Derek “Deek” Diedricksen is a self-proclaimed lover of all things tiny home. The Massachusetts-based builder is the author of numerous tiny home books; organizer of tiny home building and design workshops around the country; and has been featured on more than one HGTV series and the DIY Network. His latest book, Microshelters, features 59 of the country’s most creative small structures — cabins, tree houses, stilted shelters, backyard huts, and tiny homes on wheels…
Deek’s Brockton, MA Hands‑On Tiny House Building Workshop 2016! Our workshops are fully hands-on, taught by a duo who have hosted and designed for HGTV and The DIY Network, have been featured in the New York Times, and are so fun and eclectic, that we have many people who have attended these workshops two, three, and even four times!
FEBRUARY 5-6-7, 2016, Brockton, MA (25 min. from Boston)
Well, its pretty thrilling that a museum that I hold in high esteem, and one that is gorgeous, has asked us to host a Hands‑On Tiny House Building Workshop! Naturally we said yes! This time around, we have more space than we know what to do with, all indoors (don’t worry, you won’t freeze to death!), and we’ll be tackling two, if not three, tiny cabin and shelter projects — all roping in the know-how you need to build a tiny house, shed, tree house, cabin, or funkified fort!
I met Mike B. when we started working on the Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move books. Amazing builder, snowboarder, traveller. This guy does it all, one of the most inspiring people I know. Here is a newly released video by GoPro and him detailing the build and trip to Alaska.
Derek “Deek” Diedricksen is a self-proclaimed lover of all things tiny home. The Massachusetts-based builder is the author of numerous tiny home books; organizer of tiny home building and design workshops around the country; and has been featured on more than one HGTV series and the DIY Network. His latest book, Microshelters, features 59 of the country’s most creative small structures — cabins, tree houses, stilted shelters, backyard huts, and tiny homes on wheels.
When builder/craftsman Yuichi Takeuchi was asked by a friend to build a treehouse as a second residence in Fujiyoshida — an area near the base of Mount Fuji and popular for vacation residences — Takeuchi set to work searching the trees and looking for a place to rent.
He finally found a friend who was willing to lease some land (for a decade) in the backyard of his woodworking workshop. Takeuchi then invited friends/coworkers to camp out with him and brainstorm at the site. “I’m not a professional architect … I don’t really design things I just enjoy what’s happening next. And this was designed by many of us just staying in this little house [the workshop floor] and sleep together, eat together and drink together and just keep talking about design and how we want so this was happening on the location.”
Together Takeuchi and friends of Tree Heads & Co. began constructing a tiny cabin (“about 4-and-a-half tatami mats”) perched 20 feet high on two young trees. It’s constructed from Japanese cypress, mostly from trees felled by Takeuchi within a couple miles of the property.
The tiny elevated home is furnished with just a carpet — the part-time residents roll out sleeping bags at night — and a kitchen of rice cooker and camping stove.
I recently spent a week in one of the tiny dune shacks on the Cape Cod National Seashore — long a refuge for painters and writers, and a beautiful, improbable relic of bohemian Provincetown preserved through a long, hard fight by the community.
Home decor magazine, House Beautiful, recently made its picks for the best tiny home in each state and one unique home in the woods of Bethlehem got top honor here in Connecticut.
This unique home in Bethlehem listed as an “earth house” is perfect for Eco-concious guests. The one-bedroom house available for $49 a night or $250 a week was “built from wood growing 10 feet away.”
Encompassed by her warm orange walls decorated with vivid art, Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Bethany Chaney said living in a home with a footprint of only 400 square feet was an experiment at first. “The things I have make me happy, and I don’t need to constantly acquire things to fill up room that I don’t use. I use every bit of space in this house,” she said. Chaney, a resident of Carrboro, is not alone in the quest to live on less.
They range from a 238-square-foot backyard cabin you can rent on Airbnb to a 135-square-foot trailer on wheels that one couple is driving across the country for a year. Read More …
Main cabin and shower house with a water-jacketed Franklin stove and hand-built tile tub in one room and shower in the other. Located at 40° 5’32.74″N 105°29’37.67″W, near Boulder, Colorado.
The size of your home has a tremendous influence on your cost of living, environmental impact, and general well-being. The demand for space-efficient housing continues to grow exponentially as people of all ages discover that a smaller home might be the key to a larger life.
That’s why leading designers, builders, developers, realtors, policy makers and community members will gather for the Build Small Live Large 2015, a unique, one-day housing summit, to share what’s working, what’s new, and what’s next. Alan Durning from the Sightline Institute and tiny house pioneer Dee Williams will lead off the day with inspiring keynote speeches about how building small can lead to broader community action and how positive change really does begin at home.
Join us to learn how to build and rent out a backyard apartment, see successful examples of cottage clusters and small house communities, and become inspired by space-efficient and energy-efficient designs. End the day with an energizing look at the beautiful and inventive small spaces in the “Best of Small” Design Slam, and network with pioneering builders and designers of small houses throughout the event! Find out more at: Build Small Live Large Summit 2015.
–Dee Williams
Portland Alternative Dwellings
Build the life you dream … TODAY!
We’ve been approached by a film maker who is interested in telling the stories of people/a person who specializes in converting vehicles into tiny homes that move. Ideally, we’d like to find someone who does this for other people and makes a living/makes a business of it.
Vans, house buses, house trucks, trailers, or sailboats or houseboats. Please contact me if you know of anyone in this category: lloyd@shelterpub.com
In 1973 we published Shelter, which turned out to be station central for people interested in creating their own homes. Now, in the 21st century, we continue this dialog here online on shelter, carpentry, homesteading, gardening, and the home arts with this blog. We hope you will join us and contribute.
