauty. Hope you've got the bandwidth to handle the HD.

Is There a Bathroom in Your Yurt?

2012-03-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's a good question.
Technically, no. It's not in the yurt, it's on the deck.

By the end of 2009, we had dug more holes, added more support structure under the deck, and built a bath house. Build it right on the deck, Mom decided. Just fine, we said. We'd made plans to temporarily move into the yurt while we began construction on the barn, so a bath house sounded like a good idea.

But first, we decided to take a road trip to Oregon, backcountry ski in Yosemite, sail our way down the interior coast of Baja in our outrigger sail-canoe, and climb the Middle Teton.

When we were done, we ended up back at the yurt.

First we built the "pergola"

Then the bath house framing took shape.

Recognize that flooring? Extra planks became our custom bamboo counter top.

We covered the bath house with polycarbonate sheeting.

Walkway to the bath house got covered too - good idea!

Custom-built redwood door with polycarbonate panels - see through!

Trial run for the door.

We found a bitchin sink at Urban Ore in Berkeley.

Details, details.

Gross cabinet we found somewhere (?) for bathroom shelves. Don't worry, I fixed 'er up.

Custom door track made from an aluminum bar and skateboard wheels.

Door in action.

Sexy.

Our bath house siding (and all lumber for the pergola) came from Anderson's Alternatives, our local reclaimed lumber business. Nate Anderson is a great guy, does business all over California, and has a deaf dog named Guiness.

Come together.... right now....

Over me.

Shower walls are see-through polycarbonate sheets. Because we obviously do not value our privacy.

Old double-hung window reclaimed for the bath house

And this is the corner for the composting toilet ....

We have compiled a small list of things we'd do differently if we had to do it over again which, thankfully, we don't:

Don't use wood counter tops in an un-weatherproofed building unless you varnish and re-varnish the crap out of them.
Speaking of un-weatherproofed, Erin spent 80,000,000 hours, give or take a few, that first rainy winter trying to weatherproof this building. We were cheap and bought the 8 foot sheets of polycarbonate. They are impossible to tie together in a rain-proof way, so our advise is to buy the sheets exactly as long as the area you need to cover, and buy the U-channel for butting them together.
DO NOT BUY AN ENVIROLET/SANCOR COMPOSTING TOILET! I wish we had seen this page of negative reviews before purchasing ours, but you do not want me to get into that right now. Hundreds of people with nothing but bad things to say.

That is all.

A small face-lift... and more blog to come!

2012-03-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of research on blogs lately. My research yielded one basic result: time to update.

So as you can see, this blog got a little facelift this morning. Things are looking up. No swelling, no stitches, no scaring. I like it so far, and hope to add more improvements over the next few weeks.

In any case, the theme of this post is transition. I recently turned thirty, and along with it, quit my part-time job of 6.5 years. We moved out of the yurt and into our house, re-started a small eBay business, and are looking towards the future with empty pockets and super-exciting ambitions. Like I said -- transition.

Blogging has become quite an epidemic, and the amount of information on how to monetize a blog is prolific! I've had ads on this blog almost since its inception, and have amassed a grand total of $11. This amount of money is obviously pitiful, and is the result of 30 minutes total-time-invested over the past four years. I know - I can do better. Right?

So in an effort to revitalize this blog, I'm going to keep posting about yurts, and answering questions about our yurt. I LOVE yurts, after all! I'm also going to post about Building Our House/Mom's Barn. Erin and I built this structure, our home, with just our four hands (we admit regrettably to hiring an additional four hands to help with framing). It was an epic adventure spanning the two years this blog was ~~mostly~~ silent, and I'm really excited to try and fill them in. I'll also keep you up to date on the monetization of this blog (if its legal - need to do some more research!), as well as the status of our life dream, eBay business, adventures, empty pockets, etc.

So keep yourselves posted as this blog re-shapes itself, and please feel free to ask questions and comment, and help me stay updated!

How To Raise A Yurt on YouTube!

2012-02-16T15:13:00.000-08:00

I finally uploaded a rudimentary yurt slideshow to YouTube, complete with royalty-free music that spans several genres. It's long, and hopefully enjoyable (TWSS!).

Off The Grid: A Brief Book Review

2012-02-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

5: The number of books found on each of our nightstands at any given time.
10: The number of books I have overdue from the Library right now.
Whoops.

Luckily, the latest book to nightstand-hop was loaned to us by family. It is called Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America by Nick Rosen.

