Episode 96
Reflecting on 2024: Boxcar Universe's Best Moments
This podcast episode features an engaging conversation about the growing trend of container homes and their potential as sustainable living solutions. Host Steve Deubel is joined by Shara Terry from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Chris Conover from Tiny Custom House, who share insights into the real estate market and the unique design aspects of container living. They discuss the structural integrity and safety of container homes, emphasizing their durability and pest-resistant qualities. The episode also covers the cost-effective nature of these homes, with pricing and financing options for prospective buyers. Listeners are encouraged to explore the innovative possibilities of container homes, showcasing how they can blend modern living with eco-friendly practices.
Reflecting on a year of innovative ideas and memorable moments, Steve Deubel invites listeners to reminisce about the highlights of Boxcar Universe. The episode serves as a celebration of the unique conversations and groundbreaking insights that have defined container living in 2024. Listeners can expect to hear about fascinating guests, inspiring stories, and advancements in sustainable housing. A notable segment features Shara Terry from Berkshire Hathaway, who provides valuable insights into the real estate market and trends. Together, they discuss the sale of a custom DIY container home that exemplifies the growing interest in alternative living spaces. This retrospective not only highlights the evolution of container homes but also emphasizes the importance of community, sustainability, and innovative design in shaping the future of housing. As the year closes, listeners are encouraged to embrace the possibilities of container living in the coming year, with a promise of even more exciting developments in 2025.
Takeaways:
- The podcast reflects on the incredible journey shared by Boxcar Universe throughout 2024.
- Container homes are emerging as a sustainable and innovative alternative to traditional housing.
- Listeners are encouraged to explore various uses of shipping containers in construction.
- The importance of insulation in container homes is emphasized to combat extreme heat.
- Berkshire Hathaway's insights provide valuable information on the real estate market trends.
- The show discusses the growing interest in container pools and their benefits.
Links referenced in this episode:
- phoenixmetro.mrelectric.com
- stardustbuilding.org
- tinycustomhouse.com
- goldcontainerhome.com
- boxcarliving.com
- boxcaruniverse.com
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Berkshire Hathaway Home Services
- Tiny Custom House
- Fujitsu General America
- Ideal Home Improvement, LLC.
- Legacy Custom Homes AZ., LLC.
- Stardust Building Supplies
Transcript
Hello Boxcar Universe family.
Steve Dubel: journey that we've shared in: Steve Dubel:This has been a year full of insightful conversations, groundbreaking ideas, and some truly unforgettable moments.
Steve Dubel:Today's episode is a special treat, a compilation of some of the best highlights from Boxcar Universe from this year.
Steve Dubel:Whether you are a longtime listener or just joining us for the ride, this collection celebrates the heart and soul of of what makes this podcast so unique.
Steve Dubel: red the essence right here in: Steve Dubel:So sit back and relax and let's take this trip down memory lane together.
Steve Dubel:We will be back next week and I want to wish everyone a happy new Year.
Steve Dubel:Thank you for being part of the Boxcar Universe family.
Steve Dubel: ere's to an even more amazing: Steve Dubel:Since the dawn of time, mankind has searched for ways to shelter themselves from the elements.
Steve Dubel:Over the centuries, these shelters have evolved from bamboo huts to concrete towers.
Steve Dubel:The last few years, there's been a push to save the planet.
Steve Dubel:Are you ready to embark on a more sustainable lifestyle?
Steve Dubel:Look no further.
Steve Dubel:You're about to enter the adventures of Container Home Living.
Steve Dubel:And now, contractor, radio and TV personality and your host for Boxcar Universe, Steve Dubel.
Steve Dubel:Hi, I'm Steve Dubell, host of Boxcar Car Universe, along with my co host Mel Alva.
Steve Dubel:And here's what's coming up on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe.
Steve Dubel:Chara Terry is here from Berkshire Hathaway's Home Services.
Steve Dubel:And if you know anything about real estate, you know the name Berkshire Hathaway.
Steve Dubel: l estate market and trends of: Steve Dubel:Here we are in first quarter as well as a very unique sal of a custom DIY container home that she was involved in with the sale several months ago.
Steve Dubel:Also, as you know, we do our segment, Mel and Steve on the Street.
Steve Dubel:Well, last night it was Steve on the street and we were in downtown Phoenix.
Steve Dubel:And for those of you who are unaware of the area or have never been here at all, there is a restaurant called the Churchill down on first street, downtown Phoenix, not too far from the ballpark.
Steve Dubel:And this restaurant was built with shipping containers and some conventional construction and they were having a Valentine's Day event down there.
Steve Dubel:So I had gone down and spoke to several different people down there.
Steve Dubel:And for all you online people who love to get their news from Facebook, make Sure.
Steve Dubel:You go online and look up Boxcar Universe, you will see some pictures, some videos about what I saw, where I at, what I was doing and then also you could also find it on my personal Facebook page for Steve Dubell.
