Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts And Whatever the Heck Else We Could Squeeze in Here

123 Pages·2012·72.608 MB·English

by  Derek Diedricksen

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This Old House meets Wayne’s World in this zany guide to designing
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and building tiny homes, vacation camps, sheds, and forts. ,

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“Using salvaged materials and power “Deek’s . . . easily accessible drawings will inspire many a reader—who would C
tools, Diedricksen creates cozy living otherwise not have done so—to pick up a hammer and saw and build a o
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spaces filled with artistic touches that treehouse, a fort, a shack, or a solar shower, and realize 'Hey, I can do that!'" t
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you would never expect to see in an —lloyd kahn, Editor of Shelter Publications and co-author of g
average trailer or treehouse. It’s Mad e
Shelter, Home Work, and Builders of the Pacific Coast
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Magazine meets This Old House.” ,

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—Emily SwEEnEy, Boston Globe “The images and ideas in Deek’s book are not only great porn for tiny
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house freaks like us, but they also serve to show your friends that there m
is someone out there whose fascination with the subject is even more s
“I was so wowed by this book. . . . The perverse than yours.” —Jay ShafEr, Tiny Tumbleweed House Company h
information is practical and raw, and a
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very unpretentious.” k
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—GrEGory Paul JohnSon, “Humble Homes . . . is a great book. I really enjoyed it, and it’s packed with e
President, National Small House information much like the old Whole Earth Catalog.” R
Society and Resourcesforlife.com e
—lEStEr walkEr, author of Tiny Houses and American Shelter t
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dErEk (“dEEk”) diEdrickSEn was born and raised in Madison, Connecticut, ,

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and is a graduate of Northeastern University. After finishing college he was a u
DJ at CBS radio station 104.1 WBCN in Boston. He now hosts and directs the n
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online TV program Tiny Yellow House based on his designs and runs the y
micro-architecture blog Relaxshacks.com. His work has also been featured in F
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or has appeared on PBS, CBS, ABC, NPR, Treehugger.com, the Seattle Times,
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New York Times, Boston Globe, and many international publications. s
Cover illustration by derek (“deek”) diedricksen
US $16.95 / Canadian $18.95
Back cover photos: Deek jumping by Bruce
Bettis, trailer cabin by George crawford, cabin
photo from Cabins: A Guide to Building Your
Lyons Press is an imprint of
Globe Pequot Press Own Nature Retreat by david and The New Triple-Caffeinated EXPANDED EDITION
Guilford, Connecticut Jeanie Stiles, interior cabin by Bruce Bettis
www.LyonsPress.com
Cover design by Bret kerr
HumbleHomes_mech3.indd 1 12/2/11 10:07 AM
Praise for the author’s tiny structures
“For ingenuity, thrift, and charm, Mr. Diedricksen’s tiny structures are hard to beat.”
—New York Times
Praise for Humble Homes, simple sHacks, cozy cottages,
RamsHackle RetReats, Funky FoRts
“Using salvaged materials and power tools, Diedricksen creates cozy living spaces filled with artistic touches
that you would never expect to see in an average trailer or treehouse. He’ll create colorful patterns of blue
and green glass circles on a wall by sawing wine bottles in half. He’s been known to incorporate pickle jars
into his designs. That round window that looks like a porthole on a ship? That used to be the window on a
front-loading washing machine. It’s Mad Magazine, meets This Old House.” —Emily Sweeney, The Boston Globe
“If you like little houses as much as I do, then your friends probably think you’re weird. The images and ideas
in Deek’s book are not only great porn for tiny house freaks like us, but they also serve to show your friends
that there is someone out there whose fascination with the subject is even more perverse than yours.” —Jay
Shafer, Tiny Tumbleweed House Company
“Humble Homes . . . is a great book, I really enjoyed it, and it’s packed with information much like the old
Whole Earth Catalog.” —Lester Walker, author of Tiny Houses, and American Shelter
“I was so wowed by this book. It’s awesome. The information is practical and raw, and very unpretentious.
