by Scott Evans
I built the Yurt last year for the purpose of holiday rentals, it’s situated in an old abandoned quarry high up in the hills overlooking vast acres of Devon landscape with outstanding views. I got the idea from Bill Coperthwaite and his buildings featured in Lloyd Khan’s Homework book (Lloyd, what a guy). Anyway, I sent off for Bill’s plans, could not understand what was going on, and so eventually I made it up as I went along.
The building is mainly constructed out of scrap scaffold boards, pallets and timber from the builders merchants. It cost about £10,000 (about $15,979) not including labour time. Cedar shingles are so darn expensive over here along with plumbers who have to make sure gas is installed properly and signed off (big expense). The house also has a sawdust toilet, off grid for lighting, and mains water with shower and kitchen. The swing is a trampoline turned upside down purchased off EBay for £1.99.
Whilst it’s first and foremost a holiday retreat we also hope people will take away with them the realization that you can think for yourself and do for yourself rather than this dreadful dependency on big business to provide everything which unfortunately seems to have infected pretty much everybody here in the U.K. Unlike in the states where there seems to be a real shift in freeing one’s self from debt.
Both my wife and I are also very keen to show our son Red that you do have choices.
You can learn more at: www.big-grass.com and http://www.facebook.com/