Light my fire…er…yurt

by Bob | November 3, 2011 1:12 pm

Ya know, when I decided to build my yurt I planned it pretty good.

I had the foundation all laid out…on a scrap of paper but laid out just the same.

I had my platform all designed…in my head, but designed.

My “systems”…plumbing, heating, and electrical…were decided o and laid out…roughly…in my head.

I’m gonna defend my use of my memory as a “blueprint” for the systems. Until I had the kit up so I could visualize the space I couldn’t, for example, plan exactly where the hole in the floor for the toilet should be. We wouldn’t wa

nt that hole to be in one place and the actual toilet to be somewhere else, now would we?

As the kit went up I began to get a firmer idea of what the floor plan was going to be…and all was right with the world as far as design goes…right?

Uh..no. I had forgotten something. Something important.

“No! Bob…forget something? Whoda thunk?”

I forgot about lighting.

Ya know..unless you go to bed before sundown, and get up after sunrise, having some light in your yurt can be rather important. Somehow I don’t think the light from the computer screen is enough to light 706 sq ft of living space.

A yurt can be aggravating to light. After all, it is only two rooms…the bathroom and then everything else. Two rooms doesn’t make for a lot of walls, and few walls makes for few places to put electrical outlets for plugging things in…like lamps.

The only place, really, for outlets is around the perimete of a yurtr, and who wants lamp cords running all over the place? The only thing you can do to find a place for lights is to look up…but there is no ceiling to install ceiling fixtures on…right? But, there ARE the rafters. Hmmm…

Rafters are the perfect place to install lighting. My electrical system runs from the electrical panel to all areas of the yurt by running the wiring along the outer edge of the yurt at the point where toe wall meets the rafters, with the wiring held in place by zip-tying it to the perimeter tension cable. From here you can go down the wall to low outlets and wall switches…or up along the rafters to lighting…but what kind of lighting?

Note: Wiring is a good reason to get the snow and wind kit if you buy a kit from Pacific Yurts. Even f you life where snow and wind aren’t issues, the vertical studs are a good place to hide wires as they come down to switches and plugs. I think of the snow and wind kit as part of my electrical system as well as weatherization.

Those rafters…those long, skinny rafters…are a perfect place and look for track lighting,..

…so that’s what I did.

One word on where to get track lighting. If y’all are regular visitors here at JuicyMaters you know that I am a BIG TIME procrastinator, and getting y lighting was no different. I didn’t decide what to get and then get it until I needed it quickly, like yesterday, so I did my normal thing when I need anything construction related…I went to Home Depot.

Now, over two years later, that is one minor detail I wish I had done dfferently.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my lighting, and the quality is OK, but I could have done so, so much better if I had bought my lighting online. The choice of styles and manufacturers would have been so much better.

But then, that would have meant planning ahead…and we ARE talking about Bob, right?

Source URL: http://www.juicymaters.com/2011/11/light-my-fire-er-yurt/

---