Amazing One Of A Kind Yurt - Full Tour + Pros & Cons of Yurt Living

hey everyone we just spent a couple nights staying in this really unique Mongolian yurt in the middle of winter in this video we're going to give you a full tour and we're gonna share a bit of our experience staying in it [Music] so this is a traditional Mongolian yurt structure it's made with all natural materials which we love so it's got a wooden lattice wall it has wooden UN's which are the roof rafters and a wooden dome and then it's got a few different cloth liners so there's cotton lining the inside then there's a wool felt insulation and then a cotton canvas exterior and then there's handmade horsehair ropes that tie the whole structure together a couple of things that make this year a little bit less traditional is that it's not painted in the typical really bright colors that a Mongolian yurt usually would be and it also has this huge wall of windows so a traditional Mongolian yurt would only have the dome to let light in and there might be a little window in the door this one they've replaced an entire wall of the year with Windows which is actually pretty beautiful it lets in a lot of light and even at night when it's dark you can still see what's going on outside which is really nice we had some videos to film in the area and we knew this year it was here so we decided to rent it for a couple of nights while we're away from home it's at the groovy roots farm in Alexandria Ontario and we've actually been here before so this summer we were at the farm to help them film a how-to video on how to set up a yurt so we got to see this year to be built from the ground up but when we left it was completely empty it was just the shell of the building so when we got here a couple days ago it was really neat to see what they've done with it so they've put all of this nice rustic furniture and a nice fireplace the windows are in so it makes it a really cozy space to sleep and hang out in in the winter [Music] so when you first come in there's the little door here it can't go any higher obviously because the wall is only this high so you have to make sure to duck your head when you come in this door has a really neat little privacy window so if you want a bit of privacy you can just put up the flap they've set up a little bathroom area here so there's a simple sink that just drains into a bucket that you can empty outside then you just refill this little jug of water for washing your hands and brushing your teeth so we really like how they've kept it really simple they didn't have to add any plumbing that way you can also avoid having any freezing pipe issues in the summer they usually have outhouses with dry toilets outside but because it's so cold in the winter and they knew sometimes people have to go in the middle of the night they put a dry toilet indoors we haven't used it but they made it really discreet so you just lift this lid and then there's a toilet here with some wood chips inside and then you can just add wood chips every time you go there's also a privacy curtain here so you can just unhook the rope and pull the curtain across and get a little bit of privacy if you're using the washroom so when we're in spaces like this Matt and I often have these long discussions about how we would change things if we were gonna live in it permanently so for us this bathroom setup is really neat we like that you don't have to go outside to go to the washroom what we would maybe do and what's neat about yurts is that you can actually connect them so you could have a really small year that would be connected but that would be kind of a separate room so you could put your toilet out there but still have it indoors that's probably what we would do if we were gonna live in I here at full time or we would probably eventually put an actual wall here to give us a little bit more privacy here there's a simple couch and a coffee table if we were gonna live here we would probably get a pullout sofa so that we can have guests over but this is really comfortable too and then just beside the couch there is a pile of firewood to keep your fire going so you're cozy here there's a little table and chairs for having your breakfast this year it will eventually be a bed-and-breakfast so that's why they set it up like this if we were gonna live here we'd probably have a nice work table and this is maybe where we would do our work and have meals and stuff like that it's just a little bit of a bigger sitting area then there's a nice huge bed we would probably put storage underneath for all of our clothes and then maybe set up a small kitchen over there with food storage and a little stove and maybe a little sink as well and definitely the most important element in this year in the winter especially is the fireplace so it's right in the center of the year which is perfect because you get an even heat all the way around it's right above the dome so it makes it easy to have a chimney going right out the top so the dome is a really important part of the yurt structure the dome is also called the Tonno so all of the roof rafters are connecting into it it's also got a few other functions so like I just mentioned the stovepipe is going out to vent the wood stove but then you'll also see it's got eight different panels so the front four are usually clear so that's where you'll get your light from but they're covered so they're rain proof and in the back four are usually open to the air um so that makes it easy to vent and get fresh air in your yurt in this case because we're in Canada and we get lots of bugs they've actually designed a mosquito screen that fits on the back four panels so you can still get fresh air without letting in a lot of bugs another important element of the Tonno or the dome is that it's got the ring in the center with this rope and this is actually how you attach a gear to the ground to make sure that it doesn't move or shift if there's really really high winds so usually what they'll do is they'll anchor it to the heaviest part of the earth which is usually the fireplace so you control all of the