This is a tour of a Seattle Tiny Home on Wheels with Derek “DEEK” Diedricksen of Relaxshacks.com.
You’ll even see Jay Shafer and Dee Williams appear sporadically in the video too since this tour was held at a Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshop. It’s a really unique design and the little home features a kitchen, bathroom, washer and dryer, and two sleeping lofts. I really enjoy the pop-out window in the bathroom, too. So glad that Deek was able to capture the house and share it with us. So without further ado…
Jay Shafer felt overwhelmed by the 4,000 square foot home he grew up in back in Iowa.
Time, energy and resources were spent maintaining space that added very little to their lives on the whole.
This distaste for wasted space emerged as a creative influence when Shafer was in his 20s.
After college, he started making blueprints of tiny homes just for fun.
Exploring how space is used, brainstorming how to use it more efficiently and learning about the materialism of our culture, he decided to pursue the passion further.
One of the legal difficulties he found right away was zoning laws that restrict how big anyone living establishment must be.
In most states, to be considered a house a building has to measure at least 220 square feet.
If you could point to a single structure that ignited the modern tiny house movement, this would be a strong contender. Jay Shafer’s original Tumbleweed tiny house — built between 1997 and 1999 — was a radical experiment: could a person live comfortably and with dignity in just 89 square feet?
The answer, as Shafer proved by living in the house himself, was yes. That proof of concept didn’t just change his life. It launched a company (Tumbleweed Tiny House Company), inspired a generation of builders, and helped create the cultural framework we now call the tiny house movement.
In this video tour, Derek “Deek” Diedricksen — author of Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, host of HGTV’s Tiny Yellow House, and one of the tiny house community’s most recognizable voices — walks through the original Tumbleweed and gives us an inside look at where it all began.
Every Thursday I’ll be featuring a random set of tiny house plans here on Tiny House Talk.
Today I’m introducing you to Tumbleweed’s Beavan Box Bungalow design.
Beavan Box Bungalow Tiny House Plans
The Beavan is one of Tumbleweed Houses latest designs in the Box Bungalow category.
As you may already know all of this company’s house plans are designed by Jay Shafer, who has been living happily in really small spaces since 1997.
That’s over ten years of extremely simple living. That’s why he’s #1 when it comes to designing micro sized spaces for humans.
Jay Shafer and Tumbleweed Tiny Houses
Jay is at the forefront of today’s tiny house movement not because he is the first person to live so simply but because he has successfully shared his amazing ideas with the world.
In his Small House Book, he shows you the current generous loopholes which allow you to bypass minimum size housing building code restrictions in most areas.
The Beavan Box Bungalow
Let’s take a close look at this beautiful design which was recently featured on HGTV’s Design Star.
When HGTV’s Design Star featured Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, it marked a significant moment for the tiny house movement. The episode challenged three finalist contestants to design the interiors of Jay Shafer’s 99 square foot Box Bungalow tiny houses—bringing small-space living to millions of mainstream viewers.
The Tumbleweed Popomo offers 170 square feet of living space on a flatbed-style trailer, making it the widest tiny house design in the Tumbleweed lineup that still requires no special permit to tow. At 8 feet 6 inches interior width, the Popomo provides significantly more living space than standard trailer-width designs while maintaining steel siding for durability.
Popomo Specifications
Designer: Tumbleweed Tiny House Company
Size: 170 square feet
Interior Width: 8 feet 6 inches
Trailer Type: Flatbed style (sits over wheels)
Exterior: Steel siding
Permit Required: No special permit to tow
Estimated Build Cost: Approximately $20,000 with new materials
DIY Friendly: Designed as easiest Tumbleweed to build
This two-part video interview with Jay Shafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, explores his design philosophy, personal story, and upcoming tiny house designs. Shafer pioneered the modern tiny house movement with his small house plans and has influenced countless builders seeking alternatives to conventional housing.
Interview Details
Guest: Jay Shafer
Company: Tumbleweed Tiny House Company
Format: Two-part video interview
Topics: Design philosophy, upcoming designs, personal story
