Tiny House Blog

by Cristo

I like questioning ideas and concepts that most of us take for granted.

We usually accept them as a basis for our mind-frame or for how we are looking at our world and sometimes how we live our lives.

I love twisting things that are so deeply integrated into daily life that we don’t even see them anymore. For me, it’s all about investigating different for common objects. With a little imagination new possibilities are limitless.

Take a stupid shopping cart for instance. Apart from strolling thoughtlessly along sad supermarket-isles what are they good for?

Well, it could turn into a small shack as shown.

And voilà!
This shack could be used as a unit for dreaming, for thinking…Instead of, “Shop shop shop!” I could then turn this into, “Think think think!”

It could also be used as a cheap and decent shelter for homeless people. I like the idea that a consumption-system symbol could be helping those who have been expelled or denied access to the system. And now there’s just one more thing to do. Build it!

A tiny, abandoned farm cabin/shack in the snow…And some other snow shots for the heck of it – all up in Vermont where I’ve hosted workshops…these are pix I’ve been taking and collecting for the eventual follow-up to “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks.” The new book will be quite a bit different though with some full-out n’ funky plans. Some from guest architects too (a few of which I really look up to – David Stiles, for one). -Deek (Derek) Diedricksen

Continue Reading »

I came across this tiny mining shack this spring, while hiking for tortoise surveys in the Mojave desert. Well actually, we saw it from a distance during our assigned 7-mile hike, and just had to hike a few extra miles at the end of the day to get a better look! We are normally out in the back country and rarely come across signs of civilization. I was afraid of what we might find, but my partner was sure we’d find treasure. We did find an old (unopened!) Heineken, and flushed a bird which gave my partner a good scare. A hike to remember.

Cheers,
Corinne

This weeks Tiny House in a Landscape is a photograph by Christopher Seufert of a small beach shack located in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

This photo was featured on a fairly new website called Tiny House Swoon which was started recently by Steven Harrell the person behind Tiny House Listings. Steven has a real talent and a love for tiny structures and both sites are growing very rapidly. I recently featured one of my tiny house photos on Tiny House Swoon and hope to contribute more in the future. If this site is new to you be sure and book mark it and visit it often.

by Daniel Combellick

*New Photos added

The house began with ordering 60 logs from the forest service, which they delivered to the site. Common Fir. Some of these I used to build a small hut, which were all hand-hewn, along with some Birch logs taken from my forest. I lived in this small 12 X 16 ft hut the entire time I was building the house.

The foundation was dug by hand, and filled the same… this was one of the three procedures on the house I had help with – the other two were installing the metal roof, and hanging the drywall – besides these all work was completed by me. In my shed there was no electricity or water – the water I brought in containers in a wheel barrow, or on a sled in the winter – from a nearby farmers well, the old kind, drawing the water with a bucket on a chain and dumping into the old milk containers I used for storage. My light was from headlamps, and kerosene lanterns. I had a propane stove, an outhouse, and an outside bathing shelter.

When I had completed my lumber take-off I sent the logs to a mill and had them sawn. Then, I commenced building. I was alone almost every day, this is a very remote spot, it is very quiet. Sometimes the loudest sound above that of my tools was the flap of a bird’s wings overhead. Did you know crows are very noisy fliers? Continue Reading »

This weeks Tiny House in a Landscape is a picture of a shack in the Cape Cod Dune Shacks Community in Truro, Massachusetts. This is the Henry David Thoreau experience of those living the seashore life. I don’t have the photographer’s name (if you happen to know it please share it with me and I will update the post).

There is an author and photographer who has covered this area and her name is Suzanne Lewis of Austin, Texas. Her book “Dune Shack Summer,” I hope to get a copy to review the book sometime in the near future. These shacks were originally used by artists and cover a three mile stretch of beach and are called the dune shacks. You can view more of these shacks in a post Deek did back a while on the relaxshax’s blog.

If you live in the area you might want to go and check them out. I would enjoy seeing your photographs if you happen to visit the dune shacks.