Steve Dubel:So it was a very interesting evening and just goes to show you and that there are a lot, a lot of different uses for shipping containers and the design of a building which I think you'll find very interesting when you see some of the pictures of the outside of the Churchill.
Steve Dubel:One of the containers was turned on end and I could envision they used a plasma cutter and cut this scroll artwork into it and used the sides of the container as they, when they got hot, they swelled and moved and bent and it looks like one big creative piece of artwork, a container sitting on end.
Steve Dubel:So if you are a fan of shipping container homes, you've got to check this out.
Steve Dubel:Make sure, if you are in the Phoenix area, make sure you go down to the Churchill.
Steve Dubel:You get some great food down there, some great shops down there and it's a great place for an afternoon cocktail during happy hour.
Steve Dubel:And I know Colin be down there if he wasn't here with me right now, right.
Steve Dubel:He's laughing.
Steve Dubel:Okay, well let's get started today with, with today's show.
Steve Dubel:Charateri is here with from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Shara, first time at Boxcar Universe.
Steve Dubel:Thank you for being here.
Shara Terry:Thanks for having me.
Shara Terry:Steve and Colin, appreciate it.
Steve Dubel:You know, this is, it's an interesting time, especially the way the market is.
Steve Dubel:And I think judging from the realtors that I've spoken to, everybody has a different take on the condition of the market.
Steve Dubel:But let's get into that in a minute.
Steve Dubel:But tell our listeners a little bit about you and Berkshire Hathaway.
Shara Terry:Okay, well I am a native of, I'm a phoenix, born and raised around the central corridor and I've been in real estate now about 18 years.
Shara Terry:So I've seen the market come up, I've seen it go down.
Shara Terry: brother was buying a home and: Steve Dubel:Then the world ended.
Shara Terry:Then the world ended.
Shara Terry:So yes, that was quite the scene of walking into homes and it was either short sales or bank owned homes and they were all over the place and you just never knew what you were going to walk in and see.
Steve Dubel:One of the things Shara and I actually met when we were talking about this DIY custom container home that actually was Sold several years ago.
Steve Dubel:And tell us a little bit about that.
Shara Terry:So this was a very, very intriguing project.
Shara Terry:And it started with a vision from his children.
Shara Terry:Jorge Salcedo is one of the build, along with Louis, Lou.
Shara Terry:Sorry, Leo.
Shara Terry:Leo, Lanny and the children came up with the concept.
Shara Terry:They put it to paper, and then they found the land.
Shara Terry:And so that was kind of the first key element was, where do we want to be?
Shara Terry:Where do we want to build this?
Shara Terry:So they bought the land, and then he strategically found the different containers.
Shara Terry:And the purpose of it was to make sure that they had history, they had a story.
Shara Terry:So he selected containers which had traveled along all the world, and one of them was even stamped in Vietnamese.
Shara Terry:So he selected the containers, but it wasn't just a normal container house.
Shara Terry:He thought of it as stacking two on the east side, two on top of each other on the west side, and then traditional framing in the center.
Shara Terry:So it was a seamless project.
Shara Terry:It wasn't just a normal container home that you cut rectangles in and put in a window or put in a sliding glass door.
Shara Terry:So it was really quite the vision.
Shara Terry:Took them two years to build.
Shara Terry:Of course, you know, they ran into obstacles, as you would probably imagine.
Shara Terry:And all the looky loos from the neighbors and the firemen and the policemen were constantly coming in going, what are you doing?
Shara Terry:What is this?
Shara Terry:But it was really very well thought out, Steve.
Shara Terry:I mean, even to the point where the slope of the roof mirrored South Mountain, so it was off of South Mountain avenue, off of 19th Avenue.
Shara Terry:And the purpose of it was to have beautiful mountain views in your backyard, literally as a backdrop.
Shara Terry:And then the city lights to the north, like tiers of city lights.
Shara Terry:So being two story, of course, and the walkout balconies, there was literally not one window you could look out of without a good view.
Shara Terry:And so it was an amazing project.
Shara Terry:He did get energy audits, and he got duct testing and the whole works.
Shara Terry:The first question I asked, and many people ask is like, okay, it's a container, it's metal.
Shara Terry:We're Arizona in the summertime.
Shara Terry:How hot does it get?
Steve Dubel:See, I mean, that the first question, right?
Steve Dubel:How many times have we brought that up on this show, right?
Steve Dubel:People turn around and they say, well, they asked Melanie, it's like, well, it's hot.
Steve Dubel:How do you live in a metal container?
Steve Dubel:I said, it is obviously looking.
Steve Dubel:Have you ever heard of insulation?
Shara Terry:Yes.
Steve Dubel:I mean, of course, insulated.
Steve Dubel:And there's a lot of different things now that we've had as guests on the show.
Steve Dubel:And there's stuff out there that probably was not available back then there.
Steve Dubel:Now that you don't have to worry about.
Steve Dubel:1.
Steve Dubel:I was talking to a gentleman this morning about.
Steve Dubel:Okay, we've had the gentleman who actually created green cork products.
