Tiny House Blog

by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen

Hey All,

I just had a little fun shooting this one-take DIY-idea video on using free and salvaged goods for decorating and construction, from windows to wall hangings, and while some of the ideas might be ultra-bizarre, others might be practical enough for your needs, or better yet, might spark another new idea in YOU.

Below, for tinyhouseblog.com readers, I’ve also added a few more photos of examples that the video DOES NOT cover (and believe me, I have about 100 more, but the video is long enough already!).

A window on “The Gypsy Junker” cabin (for sale btw $1200 OBO), made out of a colored glass dinner plate

Building on a budget is something I always make sure to cover in the workshops I host for Tumbleweed, and the ones I host/set-up on my own, in fact, our April 26th-28th build/3-day workshop with Steven Harrell in North Carolina, will not only incorporate A LOT of hands-on building, but a good deal of free-form design, salvage construction, and recycled material problem solving- ALWAYS fun! We do have a few slots left, but not many at all, and some INCREDIBLE guest speakers and demos planned! Check out the flyer below for a full listing of our AWESOME guest teachers- its more or less a “Tiny House Convention” at this point. Just crazy…

Aside from this new video….here are a few photo examples and their explanations. Some are taken from my book “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks“, while others are brand new shots which might end up in the next book. Continue Reading »

An update, before I drop some info on a NEW hands-on building workshop collaboration in North Carolina (below)…

We recently just completed our Relaxshacks.com Tiny House-Building Workshop two weekends ago, and it was absolutely incredible(!) to get to hang with a group of twenty-plus people for so long a time. It’s amazing how well you get to know and bond with people when a workshop becomes a camp-out, not to mention an all-out, tiny-house-obsessed, event. We had attendees from New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, and beyond- and luckily the weather was GREAT (we got hit with a big storm two days later!)

Aside from many guest speakers including Sage Radachowsky (Gypsy Wagon Dweller), Doug Immel (Fencl Builder), Dustin “Dr. Demolition” Diedricksen (Small Home Dweller and Environmental Engineer), Tristan Chambers and Libby Reinish (who brought out their Whittled Down Caravan), and Mariah Coz (n’ Matt!) (who lugged out their ultra-cool Comet Camper), we all collaborated on building a tiny travel trailer/tiny house. Continue Reading »

by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen

Hey all,

With the 1000th post of Relaxshacks.com on the horizon, and our third hands-on, tiny house building workshop coming up (Nov 2-4 right outside Boston, MA), I thought a giveaway to the Tiny House Blog readers might be in order, as a way to thank all of you, and Kent, for all of the support over the years.

Up on the block we have….

• My “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks” tiny house design/concept book
• “No Impact Man” the DVD documentary from Colin Beavan
• “Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable, Nesting, Skills” by Raleigh Briggs
• “Your Money or Your Life“- by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
• A tiny house print from JamaicaCottageShop.com
• A “Tiny: The Movie” tiny house print I created/sketched
• A compilation CD with my band (for use as a frisbee or drink coaster)
• my band “DEFDEALER” (which may scare some of you) is doing a “Itunes for The Homeless” fundraiser
• using the money from each and every download to raise money to build a tiny dwelling with a certain homeless organization. $0.99 at a time, we hope to raised a little over $400 to make this possible.

Anyway, to win, just let us know WHY YOU FEEL TINY HOUSE LIVING IS ADVANTAGEOUS- aside from the normal, more cliche, reasons…..I will pick a winner, and I’ll mail you all the prize loot. Feel free to get creative or comical too. Deadline is one week from the posting date of this entry. Enter your submissions in the comment thread below.

As for the upcoming workshop….we’ve added even MORE guest speakers and demonstrators! Check out the list, its pretty insane! Its filling up pretty fast too, so if interested, don’t lag too long. And YES, we’ll all be building a tiny guest house together, camping, seeing/touring other tiny dwellings (Jay Shafer’s VERY FIRST TUMBLEWEED TINY HOUSE), discussing topics at night by a bon fire, a pizza party, and more. I can’t wait!

Click here for more details and sign-up info…
http://www.relaxshacks.blogspot.com/2012/07/tiny-house-building-workshop-3.html

-Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, author, blogger, tiny house builder, and host of the program “Tiny Yellow House” on youtube, will also be hosting the upcoming Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshops in Chicago, and NYC.