The overall feel is so honest and authentic.” —Gregory Paul Johnson, president of The National Small House
Society and Resourcesforlife.com
“Think Wayne’s World meets This Old House.” —Jon Kalish, NPR/National Public Radio D.I.Y. Host
“Deek brings the element of fun to the tiny house movement. He’s obviously having a great time with his life,
and his easily accessible drawings will inspire many a reader—who would otherwise not have done so—to
pick up a hammer and saw and build a treehouse, a fort, a shack, or a solar shower, and realize ‘Hey, I can
do that!’ ” —Lloyd Kahn, editor of Shelter Publications and author of Shelter, HomeWork, and Builders of the
Pacific Coast
“Amazing. This is a must-have book for those who appreciate extreme (and wacky) simple solutions!
Crammed full of what flows from Derek’s wild imagination, Humble Homes . . . is part comic book, notebook,
and alternative living encyclopedia all in one. Handwritten and illustrated, virtually every page is crammed
full of black-and-white drawings and notes that describe a vast array of ideas and solutions for simple liv-
ing.” —Michael Janzen, Tinyhousedesign.com
“I would not be surprised if Humble Homes . . . were to become a mini classic of its own within the surpris-
ingly well-organized, and recently more and more in the spotlight, world of ‘tiny house’ enthusiasts. The
book reads like a demented Boy Scout’s fantasy notebook of plans, and some of the designs are downright
cuh-razy, but all in all, there’s a lot here to get your own creative juices going. To sum up, the book is a lot of
fun and whets my appetite for future episodes of Diedricksen’s ‘Tiny Yellow House’ video series—I can’t wait
to see more of his off-the-wall designs come to life!” —Katherine Sharpe, Readymade Magazine
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“Derek’s book is a far cry from anything conventional. Deek aims to inspire with his ideas, ideas that may well
earn his book a place in tiny house history. What he ends up doing is reconstructing the mind into accept-
ing what constitutes shelter. Deek’s book is important not so much because it is another entertaining zine
produced by an overly creative young person, but because he is both fed by a movement and contributing a
large chunk to it with his mind-bending, Houdini-like acts of radically small, home-built shelters.” —Amanda
Kovattana, Déjà Vu Construction
“Humble Homes . . . explores the possibilities of the small home—and is the single craziest, most unique book
I have ever seen. It’s like MacGyver and Bob Villa sat down to make a graphic novel but made a catalog for
Building 19 instead . . . all illustrated in a wonderful and crazy style.” —Gene Higgins, The Worcester Pulse
Magazine
“Humble Homes . . . is a hoot, an education, and an inspiration, crammed with Diedricksen’s designs. The
book is obsessively illustrated with wacky cartoon or design drawings and is brimming with Yankee ingenu-
ity, junkyard philosophy, and plenty of eye-rolling yucks. The funky energy of Humble Homes . . . reminds me
a lot of Lloyd Kahn’s ‘Shelter’ books, Malcolm Wells’s solar architecture books, and other homemade home
books from The Whole Earth Catalog.” —Gareth Branwyn, Make Magazine
“Simply put, if you are the type of person who walks by a pile of curbside junk and thinks, ‘I could make
something out of that,’ then this is the book for you! Derek Diedricksen has put together a comprehensive
collection of rather compelling building alternatives, combining his own building experiences with his cre-
ative imagination and excellent pen-and-ink drawings. Even if you never pick up a hammer, Humble Homes
. . . is a hugely fascinating journey from beginning to end.” —David and Jeanie Stiles, authors of Cabins: A
Guide to Building Your Own Nature Retreat and Sheds: The-Do-It-Yourself Guide
“Brilliant! I want to write a book like this. But I can’t. Derek is my new best friend and he doesn’t even know
me. He will though, by God. He will . . .” —Peter Nelson, founder of The Treehouse Workshop Inc. and author
of Treehouses of the World
“For me, each page of Humble Homes . . . is a mutant love child of my past year. A Few Zines meets Tiny
Houses. I never imagined the two could co-exist, but Deek did. For him, a hardcore playing Eagle Scout, the
link between DIY construction and DIY publishing is seamless. And inspired. Without moaning about the ill
winds blowing down both media and housing, Deek tackled his pages with 83 black pens; one after another
they gave themselves to his one-man revolution.” —Mimi Zeiger, author of Micro-Green and Tiny Houses
“Think David Stiles and Rube Goldberg on a caffeine bender. One of the more unique and entertaining micro-
housing books out there.” —Mark Schelary, indie zine author of Who Forted?
