Two summers ago, when Rose and Joe (last name omitted by request), a couple in Accord, decided to "go for a vacation," they went across the street, to their yurt. They had recently erected the round, dome-topped structure as an additional space to relax in and possibly to retire to down the line. After a month, they decided to extend their stay, indefinitely.

"We were so happy there," says Rose, "that by the end of September, we committed to living in the yurt full time." Joe has an office set up in another building, and their eldest daughter lives in an efficiency apartment in the original house, which their youngest daughter visits for computer access. Other than those excursions, the yurt has become the family's primary living space.

"We are alternative-minded people," Rose explains. "We were downsizing in other aspects of our lives as well and wanted to simplify. I was basically a housewife raising children and keeping house, and 'keeping yurt' was much easier." Rose says the yurt brings the family together in a way that a regular, partitioned house doesn't. "We really enjoy each others' company. We get along very well. And we go to bed pretty much at the same time, with echoes of 'good night' and 'I love you' ringing through the space."

When you learn that the most popular yurts come in a kit and are basically a vinyl cover over a lattice frame, you may think they're nothing more than glorified tents. But yurts are far more substantial (local building codes often require permits and inspections) and can become an attractive, full-fledged, year-round home, as many people are proving. What appeals to most owners is ease of assembly and a price tag of less than the cost of a new car.

Joe and Rose's yurt measures 30 feet in diameter, and the resulting 700 square feet of living space is essentially all one room (except for the furnace room and bathroom), making the yurt more spacious than any single room in a typical house. "If you're in the living-room area, it's like a 700-square-foot living room. When you're in the bedroom, it's like 700-square-foot bedroom." Still, space can be tight for a household. "You need to be conscientious about being tidy...and decorate with what you use."

Rose and Joe call their new home the "Ritz of yurts." It features radiant floor heating; a bathroom and tub; a little kitchen with a two-burner stove, refrigerator, and sink; and rugs and pictures adorning fabric-covered walls (but no TV or computer, by choice). And even when the yurt's seven windows are covered, says Rose, "the dome overhead brings in so much light that you never think it's dark in here."

A surprising number of people and organizations in the Hudson Valley are adding a yurt to their property, sometimes as a full-time living space, like Joe and Rose's, but more often as a vacation "cabin," workshop space, backyard retreat, dance studio, home office, meditation room, massage studio, camping shelter, teen living quarters, and more. And though it may seem a great new idea to put up a free-standing, circular room, the yurt is an ancient structure of wood and wool whose ingenious design was perfected by nomadic tribes of central Asia. To this day, the Kazakhstan yurt and closely related Mongolian ger, deliciously cozy inside as well as durable and portable, are common domiciles for those countries' rural people.

Kingston resident Yulia Zarubina, production manager at Schein Media, is from Kazakhstan, where yurts are still widely used. "I grew up in a city, but when you go out to the steppes there are still some tribes that live in yurts. When we would go to a village for a vacation, we'd see them. They're very comfortable and beautiful inside, with drapes and carpets on the walls. Everything is covered and soft. It's very cozy, and the way it's shaped, it's almost like being in a womb."

Carisa Borello, director of The Living Seed, a yoga, dance, art, and music center in New Paltz, became enamored of living in the round and added one to the backyard. "It's my bedroom, a bit of an extension to the house." The yurt could use better insulation, she says, but it has a propane heater and electricity coming from the house to power lights and some appliances. Going between the conventional house (where the kitchen is) and the yurt a few times each day keeps Borello attuned with the natural world, she says. "In the yurt you can see the clouds and the sky through the dome skylight, and hear the wind blowing and the rain. You can tell if snow is thawing by the dripping. When I'm in a house I have no clue what's going on in the world around me."