The first part of the book was a fascinating history of "the grid", which I really enjoyed, and also touched on the history of the off-grid movement. He then travels around the country staying with (and interviewing) off-gridders who come in all shapes and sizes. The range of people he communicates with (or writes about) is baffling - marijuana growers, Daryl Hannah, Earthship creator Michael Reynolds, Amish multi-millionaires, and the The Last American Man. Rosen definitely keeps you guessing, and challenges majority assumptions. Worth a read.

Should we call it snow?

2012-02-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

So far, this winter has been defined by shorts, t-shirts, bare feet and sunburns. Although we're practically in drought conditions, we're definitely not complaining - last winter was really cold. Here are a few photos we snapped during the winter of 2010-2011 to illustrate.

Should we call it snow?

Maia is happy to hide out in her pup-tent next to the warm fire, thank-you-very-much.

Hmmmm. High winds.

Someone told us to "let the shower drip" to avoid pipes freezing. Obviously, the pipes still froze, as did the shampoo, and we created a shower-stalagmite!

We'll call it snow-in-training!

A Day in the Life of Our Yurt

2010-06-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

It's been over a year since I've posted to this blog, but it never felt right to end with a photo of pie. So here are some snap shots of the life of the yurt over the past 18 months.

future bathhouse

bathhouse completed

bathhouse + composting toilet hut (clear wall is the shower)

summer day

bathhouse on a sunny day

makeshift kitchen before we got a fridge

gathering with family

quiet evening at home

If you're reading this blog and have questions about yurt, living in yurts, composting toilets, etc, I have 101 things to say about it. Just ask.

PIE!

2008-12-15T22:15:00.000-08:00

I promised pie, so here's pie. I've made two more since this one, but none compare to this masterpiece.

mmmmmmmm

Fake-out

2008-12-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

Ha!

Dug my last hole, did I?
Mixed and poured my last bag of concrete, did I?

I think not. After a two week hiatus from Mendocino and the yurt, Erin and I returned home to a request from Mom to extend the decking further around the south side of the yurt. Did we have time? Mom asked.

Of course!

So, this past week has seen us digging a hole for one more pier, and mixing our last bag of concrete. Luckily, Mom had an extra pier sitting under 6 inches of dirt and ivy in her back yard, so we dug it up, put in a new piece of wood and recycled it.

We're planning on using a lot of the extra scrap wood that's still around the property, but we were short on 2x8"s, which we needed to complete the decking joists (treck up to Rossis's). We also used two 2x8s (bolted together) in place of a 4x8 girder. And wouldn't you know it, the entire sub-structure went up in a couple of hours.

We consider ourselves seasoned deck-builders now, and hope to lay the deck boards next week once the rain/hail/wind has abated.

A Celebration of Helpfulness

2008-11-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

Mom hosted a Sunday night Shindig in honor of those who helped with the yurt raising.

From Left to Right: Charles, David, Bill, Emily, Mom, Maddie, Dad, Linz, Erin.
Not present were Manda, Mickey & Evan the FedEx driver. Manda's presence especially was sorely missed.

Bill & Mia kicked off the party with a couple of laps around the pond.

David got the fire going, and Charles went off in the lawnmower to fetch more firewood.

Charles took over the grilling of meat and tofu, and I was in charge of toasting buns.

A delicious dinner was had by all.

We enjoyed a bit more campfire before retiring to the yurt.

The first (and only) piece of furniture mom moved into the new yurt was the ping pong table.

Several exciting games ensued.

Mom started to rethink her lack of furniture as the spectator's butts became numb.

Maia had the best seat in the house.

So many many thanks to everyone! Stay tuned to the Blurt for future postings & photos of a possible watertower, windmill, 18-hole permanent disc golf course, 200 yd. zip line, lazy river and a 12 ft. yurt hanging from some trees!

The Slideshow Supreme

2008-11-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

We made it successfully through Yurt Raising Day 2. Though there was a little less action than on Day 1, it was equally satisfying and compelling.

The slideshow has over 150 photos right now. I know, there are some repeats, but just look at it as a preliminary attempt to show the world that yes, we finally have our yurt!

Tips for better viewing:

First, press the pause button at the bottom of the slideshow screen.
Click through the photos at your own pace using the forward arrow key.
OR, adjust the viewing time to 4 or 5 seconds and press play for an automatic show (you might not have time to read the commentary this way).
The back button on your browser will bring you right back here to the Blurt.

So pop some popcorn, turn down the lights and start clicking.