Announcement

If you live in the Boston area be sure and go and visit the original Epu, the first built Tumbleweed that tiny house celebrity Jay Shafer built and lived in. It will be on display for an Open House this Saturday, May 12, 2012 from 1 pm to 4 pm in Boston, 88 Lambert Ave. (Avenue not “Street”)

If you can’t make the open house, fret not, as during the Boston Tiny House Building Workshop, you can also make a field trip to this very site, for a more intimate look at the structure, and with guest speakers galore….

• Tiny House Dweller and Author, John Hanson Mitchell
• Gypsy Wagon Builder and Dweller Sage Radachowsky
• Mariah Coz and her Comet Camper, a classic Avalon she’s renovating in a green and off-grid fashion to serve as a mobile classroom.

And perhaps more….

Also the Boston Workshop (May 19th and 20th) hosted by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen will be on hand to give you a tour, and answer any questions you might have in regards to tiny housing. Derek is also teaching upcoming workshops in DC, Chicago, and NYC. The event will also double as the delayed book release event for Diedricksen’s “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks.” which spent 15 weeks as the #1 ranked Carpentry book on Amazon).

Continue Reading »

Hey All,

For those who haven’t heard (many, as we haven’t talked/posted on it much), I’m hosting another Relaxshacks.com Tiny House Building Workshop this year, something we’re dubbing “Tiny House Summer Camp,” and for good reason….

Last year’s sold out workshop went very well, and we had great feedback, so we decided to try a FOUR DAY workshop this time, with camping sites and lodging, and MANY guest speakers and demonstrators. I initially only wanted one guest presenter, perhaps two, but this tiny-house-athon has almost become a small living convention of sorts. Well, a convention where we’re only letting in fifteen attendees!

The aim is to keep it small, hands-on, fun, and eclectic. We want you to not only learn about the ins and outs of small space design and construction, but also to actually build a tiny cabin in the woods together. You’ll have the chance to see and stay in a small off-grid log cabin (one Kent featured as a “tiny house in a landscape” last year), my own Vermont Cabin (as seen in both Lloyd Kahn and Mimi Zeiger’s new tiny housing books), The U.B. 30 Treehouse, and we’ll take a field trip or two to The Pine Crest Cabins in Barton, Vermont, a local mom and pop sawmill, and “Uncle Bob’s Place” to check out some thrift-built tiny structures, and more….

Continue Reading »

Guest Post by Derek Diedricksen

She doesn’t like being labeled, but I still can’t help but dub her a “Maven of Minimalism”, (and hopefully she won’t get mad at me for it!), and for good reason, as Tammy Strobel has moved from what most would already consider a small living arrangement (a 400 square foot apartment), into a new, even smaller, 128 square foot home! Her story, I feel, is not only gutsy, but fun, and enlightening at the same time….oh yeah, I should mention that she also lives in this very same house with another person- Logan Smith- so at 64 square feet a piece, I felt they might have quite a bit of light to shine on the world of living with little.

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Interview by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen of relaxshacks.com. The “Tammy” sketch below is from his tiny house design book “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks“- in a brand new “Tricks Of The Trade” chapter with input from Lloyd Kahn, Gregory Paul Johnson, Dee Williams, Jay Shafer, Alex Pino, Duo Dickinson, Mimi Zeiger, Colin Beavan, Alex Johnson, Cathy Johnson, and some guy named “Kent Griswold”!?

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Deek: What was the turning point in your life where you decided that the run of the mill, status quo lifestyle, and one usually surrounded by “stuff’”, wasn’t for you?

Tammy: About six years ago I took a life changing trip to Mexico. At the time I was volunteering with the Mexico Solidarity Network and was unhappy with my career and huge mound of debt. After visiting Mexico and seeing so much poverty, I realized how trivial my problems were. When I got back, I knew I had to make some serious life changes. And a few months later, Logan and I happened to watch a You Tube video featuring Dee Williams and her tiny house.

Once we saw Dee’s video, we knew tiny house living was a good fit for us. So we started taking steps to transform our lives, like paying down our debt, selling the cars, and giving away a lot of stuff. Seeing the video of Dee and her little house was a big turning point for us. It gave us a whole new perspective on what our life could be like; that I didn’t have to drive two hours to and from work everyday or live in a big house either. It was empowering to realize I could live life on my own terms. Continue Reading »