“Clearly displaying his upbringing on a diet of punk rock and hardcore zines, Diedricksen has offered up one
of the more eclectic and DIY mini-house books on the market.” —The Wilmington Weekly Online
“The book weirded me out a little . . . Is it cool if I put up a fence?” —the author’s neighbor
“With close to fifty low-cost, do-it-yourself, fort, cabin, and shelter designs, Diedricksen’s Humble Homes
. . . is a veritable eye-tiring, carpal-tunnel-inducing barrage of wildly original dimestore-pen sketches, with a
wealth of designs bordering from the clever and ultra-efficient, to the outright insane.” —Fortpimp Magazine
HumbleHomesCS4_1-104_3pp.indd 2 11/15/11 5:01 PM
Humble Homes, Simple Shacks,
Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle
Retreats, Funky Forts
And Whatever the Heck Else We Could Squeeze in Here
(Say that ten times fast!)*
Written, Concocted, Conjured, and Illustrated by
Derek “Deek” Diedricksen
*Warning: Saying the above book title ten times fast may
cause dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, and hair loss.
LyonS PRESS
GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT
An imprint of Globe Pequot Press
HumbleHomesCS4_1-104_3pp.indd 3 11/15/11 5:01 PM
Copyright © 2012 by Derek (“Deek”) Diedricksen
First published by Tiny Yellow House Press © 2009
First Lyons Press edition 2012
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn:
Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.
Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.
Text design: Sheryl Kober
Layout artist: Casey Shain
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diedricksen, Derek.
Humble homes, simple shacks, cozy cottages, ramshackle retreats, funky forts,
and whatever the heck else we could squeeze in here ... / written, concocted,
conjured, and illustrated by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7627-7146-2 (pbk.)
1. House construction—Popular works. 2. Outbuildings—Design and
construction—Popular works. I. Title.
TH4815.D54 2012
690—dc23
2011044853
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The procedures in this text are intended for use only by persons with prior
training in the field of building “humble homes.” In the checking and editing
of these procedures, every effort has been made to identify potentially
hazardous steps and to eliminate as much as possible the handling of
potentially dangerous materials, and safety precautions have been inserted
where appropriate. If performed with the materials and equipment specified,
in careful accordance with the instructions and methods in this text, the author
and publisher believe the procedures to be very useful tools. However, these
procedures must be conducted at one’s own risk. The author and publisher do
not warrant or guarantee the safety of individuals using these procedures and
specifically disclaim any and all liability arising directly or indirectly from the
use or application of any information contained in this publication.
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Deek’s Disclaimer
(’cause, sadly, these days everyone’s gotta have one)
in this age of “Gee, how was I to know that this steaming cup of McDonald’s coffee could leave me
looking like an unmasked Phantom of the Opera if I spilled it on myself? I’m suing!” I find it necessary
to include the following disclaimer for what should stand as common sense anyway:
USE yoUR BRAIn.
Don’T BE An IDIoT.
a good many of these structures are stylistic recommenda-
tions and nothing more. Since the plans are loosely (or not
even) laid out, when and if you attempt to build any of these,
a good deal of your own free-thinking, problem-solving, and
personal skill level will come into play, so build only what you
think you are capable of. If you build any of these cabins and
they collapse on you, or you hacksaw your thumb right off, I’m
in no way responsible. It’s your arse! (Try to keep that too. It
comes in handy when sitting.) And yeah, some of these struc-
tures border on the ridiculous, so use extra care when treading
in that territory.