Slideshow Supreme

_____________________________
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Teaser

2008-11-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

Yurt Raising Day 1!

Thanks to Mom, Bill, Erin, Me, David, Charles and Emily, we made it successfully though day 1 of the yurt raising. And dang it was fun! Soon, I will post a slideshow here of the 100+ photos we took throughout the day yesterday, and I'll add today's photos to it. I'm still working on putting everything into the right order and adding commentary to the show, so be patient.

It looks awesome, as you shall soon see.

FROLF

2008-11-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

The prop was overtaken this weekend by the Mendocino FROLF Club (Frisbee Golf). Nine baskets were strategically placed around the property to incorporate the best of the pond, the field, the trees and the yurt platform. With a total of 18 holes and 12 FROLFers, the round took over 4 hours (so I'm told) and a glorious time was had by all. It just so happens that the course designers placed the 18th basket on the island in the middle of the pond, and a canoe was supplied for players to complete the putt. Erin reports that it took over 1/2 an hour to shuttle 6 players back and forth in the little red boat, allowing time to putt and search for any lost discs. Unfortunately, 5 discs were lost in the watery depths of the pond, and Erin plans to petition Mom to siphon off the water in the spring to recover lost property.

Our time today at the prop was spent playing a few holes, paddling around the island in our continued search for discs, and teaching Maia to become a firsbee dog. Let's just say that her "chase" instinct is right on, but her "retrieve" instinct needs a little more refinement. But she sure gets excited about it!

Today and tomorrow will be a drizzley couple days, but we're planning on a Thursday morning yurt-raising! We hope not to dissappoint.

the benderboard...a milestone

2008-11-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Remember those 1/2" pressure treated plywood sheets we ordered from ROSSIs way back in the day? The plywood that's been sitting around the site for so long, neglected and forgotten? Remember when we hastily cut the plywood into 8" strips in anticipation of wrapping the benderboard? Well, about a month later that plywood is finally wrapped around the yurt perimeter. I consider this a definite milestone because the next step really, truely, is setting up the yurt. No more construction on the platform. Any screws screwed will henceforth be part of the upward yurt structure. Yahoo!

But we're still waiting for good weather. Friday was our one sunny day in over a week, which allowed us to peel back Big Blue completely, as well as unstaple all the clear .6mil plastic that's been covering the floor. Needless to say, Big Blue is far from a breathable layer, so condensation gets trapped on the inside of the tarp and creates its own weather patterns - unfortunately they are moist, humid and partially raining weather patterns. But Friday was the Great Dry Out.

the scaffold as a temporary drying rack

Slight breeze and full sun made for a pleasant work day and the bamboo got to shed a layer of moisture. We spent about 3 hours completing the benderboard with cutouts for both doors. The french doors will look out towards the pond while the regular door will face the orchard. They are directly across from oneanother so we stretched out our 100' tape measure around the perimeter, found the half-way mark and cut the benderboard. It should have been easy, but we were both hungry and relying on eachothers faulty reasoning and mathematics to get us through. Definitely a signal to stop for lunch.

french door cutout

With a few more rainy days in the forecast we began to completely recover the whole thing again before we lost our daily dose of sunshine. It's a good thing too, because today is Saturday and it's rainy, misty, moist, cloudy, dismal, wet, foggy and damp. We seem to be in a perpetual holding pattern here, but sincerely hope that next week will afford us a minimum of three rainless days. It feels good to know that we'll be ready when they come.

so satisfying

2008-11-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

and we only got half way. There wasn't a drop of sun in the sky, but there were no drops of rain either. So we got underway, unscrewing and untying Big Blue and peelin her back. The benderboards are a little damp, but we're moving forward anyway. The benderboards are getting screwed into the ends of the 2x4 joists, and also into the plywood subfloor. Sometimes we'll use a block when the end of the 8 ft. benderboard doesn't quite line up with a joist (did I say we were done blocking?). We also cut out one of the benderboards for the space where the door will be. Mom has two doors in her yurt, 1 french door and 1 regular door. Our first task when we finally get to the erection process will be to put the doors in place.

I didn't take photos today, but will hopefully have some photos tomorrow of a completed benderboard. We're going to wait to set up the yurt until we have three days in a row forecasted without rain. Might be a while.

I suppose we'll laugh when it's all over

2008-11-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was - you guessed it - another bummer. If you look at the 10 day forecast for Mendocino you will not jump for joy, neither will all your prayers be answered. You will see rain, drizzle, wind, clouds and more.

