Diana's Yurt

Heyo!  Our friend Diana lives up in Ridgway, CO where she owns a beautiful hunk of property overlooking the Sneffels Range. For years she's been dreaming about constructing a yurt, and this weekend we finally helped her build it.

View from the front porch.  Not too bad, eh?

We have two yurts at Goblin Valley that I helped get going, but this was waaaay more hands on!  Diana and her boyfriend Jerry build the foundation and porch last fall.  They finished up the subfloor this spring and were ready for the 'grand erection' -- setting up the lattice, roof, and canvas.  The weather wasn't cooperating and we were biting our nails watching a big storm roll in, but we had enough breaks in the rain to get the whole thing up over the course of two days.


  

The yurt was manufactured by the Colorado Yurt Company, who cut all the canvas and wood beforehand.  They also sent up Jared, one of their employees, who was fantastic.  He's set up over 50 yurts already, but also had experience working with construction neophytes like us.  He somehow managed to strike a balanced between being an efficient worker and a patient teacher -- without him we'd probably still be trying to set it up!

The first day we installed the doors, set up the lattice, and erected the center support beam.  The next day, we installed the roof beams and wrapped the canvas.  The whole thing only took about 13 hours all together, and it looks huge and really cozy.  Diana and Jerry still have a lot of finishing work to do, and I can’t wait to see the final product!