Over the last few months, I’ve been interviewing amazing writers about simple living, location independence, financial freedom, and more. Today the feature interview is with Deek Diedricksen. We talked about designing little abodes, Deek’s new book, and more.
Deek is not only a talented tiny house designer and builder, but a musician, various reader and one funny dude!
Enjoy the interview peeps! 
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Tammy: What inspired you to start designing and building tiny homes? And why do you think they’re so popular?
Deek: As a kid I was always, and I mean ALWAYS building forts. As I got older, I worked into the real-deal and built larger shed-forts which were furnished. I guess my hyperactive love for tiny houses arose from fort building and continued out of that. Also I grew up in a small home, in a rather wealthy, and beautiful, town (Madison, CT), and never could understand why other schoolmate’s families NEEDED to live in gigantic homes when our own smallish abode of 1200 or so square feet (which fit four people, a dog, three cats, and nameless other pets) felt more than adequate. I even shared a bedroom with my brother, and had no problems with it. I know that small-room sharing is no comparative “biggie” for some, but in my old town, that’s on par with martyrdom! Kidding….
Anyway, it’s for those reasons that small housing (beyond its lighter impact on the environment) made so much sense to me. I think that the more recent popularity in small housing is due in part to the rough economy, and in retaliation to the banking and mortgage systems that have left so many families broke.
More and more people are sick of being “house poor” and no longer want to spend a sizable chunk of their lives paying for a home, when they could build their own. Or at least acquire some control by keeping the budget and size more modest. [click to continue…]