diff --git a/manifests/common.pp b/manifests/common.pp
index f29b2f3..54ec3de 100644
--- a/manifests/common.pp
+++ b/manifests/common.pp
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ class puppet::common ($ensure = 'present') {
 
   $facts_d = '/etc/facter/facts.d'
   File['/etc/facter'] -> File[$facts_d]
+  $pv_dir = $::puppet_vardir ? {
+    ''      => '/var/lib/puppet',
+    default => $::puppet_vardir
+  }
 
   file {
     [
@@ -22,10 +26,11 @@ class puppet::common ($ensure = 'present') {
       owner  => 'root',
       group  => 'root';
 
-    "${::puppet_vardir}/exported":
+    "${pv_dir}/exported":
       ensure => $ens_dir;
   }
-  $factpath = "${::puppet_vardir}/lib/facter"
+  $factpath = "${pv_dir}/lib/facter"
+
   # add facter variable to custom facts.
   file { '/etc/profile.d/puppet.sh': content => "export FACTERLIB=\"${factpath}\"\n",
   }