Erin talking benderboards with Dan from CYC, who proved most helpful

Our day began with a call to Colorado Yurts to get some final benderboard logistical questions answered. Upon arrival at the prop we quickly got to work uncovering the bamboo and towel drying the wet spots. This took the better part of an hour, but the sky was partly sunny and the wind seemed to be finally drying things out instead of making them wetter. Erin attempted to make me take a bet on an afternoon cloudburst, but I didn't bite. Just as we were contemplating peeling back a corner of the tarp to get some work done, a giant gray monster reared it's head above the trees. In five minutes we scrambled to recover the floor and put away all the tools. In twenty more minutes everything was soaked and the cloudburst was over. Double Dog Dangit.

Our temporary work environment

After a break for lunch the weather situation improved. We started in on scribing a line on the plywood with a ball point pen and our giant 15' compass. After much debate we have decided it will be best to hand-cut the plywood with the jigsaw and we will need to follow this line very closely. Unfortunately, Erin ruined three pens before we got the contraption to work properly, and after drawing only a few feet of the line our last pen was toast. I jumped in the car and returned from town with a 10-pack bag of BICs. Unfortunately we went through three more pens before the circle was completed, leaking massive amounts of blue ink on the plywood in the process. The highlight of the day, in retrospect, was Erin's unprecedented use of profanity to express himself as the trials of the day wore on. A sample:

F**K, F**K, F**K, THIS F**KING PEN JUST F**KING BROKE. THIS F**KING IS THE WORST DAY EVER. I WOULDN'T DO THIS WORK FOR $100 AN HOUR. I F**KING HATE THIS F**KING TARP. MY BACK HURTS! IF THIS F**KING TARP TOUCHES MY HEAD ONE MORE TIME I'M GOING TO F**KING DIE! F**K! I NEED A HAIRCUT BECAUSE I HATE MY F**KING HAIR! THIS LINE IS SO F**KING BAD I CAN'T EVEN DEAL WITH IT. IF THIS LINE GETS ANY WORSE I'M GOING TO CUT MY HAND OFF. F**K!

We had a good laugh about this as we drove home for the day, having finished cutting exactly half of the plywood with the handheld jigsaw. We quit with intentions to return the next day and complete the job in better weather.

However! The next day (today) is awful. The drizzle is incessant with occasional downpours. The crazy part is that tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be "partly sunny" with little chance of rain. But we just can't seem to get ourselves in a position where we're ready to erect the yurt. The rain continues to foil us.

We were able to complete the cutting this morning, despite Erin's vows to never do ANYTHING under a tarp again ever for the rest of his life. Benderboards were impossible with the rain coming down heavily, necessitating the continued use of Big Blue.

benderboards awaiting installation, & our pathetic tarp, Big Blue, in the background

Crazy dinosaur plants by the pond

Erin and Maia testing out the pond fountain

A hard week

2008-11-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

I blame my recent absence from posting on the weather, the weather and the weather. I wake in the middle of the night from dreams of our large 40'x60' blue tarp torn to shreds and billowing through the orchard. I picture soggy planks of bamboo under inches of water. I imagine the rafters and canvas waterlogged and stained beyond repair. Yes, we are all losing sleep over this ordeal.

Let's start off by giving loads of credit to Mom and Erin for busting through the flooring project in just over two days. It looks awesome! The planks are straight, the seams well planned and the tops smooth.

This was just in time for the Tuesday arrival of Manda direct from Seattle. Unfortunately, our plans to erect the yurt over the following three days were becoming less and less practical as the weather report worsened (rain, thundershowers, 25 mph winds, etc). We didn't panic, but spent Wednesday cutting the bamboo circle with the router in just two passes. It went off (almost) without a hitch, and as the day was drawing to a close we packed up shop before cutting the plywood circle.

our new stand-up routering rig - much easier on the back

Manda sweeping the deck after the routering

On Thursday the panic started to set in. Without a real plan for how to protect the new flooring without a roof, we all threw in our best efforts at designs for tarping. We rented a ginormous 40'x60' tarp and several metal stakes and proceeded to spend the next 5 hours trying to cover the yurt platform. I will spare you the details, but just know that a lot of sweat and tears went into this.

We each laid in our respective beds that night listening to the wind howl and the rain hammer the roofs over our heads, wishing the platform had a roof over its head as well.