It goes without saying that this entire book and all its art
may not be copied, distributed, or sold without explicit permis-
sion from the author and illustrator (aka, me) and Lyons Press.
If you choose to ignore this simple, lawful request, I will fly out
to wherever you are and mess you up. I’m a ninjitsu master in
the art of West Coast spatula fighting, so don’t push me!
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Contents
Foreword by David and Jeanie Stiles 8 G is for Guesthouse 48
Preface: From Here to There: The Conex Box Building 49
A Rags-to-Fancier Rags Story 9 The Hunchback Hovel 50
Introduction: To the Reader about to Embark Stacked 51
upon a Journey through a Slew of Doodles The Bullet 52
(aka My “Get-Rich-SLOW Scheme”) 10 The High-Life 53
The Ultra Wee Treehouse 54
Chapter 1: Huts, Houses, Hideaways, and Mo’ 14 The “Thwart-Fort” 55
Sweatin’ with the Oldies 15 The Indefatigable Unconventional Pallet-Man 56
The “Yeehaw Spa” 16 A Tee-Pee for Three 57
5 Sheets in the Wind 17 The Odd Pod 58
The Curbside-Kid Cabin 18 Old McDeekula Had a Cabin 59
Fort-asaurus 19
The Inclined “Plain” (a k a “The Wedge”) 20 Chapter 2: The Other Schtuff 61
A Tree-Shaped Treehouse 21 A “Terror” to All Tiny Cabins 62
The “Bort” 22 Behold, The Mighty Junk-Dresser Drawer 63
The Pimple 23 Sticky Note Brainstorms 64
The Cantilevered Snug Sleeper 24 The Wino’s Window 65
The Kalish Cubby 25 The Three Dollar Hammock 66
All but the Kitchen Sink 26 Stereo-vision 67
Uncle Dusty’s Guest Shed 27 Fabi-lous and Bizarre Shelving 68
The Owl’s Nest 28 Water Collection and Storage 69
“A New Angle” 29 Swamp in Your Way? 70
“The Lemon Seed” 30 Other Cabin Design Ideas (On the Cheap!) 71
The Birdhouse 31 Child-Safe Mousetrap 72
TV-Viewing Fort-Cube 32 The Po’ Man’s Shower 73
The Coffin 33 The Last of Windows n’ Water 76
The Deep 6 34 The Little-Living Log 1 77
Down at Big Lee’s Swamp 35 The Little-Living Log 2 78
The Underground Compound 36 The “Dummy” Camera 79
Wanna Mess with People? 37 Harvesting the Rain 80
Nesting 38 Big Houses 81
The Beak (2) 39 The Scrap n’ Crap Blurbathon 82
102 Square Feet O’ Livin’ 40 Cleverly Crafted from Curb-Crud 87
The Junk-Car Cabin 41 Bound by the Power of Laziness and Beer 88
The Inverted A-Frame 42 Trixuvthatrayd 90
The A-Frame 43 Cashing In on the Laziness of Others 96
The Expandable Greenhouse 44 All ’Dem Places 97
The Mutt Hut 45 The Book Nook List 100
The Backwoods Bunker 46
The Potential Diedricksen-Family Where Do We Go from Here? 102
Off-Kitchen Addition 47 About the Author/Illustrator 103
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FoREWoRD
it was early in 2010 when we received a fledgling the time seems right for ambitious young people to
copy of Humble Homes, Simple Shacks—a comb- think about building their own homes, if they can
bound book then in its original, self-released “base- afford to buy a small piece of property. Sound ridic-
ment form.” Well, what at first seemed like some ulous? Many people, including ourselves, have done
kind of wacky comic book soon took on another just that by using their vacations and weekends
form as we began leafing through its enormous and a small part of their salaries to build their own
array of details and design concepts. We found our- getaway cabins. In order to do this you need some
selves reading every page, blurb, micro-sketch, and type of temporary shelter to sleep in and store your
side note of the book. tools, and this is where Derek’s book can be of great
Simply put, if you are the type of person who assistance. And for those who aim to dwell perma-
walks by a pile of curbside junk and thinks “I could nently in the extremes of micro-architecture, look no
make something out of that,” then this is the book further. When we bought our land 50 miles north
for you! Derek Diedricksen has put together a com- of New York City, we built a small temporary 12-by-
prehensive collection of rather compelling building 12-foot cabin in the woods, figuring this would be
