Follow my thoughts and allow me to convince you why we ought to dream, design, build and live differently.
We need to build dwellings that expand and grow as our families grow.
My arguments hinge around some of my own house buying experiences, however, don’t let this stop you from wondering what it may be like if we choose to live like this.
Having read this article, don’t allow yourself to dismiss these ideas with trite comments like “It’s a great idea, but we will need permits and Council won’t allow us to do this!”, or “it’s not what big business wants,” you may be right, (they don’t want this) but it’s not about council or big business, it’s about you and I and our families and our children’s “inheritance.”
“A human being becomes his environment. It is critical to savagely and surgically arrange one’s environment in a way that is in accordance with where he wants to go.” – Kapi
If we don’t make sensible choices about the homes we live in, we are throwing our children into the current system (estate home living). This is, as far as I can tell, only creating modern day slums, or at the very least a lifestyle which relies on “big business”. This is based on the premise that we will be willing to live in debt all our lives, and that our children will go out and start establishing their new lifes from scratch and begin the cycle again. This is certainly not the future we should want for our children.
What is wrong with the current system?
Our current system is based on families buying into the housing market. After a while most people typically sell up and purchase a bigger and better home, the house they now realize they needed for their growing family.
The current system demands that you extend yourself to your maximum or future potential, and then buy-in at that level. Many people at this point in their lives, commit to a lifetime of commitment and hard labour, by exchanging life comforts for 20 or 25 years of mortgage commitment. This is the beginning of a “manufactured economy” of supply and demand, manipulated marketing.
This single act of commitment sets you up for all sorts of problems, most of which will only become clear as you continue through your life. Some of them are immediate and others become apparent further down the road of life. Some of them are:
- We settle for small blocks of land in estates which have significant physical and social limitations.
- We invariably need to purchase a bigger home later, as our family grows, and are again in the mercy of the current market, “the economy”, the lenders, and by what is available for purchase.
- We rely on something called “inflation” to edge us up a notch or two. This is not only unsustainable, but it’s also unfair.
I don’t wish to spend too much time berating a broken system. Let’s rather look forward to a new way of doing things.
Home Value
For families with children, their home and car have for the past century been our their most expensive debt. (investment). For people under 30, education is often their greatest debt.
By the time we reach 50 we rarely own our first home or car, and we might no longer benefit from our education investment. (So why is it called an investment).
Ants, badgers, birds, bees, spiders and wasps all build homes, bite by bite, thread by thread, stick by stick, spitball by spitball, and in olden time, humans also built their homes rock by rock, brick by brick, log by log.
Our savings accounts grow dollar by dollar, and personal belongings accrue item by item, our portfolio share by share, dividend by dividend.
Or friendships grow friend by friend and our social and business networks grow colleague by colleague, client by client, customer by customer.
Our student debt grows subject by subject.
Loaning money to purchase our home forces us to purchase property by property, home by home, and then immediately limits the resources we have available for further improvement or investment.
We then improve and refurbish our property investments with paint tin by paint tin, tile by tile, room by room, plant by plant, and purchase furniture and content item by item.
On any given block of land a better way to accrue value and wealth would be ‘renovate’ our home into existence, room by room, brick by brick, tile by tile, window by window, door by door,
Entrepreneurs and programmers start with an MVP, (minimum viable product).
If our three greatest investments could all begin, as MVP’s we might more easily, have the resources available to grow each of them, subject by subject, room by room, upgrade by upgrade.
It requires a change in our thinking.
What is a Transportable Pod Home
It will help if I explain the term “Transportable Pod Home.”
A Transportable Pod Home, typically has 2 bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 bathroom, 1 toilet room, a lounge, and a walk-in closet room. They are made of timber, steel, and glass. They are modern and architect-designed, are modular and insulated, and are affordable; typically cost $60K – $80K.
- It’s modern and stylish, constructed of glass, hardwood and steel
- It’s designed to last 100 years
- It’s strong, well thought out, (architect-designed) and environment friendly
- It’s constructed of material which won’t easily damage therefore no ”chipboard”, “chalkboard” or any fabrics which will easily degrade
- It needs to be removable or re-transportable after about 20 years or so. It may be deconstructed and then reconstructed or it may be transported as a whole unit.
How it Works
1) We first select and purchase a block of land that we feel will suit our purposes.
This is probably the most important step, choosing 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 acres of land with peace and quiet, views, water, and access. We can revisit this later, but the main thing about purchasing land is that this is where your value is: – remember, God stopped making land long ago, but he is still making people.
2) We build our first Transportable Pod Home.
Our first home looks like one of these “transportable pod homes”
This is your “love nest” this is that little shack, that place in your mind where you and your wife wanted to settle down. Think back to that time in your life and compare what you actually did versus what you wanted to do. You probably moved into a rental or purchased a small starter home. Perhaps you were lucky and the value doubled because of a property boom, or “your ship came up the river”. Good for you, but now, if you are honest, you didn’t get what you wanted, so you needed to sell and purchase another home, (and then you move two or three times hence).
1) The First Phase
This is the first phase of building your elastic home, during this phase, your landscape and plant your property. If you have a bit of extra to spend, you might desire a swimming pool or shed.
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2) The Second Phase
The second phase is when you build your second Transportable Pod home and double your assets. You will now be the paid-up owner of two Pod homes on the same property.
- 4 Bedrooms
- 2 Bathrooms
- 2 Toilet Rooms
- 2 Walk-in Closets
- 1 Kitchen
- 1 Lounge
- 1 Study, Rumpus or Craft Room
- 2 Decks or 3 Decks – if you link both your homes together wisely
Courtyard Living: This is what could happen when you start to join the pods together.
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3) The Third Phase
The third and final phase for most families will take them to a 6-bedroom home. If you have built three Pod homes you have:
- 6 Bedrooms
- 3 Bathrooms
- 3 Toilet Rooms
- 3 Walk-in Closets
- 1 Kitchen
- 2 Lounge
- 1 Study, Rumpus or Craft Room
- 1 ( A room for anything you like)
- 2 Decks or 4 Decks – if you link both your homes together wisely
For examples I have collected, please look at:
I have not yet included photos of the third phase, but remember that this is the growing family phase. It’s the swimming pool, the shed, the gazebo, outhouse, the spa bathroom corner, the music room, the granny flat, or the guest accommodation and rental cabin.
I would love to know what you think since this is a work in progress and I would love some feedback. Please send in your comments and thoughts.
Interested in more information? Start Here or look at Elastic Homes and Living or What is a Transportable Pod Home.
Author: Roland Munyard
- Created: 8th September 2013
- Modified: 19th October 2013
- Added “Home Values” section Saturday, 11 February 2023