Yurt Sweet Yurt

Caz Owen and her husband gave up four walls to live under canvas. Now with a six-week-old baby, their home is full of joy and even has a bath with a view. I can’t remember whose idea it was to live in a yurt. We lived for a while in a cottage on Tom’s parents’ farm. It was lovely in that cottage and very convenient, but didn’t feel quite right for us.

We bought our first yurt, a 5.5 metre one for £2,000. Some people thought we were mad, that we wouldn’t survive a summer. But here we are, two years on, with two adjoining yurts. If you need more space, you just add on an extra yurt. Our main yurt is divided into kitchen, sitting room, dining room and office. The second yurt is the bedroom, bathroom and nursery for our baby daughter, Tallis.

Tom built the kitchen, office and dining table from wood. When we found an old bath last year, we did it up, and it now sits in the second yurt next to a window that looks out across the fields. As I lie in hot water and look out across the fields on a frosty morning or up to the sky on a moonlit night, it feels magical. When we married two years ago, I was very happy to receive lovely plates and bed linen. However, the best present was a wind-up radio. I use it almost every day. In our home you can hear and feel everything that’s going on outside. Life carries on without us frightening it off. We both love being so close to nature without actually being outside.

As the space is so small, we work hard to keep it clean and tidy. I love my home comforts. We have electricity, but we spent the first eighteen months with battery-powered lights and candles. We can’t simply turn up the heating when it’s cold, so we have to make sure we have enough firewood. The yurt lets a lot of noise in, and sometimes air and road traffic can really get to us. Sometimes I miss the advantages of a modern house, and it is definitely more difficult to live here with a baby. However, I still think we made the best decision.