Tumbleweed Sighting, and Deek's Favorite Tiny House Books List!

Hey All!

I was in the San Francisco area a few months back (a long, fun, haul for an East Coaster like me- what a town!), to shoot a few tiny housetours/episodes for my youtube show "Tiny Yellow House" and for content photos on a new book I've been working on, when I saw this! Its a Tumbleweed Fencl, RIGHT outside the gates of Muir Woods, at the parks maintenance and ranger station- how cool! The area was fenced in, and I couldn't get any closer, but I stopped my car, turned around, and snapped this photo:

Tiny Ranger House! 

A lot of the photos I've taken on these trips are not only going to be in my follow-up book to "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks" but are being incorporated into a slide-show of inspirational tiny houses that is one facet of my presentations for the Tumbleweed Workshops that I teach around the country. This slide show presents some of the dos and don't of tiny house construction, and design approach, while also showing off some exceptional, clever, and bizarre deviations people have taken on the Tumbleweed plan designs- and beyond. Domes, Tree houses, Floating Homes, Tiny Houses built from Recycled Materials....they're all in there!

Upcoming, I'm teaching workshops in.....

• Austin, TX
• Nashville, TN
• Vancouver, BC

Jonathan Black: Tiny House Builder, Grandson Extraordinaire

I try really hard to be a loving granddaughter: I visit my grandma as much as possible, take her out to lunch as often as she'll allow, and occasionally even help clean out her basement. So naturally, I've always had reason to believe I was the model grandchild.

That is, until I met Jonathan Black at the Tumbleweed workshop in LA.

 Jonathan Black 

A former CalPoly student, 26 year old Jonathan chose to seek a different educational path after several unsatisfying years of school. He currently works as a server at a restaurant in San Luis Obispo, and says he's much happier dealing with "life stress" than "school stress." Now, he's setting out on a whole new meaningful adventure: tiny house building for a cause.

Jonathan's grandpa has stenosis, and is trying to plan ahead for the unfortunate possibility of needing to use a wheelchair. His house in Morgan Hill, however, is not wheelchair accessible. To solve this problem, the family has hatched a brilliant plan: Jonathan will build a wheelchair accessible wing on his grandparents' house.

There's only one problem: to work on the house, Jonathan needs a place to stay. His grandparents owned both a motor home and a shed, but neither was an option. The motor home needed too much work, and grandpa had already converted the shed into an office.

The perfect solution? A Tumbleweed Tiny House for Jonathan.

Jonathan loves the idea of avoiding debt, and is excited to integrate his tiny house into a larger meaningful project for his family. He purchased the Fencl plans before coming to LA. 

Brainstorming at the workshop 

Jonathan played around with many different designs at the workshop, getting input from his mom, Bethany, and other helpful attendees.

He will build the Fencl in January, hoping to use as many found and donated materials as possible. He will be blogging about the process as he goes, as well as checking in with us here.

After he completes his tiny house, he'll begin work on the wing for his grandparents. "My mom doesn't want it to look like a disabled wing," explained Bethany. "We want Jonathan to do something that doesn't look ugly, because it's a sensitive issue." Jonathan will be mentored by a local building inspector who is also an ADA inspector, seeking ways to make the wing both aesthetically pleasing and wheelchair accessible.

By the end of next year, he'll have not only blown me out of the water in the best grandchild competition, but will have completed a little house of his own. Two birds, one stone anyone?

Jonathan with grandparents and mom

Right now, Jonathan is looking for trailers in the Morgan Hill area, so please let us know if you can help!

Getting Tiny at UCLA

Last weekend's workshop in LA was a great success. Despite the rain and a series of confusing road blocks on the UCLA campus, we all managed to find our way to the De Neve plaza Saturday morning. The energy was high, and the conference room was lovely- it even came equipped with coffee!

As a new member of the Tumbleweed family, this was my very first workshop. I was thrilled to get a chance to meet some key players: the weekend speakers featured Jay Shafer, along with self-proclaimed "Tumbleweed poster child" Austin Hay.

 Austin talking about his house 

This was 18 year old Austin's third time as a guest speaker at a Tumbleweed workshop, and he was a big hit. He captivated the group with his tales of poorly measured couches and burnt cookies. Austin's supportive dad was also present- in addition to being a great sport about driving us around in circles on the campus, he fielded a number of questions about parenting, house building, and Austin's personal hygiene.

Hailing from as far as Alberta, Canada, to Atlanta, Georgia, this batch of tiny house lovers brought a ton of information to the table. There were couples, individuals, and some awesome parent-child teams. The most exciting part of the workshop was when the graph paper and pencils came out: with help from Austin and Jay, the participants got a chance to draw out their own floor plan ideas. 

 Austin was particularly helpful to those interested in designing spaces for young people

After we'd had a chance to brainstorm on our own, Jay led a group critique. I loved hearing some of the questions and ideas regarding innovative material usages and layout plans.

