This past weekend at Derek “Deek” Diedricksen’s “Relaxshacks.com Tiny House Building and Design Workshop” in Memphis, TN (at the Joe Everson compound of www.TennesseeTinyHomes.com), we worked on FOUR builds: a tiny house, a tiny office cabin, a tree house (future airbnb.com listing), and another full out tiny home from tinyhappyhomes.com. It was the biggest, full-out, hands-on tiny house building workshop that’s ever taken place and a great experience for all.

Beyond that, at this sold out three day camp-out event (65 people in all, including guest speakers such as Steven Harrell, Will Yount, FW Willis, and so many more) we had a side trip to Beale Street, AND some live music on site.

Here is performance by Milwaukee’s King Courteen during one of our breaks from building. This 22 year old is an unbelievable talent, and we’d love to see an undiscovered, independent, very creative, artist do well, so please pass this video on…you never know…our scene could launch this kid.

And be sure to wait for the chorus, even if this style music isn’t your thing…

Also, Deek and Dustin’s next Tiny House and Tree House Workshop will most likely be in August- “Tiny House Summer Camp 2″, which will double one night as a mini, off-grid, folk fest- perhaps with a repeat appearance from King Courteen…

The “Lit by Lanterns Folk Fest” is the name we’re running with…

MORE SOON- keep checking www.Relaxshacks.com

Day two of Deek’s Tiny House Workshop was extremely busy with lots going on. We started out the morning with a demonstration on how to make wooden shakes the old fashioned way by hand.

We than continued to work on our different projects. Chairs were completed and the tree house continued to take shape. A new tiny house had come in late the night before.

Steven Harrell of Tiny House Listings/Swoon, etc. showed us how to make a rocket stove and how to wash clothes in a five gallon bucket.

Joe explained how to attach a house to a trailer and what to watch for when purchasing a trailer.

We than went on a tiny house tour of the property and visited tiny houses under construction, tiny houses that were occupied by Joe’s parents and sister. Explored Joe’s tiniest house and the tear drop.

We ended the day with some going into town and others staying and visiting around the campfire. A very educational day. Only one more to go…

Learning how to make wood shakes

Carrie does some hands on shake creation

Pallet Chair

Signs

Recycle

Tiny Office

Tree House

Joe and trailer training

Joe training

New house

Cool shape and door

Telling how it was made

Steven constructing a rocket stove

Steven demonstrating his washing machine

Joe giving the “Tiny House Tours”

Big tiny house

Inside the big tiny

Fun sign

A-frame

Tiny House

Medium tiny house

Inside the medium tiny house

Tiny house and teardrop tour

Here are a few photos of the first day of Deek’s workshop at the Tiny Happy Homes location in Collierville, Tennessee. One of the largest workshops ever with over 50 participants and several structures being set up. We are having nearly perfect weather with the temperatures in the high seventies. Deek officially started the workshop on Friday at noon.

Deek started the day with a safety speech and then separated everyone into small groups working on different projects. From setting up a yurt to a prefab Hummingbird Tiny Spaces house. Building chairs, a tree house, a tiny 4 x 8 structure and much more. We ended the day with a pizza dinner brought in by Joe’s dad and myself from Collierville.

Then we sat around a nice fire and introduced ourselves and visited late into the evening. I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Deek starting the day off with a lecture.

Yurt going up.

Joe of Tiny Happy Homes watching siding being installed on one of his houses.

More siding installed

Framing a treehouse wall.

Arranging windows in one of the tree house walls.

Deek giving some guidance.

First wall on the Hummingbird prefab unit.

Hummingbird unit an hour later.

Hummingbird unit later in the afternoon

4 x 8 structure foundation.

Dustin guiding progress.

The A-frame

A-frame interior

The Tent Campground

Teardrop Trailer from Minnesota

View from the big house.

Steven and a panorama of our work area.

Deek sharing at the end of the day.

April 5-6, 2014, Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 4pm

Not too late, a few more seats available.

Join us for the first of our Tiny House Classes, a joint venture between Tiny House Blog, Northwest Woodworking Studio, and the Reclaimed Wood Blog. Presented at The Northwest Woodworking Studio, 1002 SE 8th Ave, Portland Oregon.

In this two day workshop you will learn from Master Woodworker Gary Rogowski about furniture design and building techniques as we build The Brilliant Chair.

The skills you learn in this workshop are ones you can take home to use on furniture, woodworking, and Tiny House projects.

They include:

• Hand tool use for accurate measuring and marking
• Sawing with chop saws, saber saws, and band saws
• Hand plane techniques for cleaning up lumber, texturing, and prepping surfaces
• Assembly techniques
• Using portable drills and screws
• Wood finishing

This is a great project that you’ll love building and using.

Also included in the two day class tuition are these added values:

Salvage Works of North Portland will also give a short demonstration on how to pick the correct materials using reclaimed lumber.

EB Tools is supplying two of their new KwickGripper nail pulling tools for a drawing. They will also offer 20% off coupons for those who do not win the tool to purchase one from their website. TheKwickGripper is a $30 value.

CeCe of CeCe Caldwell Paints has agreed to come in and talk about her great paints with the class. She is also providing every student with a free quart of paint of the color of their choice.

Plans for The Brilliant Chair come as part of the class from The Northwest Woodworking Studio.

Finally as a bonus you will receive a six month subscription to the Tiny House Magazine in PDF format.

To learn more and sign up click here.

Only twelve spaces available so sign up right away. Go to www.NorthwestWoodworking.com to enroll.