airflow and the light by using an insulated top flap that's on top of the earth so in the winter that helps keep the heat in and in the summer it helps keep the Sun from overheating the space a couple of things they did to make this your comfortable to live in in the winter the first is they have an insulated floor so before putting up the yurt what they did is they put down a layer of gravel then they put a wood beam frame that's supported by cement blocks and then they created this round platform on top and the platform is built with a layer of plywood a layer of insulation and another layer of plywood insulated so they created this module system where they can all just kind of fit together then they put the yurt on top once there was snow on the ground they piled all the snow up against the foundation of the earth and so that prevents any air from going underneath so it's actually a pretty warm and well insulated floor and then another thing they do here that's not traditional in Mongolia is they add a layer of house wrap so that means that the house wrap can breathe moisture out but it protects the structure from having any moisture coming in in Mongolia it's a little bit more of a dry climate whereas here in Canada in North America it's a little bit more humid we get more rain and snow so the house wrap is a modification that helps make your it's more resistant to moisture in our climate and then the last layer on the outside is a canvas layer that's also resistant to moisture but not completely waterproof so for those of you who know us or who have been following us for a little while you know that we typically live in a van in the summer when then we'll house it or travel in the winter and so we've been doing that for quite a few years but we often do talk about if and when we do want to settle down what kind of alternative housing situation we want to be in and yours are one of our top choices for now a few of the reasons why we love here it's is that they're affordable so they're more affordable even than our campervan yeah than a tiny house and stuff like that they're also really portable so you can pack them up in a day you can move them either in the back of a pickup or in a small trailer and then set them up the next day so they're really versatile and portable and we like that they're made with natural materials - and when you say portable I mean it is still when you pack it up it's it's a big chunk of material yeah but yeah it still fits in a pickup truck or a small trailer which is pretty nice another thing that we love about yours is their round shape and how they kind of force you to live a really simple life there's no closets so everything is out in the open you just have to be really aware of what you're bringing into the space you're gonna see everything so just kind of forces you to be conscious Yorkin assumption and what you own and how you live there are some challenges to the yurts for sure since it is more of like a temporary tent kind of structure obviously you don't have the kind of insulation and it's not sealed like a tiny house or a regular house would be so you got more air coming in it doesn't hold in heat for as long so definitely in the winter especially in a really cold climate like here in Canada it's gonna be a little bit tougher to heat consistently but this is definitely the kind of structure where you want to be around you want to be in it almost every day to take care of it and if you are leaving for extended periods of time we've heard that it's best to take it down and also this year is definitely losing heat a little bit faster because of all the windows and is only one layer of felt installations so this year it could definitely be a little bit more efficient at keeping heat if it was altered so the most important modifications we would do if we were to live in here for long periods especially over the winter are we would maybe add a small propane furnace that's thermostatically-controlled that would start and stop especially in the middle of the night when the fire goes out or something like that also we would probably add a second layer of felt insulation we would definitely add a solar system at least for some lights and maybe a fan and maybe just to plug in a small 12-volt fridge we absolutely love the big wall of windows definitely a lot of heat is being lost with that wall of windows but it's pretty incredible to have that in here so maybe what we would do is add a roll-down layer of felt insulation that you can roll down on really cold days or at least overnight so that overnight you're keeping more of that heat inside the last thing we would change is this fireplace is great the one that's in here is is okay but we would put a more efficient fireplace that has some bricks on the inside and holds in heat and radiates heat for a little bit longer once the fires out being able to stay in different places like this for us is very revealing we kind of find out if we like or don't like something the challenges and benefits and it's always something that we wrongly recommend for anyone thinking of doing something like this find something in your area that you can rent stay in for a couple days sometimes you can find out really quickly if you like it or not thanks for watching hope you enjoyed the video give it a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe to see more we post a new video every single week

Channel: Exploring Alternatives

Views: 1,054,458

Rating: 4.8445201 out of 5

Keywords: yurt, ger, Mongolian, traditional, authentic, living, sleeping, life, lifestyle, nomad, nomadic, winter, four season, all season, alternative, housing, dwelling, yurt life, yurt tour, interior, exterior, heat, heating, water, plumbing, toilet, dome, ventilation, tour, inside, covers, insulation, waterproof, cover, Groovy, Yurts, Groovy Yurts, Exploring Alternatives, woodstove, wood, stove, handcrafted, Mongolia, travel, vlog, blog, travelling, home, tiny house, tiny house alternative, epic, 2018, off grid, off-grid

Id: gzVqc_P6tMA

Length: 11min 24sec (684 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2018