North Shore couple make, live in, sing praises of yurts

Step into the model showrooms at many of the new housing projects going up around town and you’ll get sharp, straight lines, hard surfaces and an edgy, contemporary feel.

Visit Nathan and Jenny Toler’s home and their “model neighborhood” on the North Shore and you’ll get curved lines and soft, billowy textures. An “edgy” feel? You won’t even find an edge.

The Tolers make — and live in — yurts: round, tentlike structures used for centuries as housing by Central Asian nomads. Along with a small team of carpenters and designers, the couple has custom-built and decorated yurts all over Hawaii, from campsites and retreats on the North Shore to private backyards in Windward Oahu and the remote jungles of Maui.

Their business, Ohana Yurts, even landed them a reality-TV show, “Love Yurts,” which premiered on the DIY network in December. The network has signed them up for two more seasons, and they’re looking for customers to participate.

For the Tolers, yurts have provided more than just a chance at TV fame. Along with a sense of fulfillment and creative challenge, they’ve provided a unique lifestyle that has brought them back to nature and back to the land.

“Everyone wants to feel connected to something, and so many people think it has be through social media and friends and people and certain lifestyles. But as soon you can connect back to nature, that connection is always there and you feel it wherever you go,” said Jenny Toler, 32, who sews the fabric covers for the yurts.

“You’re living in the environment, rather than being protected from it,” said Nathan Toler, 44, who designs the structures. “I’m much more attuned to the cycles of nature now. I get up with the sun and go to sleep when it gets dark. And I’ve never felt so relaxed, never slept so well.”

STANDING UP TO WEATHER

A yurt is the ultimate “open concept” design. There’s no need for interior posts to hold it up, and the domed ceiling creates a spacious, airy feeling inside. (Ohana Yurts has made structures that are 30 feet tall and “look like cathedrals” inside, Nathan Toler said.)

Screened windows, which have a unique flap to keep rain out, allow for cooling breezes from any direction. A center skylight floods the space with natural light during the day and provides a porthole view of the stars at night. “It’s like camping, only it’s all the time and you get to bring all your stuff,” he said.

The Tolers maintain a sprawling compound overlooking the Velzyland surf spot on the North Shore. There’s a regular wood-construction house and shed on the site, which until recently were being used as their wood shop and sewing shop. There are also seven yurts there: an office space; an outhouse, with shower, toilet and wash basin; three display models; a friend’s yurt; and a two-story yurt that serves as home for the couple and their three children, ages 3 to 7.

Central Asian nomads survive harsh, subfreezing winters in cozy, skin-covered yurts. Hawaii’s climate poses no such challenge, but surprisingly neither does wind, which merely wraps around a yurt like air currents flowing over an airplane wing. One year, a storm blew the roof off the Tolers’ shed; their yurts stood strong.

“They’ll move a little bit and you’ll hear the wind change, and they flap when the gust comes, but it’s really quite soothing,” Jenny Toler said. “You feel that connection, like, ‘Oh, the wind’s changing today.’ You really feel alive, because your environment’s never totally the same all the time.”

A LEARNING CURVE

Yurt living fits nicely with the Tolers’ environmentally conscious, integrated approach to life. They live off the grid, using solar power and a water catchment system. In addition to Ohana Yurts, they run a holistic health and wellness center called Positive Energetics Foundation. The center offers acupuncture, massage, a sensory deprivation float tank, organic gardening and other services.

It was their wellness center that got the Tolers into the yurt business about seven years ago. They wanted to use the structures as therapy rooms but found they were expensive to buy. They decided to make their own, but lacking experience in carpentry and sewing, it took awhile to figure it out.

In fact, their first attempt was an abject failure. “It fell right over,” said Nathan Toler, a San Diego native who also worked in property management.

Eventually, they figured out the intricacies of yurt construction: Start with a round platform with a lip around the circumference, make a flexible lattice out of wood slats that stands inside the lip, then string a wire cable around the top of the lattice. Rafters are then extended from the cable up to the center crown.

To the greatest extent possible, they use locally sourced woods such as monkeypod, mango, koa and Norfolk pine, but occasionally they have to use traditional building materials such as Douglas fir.