Friday found me baking fresh huckleberry scones for the group before we treked back up to the prop to asses how our handiwork of the previous day had survived. We were in for a depressing and dismal realization ~ the floor was soaked. We carefully towell-dried the whole floor and then painstakingly dried the seams with compressed air. With heavy hearts we called Bill onto the scene and started from scratch. This time we created a structure resembling a circus tent using 2x4s and lots of rope.

During this time the sun came out and taunted us to shed our raincoats and smile. So we did.

That's when the wind picked up. I mean seriously. The decision was made to get the tarp on before the real rain came and we struggled to pull the giant blue monster over our frame. As we secured the sides to the stakes we heard a gut-wrenching 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrriipppppp" ~ the grommets we'd used to tie down had been ripped from the tarp, and several holes now gaped along the edges. We quickly reconfigured our plan to include rope tied around knots tied in the tarp and lost our inhibitions about screwing holes directly through the tarp. Again, I can spare you a long list of detailed attempts that failed, but just know it was another long, wet day.

And the rain picked up again just as we got home. Trick-or-treaters were scarce - maybe a handful compared to the usual onslaught. I lost even more sleep thinking about the potential detestation to the beautiful floor.

This morning we repeated the same process as the previous two days ~ arriving yet again to a soaked floor. 15 more full sized towels dried the floor up and Erin spent the rest of the day applying a layer of .6 mil plastic to the top of the floor and stapling it to the perimeter. It's hard to imagine what a drag all this has been, and unfortunately it's becoming more and more obvious the bad weather will continue for at least another week. We're probably going to end up at the prop three times a day to towel dry the bamboo floor and pray for three sunny days in a row so we can erect the yurt!

yurt parts awaiting erection

((((rain on the brain))))

2008-10-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

So, after all the hullabaloo about using only 24 sheets of plywood, I accidently got turned around and cut up the 25th sheet. Dang! We actually ended up using it in the end, but still ... I like to live up to my word.

Yesterday, Mom and Erin worked on laying the flooring all morning. Erin installed while Mom transferred pieces up to the deck and helped with the layout. They got about 8 rows into it and had to stop for the day (Sunday is disc golf day and the tourney starts promptly at 2:30!). This past spring, Erin installed a cherry hardwood floor for mom in her back room. It is a floating floor, which I think means it just snaps together with the tongue&groove - no staples or nails necessary. He did the installation all by himself (save for a trip to the Emergency room with his Dad when he sliced off the top of his finger with a razor knife), so this bamboo flooring should be familiar to him even though it uses staples. I wish I could be helping with this stage, but alas...

Today is Monday, and Mom & Erin sat around eating coffee cake and delicious sweet potato frittata until 11 am. They were waiting for the plastic-covered platform to dry - it was soaked from the fog and mist of last night, and without sun in the forecast for today it is shaping up to be a damp one. We are getting ever-more wary of the impending weather system. From Wunderground:

Thursday Night through Sunday: Mostly cloudy. 50% chance of rain.

Dang. But what can we expect? The weather goddess has bestowed upon us the ninth warmest September since 1880! And a dang nice October to boot. As we round the corner of fall and slide into November (can you tell I've been watching the World Series?) the rain may tag us out.

Tomorrow I travel to Santa Rosa to collect sister number 2 from the airport, so that she may partake of some yurt. YAY.

plywood DONE!

2008-10-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of Maia from yesterday. She was so hot, she couldn't move or even open her eyes. She didn't get up to chase bugs, or swim in the pond. What a lazy bum. Today is equally beautiful and hot, but I wouldn't really know first-hand, as I'm working inside for the afternoon.

This morning we were able to get started by 8:30 am, after a quick stop at Mendosa's for 2" screws and four more tubes of construction adhesive (will it even be enough??). We were very thankful for the huge piece of plastic we'd used to cover the plywood. I think we used a roll of 4mil plastic that came in a huge 10'x100' sheet. We cut it down and taped it all together and it covers the platform with room to spare. This morning it was soaked, and with much care we peeled it back and laid it out to dry. Our intention was to finish the plywood in two hours (at which time I transfer to my other job), but we fell far short of our intended goal. All of a sudden, it was 10:30 and we had to mosey back down to town. These sort of mornings makes us wish we could always get such an early start to beat the heat!

In the afternoon, Erin & Maia finished up laying the rest of the plywood and cut down all the excess to only 1" overhang. This will make his final circular 15'-compass cut much smoother, and will also make the whole thing easier to cover with our plastic cover.

So, yet again, Erin manages to finish up a phase of the project in record time. We will always wonder how he manages without me.