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For many buying a home is just not an option in this economy. Even though the costs are low and maybe even getting lower, many people just can't get a loan which makes purchasing a home not an option. But if you have a piece of land or enough money to buy the land and not the house, a yurt can be a great, green option.
Lloyd wrote about the Luna project on TreeHugger where Dave Masters lives in a yurt taking living on less to an extreme. He lives in 706 square feet with off grid power, a composting toilet, a shower and a full kitchen and didn't give anything up at all to live in comfort and style.
Talk about cheap, you can purchase a brand new yurt for about $2,100. A 22 foot diameter yurt costs under $6,000 and you can assemble the whole thing in two hours. You can live in all sorts of conditions in yurts as they are quite weather resistant and you can get yurts with modern conveniences including air conditioning. They work great on any small amount of acreage but most of the big yurt country is still west of the Mississippi.
Yurts are also green. The Nomad Yurt from Eco Shelter is constructed from sustainable bamboo and a nature-friendly water repellent coating on the fabric shell. Shelter Designs' Eco-Yurts™ are produced using local, sustainably-harvested lumber. The company works closely with local loggers to purchase high-quality logs which are harvested based on a forest health management approach. The yurts use a non-toxic, no-VOC, food grade Tung oil and biodegradable citrus solvent as the wood finish.
How do you decide if a yurt is right for you?
If you're looking to go green and don't have the funds to buy a greenovated home, yurts could be a good bet. If you love the outdoors and don't mind being rather close to it, yurts are perfect. And if you don't mind saying goodbye to ammenities like expansive kitchens, bath tubs, and endless electricity, you might be ready for a yurt.
More on Yurts:
Yurta: The Optimized Yurt
Yurts: the New Hotel
The Nomad Yurt: Stick to the Real Thing
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