Once the cover, made of sun-, salt- and mildew-resistant Sunbrella and K-Tex fabrics, is fitted over the frame and strapped down over the lattice, the structure is stable. “The more weight and pressure it gets, the stronger the system actually becomes,” Jenny Toler said.

Soon after they built a few yurts for their wellness center, patients started asking to buy them. But it took awhile for the Tolers themselves to try moving into one. Toler admitted that initially she was “not a fan of yurts,” but “we spent the night out here a couple of times and it was so nice,” she said. “We’d hang out there for a couple of hours, and then we’d come to the house to sleep and eventually it was like, ‘No. Let’s just get out there.’ The yurts became nicer than the house.”

It’s been an adjustment but a worthwhile one for Maisa Thayer, who had the Tolers build a yurt for her on her family’s property in Kaneohe last year. She doesn’t have a bathroom or kitchen in her 16-foot diameter yurt and has to use the facilities of her family home. But overall, she prefers being in the yurt.

“I had to give up some conveniences, but I feel like I gained a lot more in return,” said Thayer, 30, who works on boats and teaches yoga for a living. “Like last night, there was a full moon, and the full moon was beaming into my bedroom through my dome. I could see that lying down in my bed.”

This year’s rainy weather has actually been a blessing for her. “It’s a beautiful, serenading noise, kind of like a tin roof, but not as loud,” she said. “Living in a yurt does something to you. It’s so Zen-feeling on the outside, that you get Zen on the inside.”

SEEN AS TEMPORARY STRUCTURES

Ohana Yurts offers custom-made yurts in a variety of sizes, from a 12-foot diameter “intimate” yurt to a 30-foot diameter turnkey model that comes with custom furniture, appliances and an optional second story. Prices range from $6,200 to $125,000, not including installation.

Because yurts are constructed with materials that do not conform to traditional building standards, they cannot be permitted as traditional residential construction. Honolulu building code officials see them as temporary shelter.

“Fabric structures (tents, yurts) are meant to be temporary — easily set up and removed,” said Tim Hiu, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, in a statement. “While these yurts may have a functional role for temporary uses — emergency disaster relief and homeless shelters — they do not fall into a category under the building code other than short-term uses, as they would fail in the criteria for durability and safety.”

That’s OK with the Tolers, who said they have met with city officials to discuss the idea of using yurts to address Hawaii’s housing problem, seeing them as an affordable, flexible alternative to permanent housing.

“Going into a yurt, you’re basically renting land, and (renting) land is much more inexpensive than renting a regular house,” Nathan Toler said. (The Tolers’ website provides tips on acquiring other permits that might be necessary.)

CLOSENESS UNDER ONE ROOF

The Tolers are dedicated to the yurt lifestyle, and after a visit to their home, it’s easy to see why. With 1,400 square feet of living space, made-to-fit furniture and 360-degree views, it makes for graceful living. Curved shapes are seen throughout, with a spiral staircase leading up to the second floor. The kitchen, directly under the center skylight and decorated with a seascape by Kailua artist Colin Redican, acts as a hub of activity. There’s even a curved TV screen in the entertainment center.

Their yurt has provided the family with a closeness they didn’t feel in a regular home.

“I can be just about anywhere in the house and see one kid doing his homework over here, and another playing over there,” said Nathan Toler. “I just love that, knowing that I can see them and that they can see me.”

Jenny Toler, who as Jenny Useldinger was a top female big-wave surfer, said her perspective on life has mellowed dramatically since moving into a yurt.

“Every day just feels so good,” she said. “I don’t need that high from surfing and catching the biggest wave any more. It’s just the simple day-to-day things. We get to show our kids every day how much we love them by making choices and by making sure we’re together as a family.

“Living in spaces like this, we’re really going to be together.”

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OHANA YURTS

58-121 Kaunala St., Haleiwa

>> Note: Watch a Season 1 marathon of “Love Yurts” Thursday and April 13 on the DIY network. Videos and images from the show are available here. Interested in appearing on “Love Yurts”? Contact the Tolers via email at info@ohanayurts.com or call 256-0559.