Tiny House Living

Nick Weston, the author or The Treehouse Diaries: How to Live Wild in the Woods, has moved out of his treehouse in England and has setup a new humble living space inside an old barn. By comparison he’s now living a modern life with electricity, a gas stove, and running water (just outside from a garden faucet). It might not be the lap of luxury but Nick likes it just fine and as he says, “its as cheap as chips”. Read more about Nick’s tiny house in a barn.

I’m running a survey over at Tiny House Design in an attempt to uncover what kind of tiny house would be most popular.

What Kind of Tiny House Would You Buy?

Last weekend a story came out on NPR about the tiny house movement and featured Peter King and my friend Derek “Deek” Diedricksen. Be sure to take a listen if you missed it. Below is the video of Peter King referenced in the NPR Story.

Tiny Houses on NPR

I’ve been following Keith Levy’s blog for some time now. Keith lives in New Zealand and writes about all the clever folks and tiny homes he finds while living the life of a land gypsy. After living on boats for many years he made the transition to living on land nine years ago but chose to continue to stay flexible and portable. The Flying Tortoise, the bus pictured below, is his full-time home.

The Flying Tortoise

I first learned about Keith Levy through a post on Lloyd Kahn’s blog, which is also an excellent place to find stories of alternative handmade homes.

The Flying Tortoise

I don’t think Ryo has called his place in the mountains of Lassen County, California a homestead before, but he just finished putting in a garden and is settling in for the summer… so homestead just seems right to me. He’s also noodling over building another structure or augmenting the one he build last summer.

Ryo’s Homestead Update

The most recent Radio Shedworking podcast focuses on the viability, benefits, and challenges of alternative workspaces like backyard garden offices.

Radio Shedworking

Derek Diedricksen has released the newest episode of the Tiny Yellow House. This time the focus is on a little tiny house fun. For all of Derek’s antics follow him at RelaxShax.

Tiny Yellow House – Episode 3

Les Stroud, a.k.a Survivor Man, produced this documentary several years ago that records his personal adventure into setting up an off-the-grid homestead in Canada.

The property he buys is 150 acres and has some old farm buildings, one of which he trys to convert into a small 20′ by 20′ cabin before winter. He also sets up a tent cabin that he and his family use as a temporary shelter and also has some help building a small prefab cabin.

It seems that the main lesson learned from this experience is that proper planning and good timing can make a project like this much easier. Although I suspect there was just no avoiding some of the challenges they endured.

All of the segments are currently on YouTube but you can also buy the DVD form his website. Here’s the first part.

Visit YouTube to see the rest…

The Treehouse Diaries: How to Live Wild in the Woods by Nick Weston captures what he learned while living off the land and in a treehouse after escaping the rat race in London.

The Treehouse Diaries by Nick Weston

I’ve been really enjoying the posts at the KMS Woodworks Blog. This recent post focuses on spending a fews days over spring break in their small cabin with the kids. One of the new experiences was adjusting to living with a sawdust toilet.

Adjusting to a Small Cabin