alternatives, combining his own building experience good enough while we were deciding on the house
with his creative imagination and excellent pen and site and what it would look like. We used the cabin
ink drawings. Derek is the modern-day equivalent of on weekends to go fishing, swimming, hiking, and
the beat generation builders who, during the 1960s, cross-country skiing. As it turned out, we never got
looked for new and inexpensive ways to build their around to building the real house because we had
own shelters. Encouraged by books and magazines everything we needed already! Perhaps this book
like Ken Kern’s The Owner Built Homestead, The will help you realize the same thing and will inspire
Whole Earth Catalog, Shelter magazine, and Mother you to build your own cabin. Even if you never pick
Earth News, these disenfranchised young people up a hammer, Humble Homes is a hugely fascinating
with little or no building experience began con- journey from beginning to end.
structing and living in geodesic domes, yurts, tee-
pees, and log cabins. Diedricksen’s work continues —David and Jeanie Stiles,
very much in this vein. authors of Cabins: A Guide to Building
Nowadays, with unemployment at its highest level Your Own Nature Retreat and Sheds:
and foreclosures on farms and properties increasing, The-Do-It-Yourself Guide
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HumbleHomesCS4_1-104_3pp.indd 8 11/15/11 5:01 PM
PREFACE: FRom HERE To THERE:
A-RAgS-To-FAnCIER-RAgS SToRy
episode of the show received more than eight thou-
sand views in its first week alone. The rest is tiny
house history . . .
After offers from three publishing companies,
Derek ultimately handed over the reins to Lyons
Press to produce his book. While trying to juggle his
roles as host/director/producer of Tiny Yellow House
TV, head contractor of his own micro- carpentry busi-
ness, drummer for two bands, key writer for three
blogs, and father of two small kids, he found him-
self less and less able to keep up with online book
orders. (Did we mention that each and every book
was hand-assembled?)
The book you now hold in your hands, in the
words of the author, is a “greatly expanded, more
thoughtfully laid-out, color-enriched, reworked
version of the book that took hours upon hours of
painstaking work—and lots of coffee—to complete.”
One can only imagine . . .
Humble Homes, simple shacks, cozy cottages,
Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts, and Whatever
the Heck else We could squeeze in Here was ini-
tially, and hesitantly, released in late 2009 under
the publishing moniker Tiny Yellow House Press. In
reality, TYH Press was run by one man, Derek Died-
ricksen, on his ten-dollar tag-sale comb-binding
machine from the depths of his musty basement just
outside of Boston. The books were first sold by word
of mouth, then on the tiny-house blogosphere, and
finally on Diedricksen’s own website, Relaxshacks
.com. The entire undertaking began with trash in the
form of recycled cans, as you’ll later read.
To Derek’s complete surprise, a book he almost
didn’t release rapidly gained an indie following and
escalated, all within a year, to what some might call
“Instant Cult-dom.” He had no formal background
in architecture or license in carpentry, and no one
was more surprised by the book’s success than the
author himself.
Humble Homes . . . soon gained attention from
the likes of National Public Radio, Make Magazine, May you enjoy and find inspiration within its
Readymade Magazine, CBS Radio, and local television bizarre, unique contents.
stations, which propelled the book to a whole new
level. Meanwhile, a web/TV show dubbed Tiny Yellow —“B. Grizz Lee”
House, based on the designs in this underground (an off-the-radar tiny house enthusiast/
book, was launched, and the first slapped-together dweller/blogger somewhere out in Idaho)
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