I thought the shared dream died as fast as it came into being but I spent all night thinking and drawing and drinking lots of caffeine and of course once I had my idea I checked the blogsphere and combed Google. Its an idea others have had, sort of.
As many tiny home folks are also becoming
parents but not allowing that to drastically change the tiny dream
there has been what I feel is sort of a collective unconscious to expand
a tiny home for family use. A number one comment I have seen about a
lot of tiny homes is something like "good luck getting a family in
there". It seems that the traditional tiny home concepts works well for
singles and couples, but kids?
We will need a second home to grow into.
Simple, and complex. This isn't an office.. This isn't a mediation room. This is your children's room. When they wake in the middle of the night in a lightning storm you need to be accessible to them. In the winter you shouldn't have to walk outside to go pee (I'm north enough that it is a concern). Doing this on the tiny scale wouldn't really be so hard. Some folks have gone vertical. Some have planned for rooms on foundations and preplanned the framing for a door. But you lose some of that freedom. And since I don't have land yet, I choose to ignore anything I'd have to leave behind as an option.
The criteria. It has to be on wheels. It has to rigidly attach to the tiny home in safe, non-damaging, weather tight and aesthetically acceptable way. It also must meet a code I was reading somewhere about the definition of a trailer (? I don't recall the exact details). The basic idea was that you needed to be able to move it within a day. I believe the intention was that you can't buildup permanent mortared foundations around your trailer, but it suits me fine. So not just "we can detach it", because that would leave two gaping holes, but that we must also be able to close those holes in a useable way.
That's a tall order, but doable. (That's a post for tomorrow).
Here is where the title might start to make sense. There hasn't really been anyone doing this. The closest I've seen was here and he calls his a pod. That name was a no go for me. Because tiny homes are sometimes made in shipping containers and there is a shipping container company with that name.. well, you may see my problem. If you don't that's okay, I'll get over it.
I happened to have Star Trek playing while I was doing this concept and the more I thought about it the more the following terminology and definitions started to work for us as we were communicating because the only other options were bulky or imprecise. I will be using them, any additions are welcome.
Station: The house/structure you attach to for water/power etc.
Saucer: The main living functions of a home; kitchen, bath, laundry - potentially living space. In places where you have supporting zoning codes this would be an independent accessory dwelling unit.
Shuttle: An attached tiny home with extra living space but potentially without all the 'guts'. In some zoning codes this is referred to as a dependent accessory dwelling.
Escape Pod: A shuttle that could be considered a secondary saucer, good for taking on the road because it's smaller, lighter, and scaled down more like a traditional Tumbleweed. (And yes, it's a pod.. *sigh*)
Thruster: One of those nifty self powered trailer movers that helps you move around tight corners during parking.
Warp Core: The towing vehicle.
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