Critiquing plans 

Over the course of two days, stories were shared, friendships formed, and business plans hatched- what a great opportunity to network with fellow Tumbleweed fans. We can't wait to see what kind of wonderful projects you come up with!

If you attended the workshop and would like to leave feedback or if you have any questions about upcoming workshops, please feel free to write a comment below. 

But won't someone STEAL my tiny house on wheels?

THE THREE QUESTIONS I MOST OFTEN GET WHILE HOSTING TINY HOUSE-BUILDING WORKSHOPS....
-But where are tiny houses allowed?
-Where do you go to the bathroom? (toilet/facility set-ups)
-Won't someone steal your tiny house on wheels?

The first two have been covered many times over on several blogs, ranging from tinyhouseblog.com to tinyhousetalk.com, tinyhousedesign.com and  thetinylife.com, but I rarely see any attention given to the theft question.
Below is part of a response comment I left on Kent Griswold's blog, with much other info I have now added....

A lot of people always bring up the "won't people steal it" question, but its not as likely to happen as people might think, in fact, I've personally not heard of a case yet. 
Hopefully this will give some a bit of comfort...as we've talked a bit about it at each of the Tumbleweed Workshops I've hosted, and my own workshops....(again, there's one coming up Nov 2-4 in Boston, where we'll all build a tiny dwelling together). kidcedar at gmail dot com for info. 

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES, and the "WHY NOT".... 


-First, with a heavy duty chain you can simply lock it (your tiny house) down to a tree or two, making it very time consuming and difficult to steal. One could also self-boot it (perhaps even remove the tire(s) from one side (simple to do) so that it can't be easily transported). Most thieves want the quick steal, and not something that requires an hour or so of tree felling, and multiple people, to acquire.

-Secondly, a thief, unless he/she had ample time to hide something so enormous and strip it, would be driving around sticking out like a sore thumb with any form of tiny house- structures which are still very much so huge novelties in the general scheme of things to those not familiar with the scene. I know of many people who have never even heard of the concept, never mind seen a tiny house on wheels. Anyway, if you stole a tiny house, where are you going to hawk it without being noticed, and remembered, by every person you pass? It'd be like stealing a ferris wheel- the down-low factor is terrible, making it almost impossible to resell. 

-Third Tactic....if you plan on leaving it permanently at a site (or for a prolonged period), and have the means, why not just shove a few large boulders in front of, or around it, with a bulldozer? Any tiny-house burglar would now have to have access and the foresight to bring a bulldozer to the scene of the crime, to remove those rocks so as to give the tiny house a free passageway. Thats A LOT of work, and noisy work, to steal ANYTHING. Yeah, a tiny house is very valuable, but this ain't "The Thomas Crown Affair".

-Number Four- When I was in my teens I toured with a pop-punk/rock band by the name of "Rail" from Rochester, NY (Ringing Ear Records). When staying at a motel, especially in a shady area, we'd back the loading doors of a van or U-haul against a wall. Why? The theory is, if they don't have enough room to swing open the doors to steal all the larger gear that can only be unloaded through those very doors, then the gear just can't be removed. Now apply that to a tiny house, but in a slightly different way: If you can't hitch up a tiny house, you can't tow if off the scene. To employ this method, you'd have to unhitch the tiny house, then winch it, tongue-first, into a tight spot (the trailer neck/hitch end). Now, ultimately, its going to take some hard "unwinching" work to get the house into a free and clear spot, where it could then be hitched up tp a vehicle and stolen. Most thieves just aren't going to bother.

Five- Fake cameras- I talk about this in my tiny house design/concept book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks". Basically, hang a fake camera somewhat near the tiny house, high up on a pole or tree for instance, but somewhere in clear view. This sounds goofy, but beneath it, tack a small, official looking sign that simply reads "#5". In reality you only have one camera hung, and its a cheap fake one (they sell kits- see below), but by having it numbered "#5", any prospective "hooligan" is going to think twice before doing anything stupid or illegal near your site. He or she will be thinking, "If this is camera #5, then there must be at least four others, and how many of these have I been captured on already!?". Again, its simple and goofy, but its not going to hurt. A sign on the door of your cabin reading, "I hope you smiled for our seven cameras" might work too.

And there are a few sample ideas, and some reasoning as to why its just less likely that someone is going to steal your tiny house anyway. 

Vandalism is a whole other beast, but any homeowner, or seasonable cabin dweller, has to face this same problem.

Derek "Deek" Diedricksen is the mastermind behind Relaxshacks.com and is the author of 'Humble Homes, Simple Shacks'. Deek also hosts Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshops around the country.

MAKE Goes to Tiny House Camp

Our intrepid man of tiny house mystery,  Derek "Deek" Diedricksen, was in Vermont recently for a Tiny House Summer Camp. Thanks to MAKE, we have a little video to share. Deek is über-knowledgable about building tiny houses. Draw a tall drink from his well of knowledge at our Chicago and New York Workshops. Both locations are on sale until the end of the month, so act fast!