Steve Dubel:And what it is, it's sprayed on just like he would spray your, you know, your house, your exterior of your house with paint.
Steve Dubel:It's only like a sixteenth of an inch thick.
Steve Dubel:It does.
Steve Dubel:It's so good of an insulator, they call it.
Steve Dubel:It's like a radiant barrier.
Shara Terry:Yes.
Steve Dubel:Okay.
Steve Dubel:It doesn't even have an R value.
Steve Dubel:It's that good.
Steve Dubel:I mean, you could spray the outside of the container if you like the corrugated look.
Steve Dubel:And you'd gain not just an aesthetic look, but you'd also gain a great insulating value by doing this.
Steve Dubel:And then whatever you want to do on the inside, it'd be a plus.
Shara Terry:Right.
Shara Terry:Well, this project was literally containers, but it was the inside insulation they used.
Shara Terry:And they used, like an aluminum woven material that was a barrier.
Shara Terry:And it would radiate the heat outward.
Shara Terry:Cause he really wanted the containers to be on the outside.
Steve Dubel:Sure.
Shara Terry:And then he left little, slight reminders of the inside where the containers kind of stopped and started.
Shara Terry:Because, again, it was really seamless.
Shara Terry:Well, really, really well thought out.
Shara Terry:The first idea that we had when we talked about it, I'm like, okay, we need to literally bring the market to the property, not the property to the market.
Shara Terry:And what I mean by that is we need to get people to the house, not just put in MLS and wait for them to come to me.
Shara Terry:So when we first took it, the listing, I really spent a lot of time looking at who we could get out there.
Shara Terry:How can we bring the market to the property.
Shara Terry:So we literally had news channels doing live feeds from there.
Shara Terry:Jorge was the host.
Shara Terry:He's such a great man.
Shara Terry:Cause he was the one who was visionary.
Shara Terry:So we had several, several news channels out there running it in the mornings and in the afternoons and in the weekends.
Shara Terry:We had HG out there quite a few times.
Shara Terry:YouTube videos.
Shara Terry:I mean, everyone.
Shara Terry:It was like the talk of the town.
Shara Terry:We had inquiries from all over the world, let alone just Arizona.
Shara Terry:And I think the sticking point was, how do you get financing?
Shara Terry:So from day one, I was on the phone trying to find news channels that can go out there and film it.
Shara Terry:And then my next phone calls were gonna be talking to every single lender I possibly knew and getting referrals.
Shara Terry:How can we get this project financed?
Shara Terry:Cause every buyer is gonna be like, I love it.
Shara Terry:I just don't know that I want to be the first.
Shara Terry:And then if I have to resell it, then I'm going to rely on another buyer who's cash.
Shara Terry:So that reduces your buyer pool, of course.
Shara Terry:So finances, I mean, people are like, yeah, yeah, we can do it.
Shara Terry:We can do it.
Shara Terry:And they're like, oh, no, I can't find anything to appraise it with.
Steve Dubel:Exactly.
Steve Dubel:They have nothing.
Steve Dubel:There is no comparables.
Shara Terry:No, no, not even close.
Shara Terry:And so it was kind of a long journey.
Shara Terry:But they were patient with me and I was patient with them, and I was so was sold on the project itself.
Shara Terry:It was so unique.
Shara Terry:And again, everyone who came out there, the jaw dropped because you will never see it again.
Shara Terry:There's still not another one out there that has this type of traditional framing inside.
Shara Terry:He even used one of the containers that was on the lower west end he pre plumbed for a kitchen.
Shara Terry:So it could literally be in law quarters.
Shara Terry:It could be a studio.
Shara Terry:You could rent it out.
Shara Terry:Airbnb, it had its separate entrance and the bleachers that stepped up to the container from that separate entrance were from asu.
Shara Terry:So, I mean, a lot of just so much history.
Shara Terry:It was like just the story of this property.
Shara Terry:So luckily we did get a few offers, but the lending situation kind of held our hands.
Shara Terry: finance it, and we closed in: Steve Dubel:Why did they decide to sell the home once it was all built and it had so much history built into it?
Shara Terry:Originally, he was gonna live in it, and then he decided that he wanted to make it maybe a project.
Shara Terry:Cause he's a construct.
Shara Terry:He's a builder himself.
Shara Terry:And he and Leo, his partner, have.
Shara Terry:They still have permits and they've got a license to build, and so they're doing other projects.
Shara Terry:So along the lines, he's decided to go ahead and sell it and didn't know it was gonna take the two years it did to even build.
Shara Terry:But once it finally did, then his vision kind of changed.
Shara Terry:Now their model is.
Shara Terry:They're doing custom homes in Sedona and that kind of a thing.
Shara Terry:So it was just his baby.
Shara Terry:And I think after a while he's like, okay, I think I'm ready and just kind of move on.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, it's like a feather in your cap.
Shara Terry:Well, it was like I said in the very beginning, it was the vision that was just an idea, a concept.
Shara Terry:And then that went to pen and paper, and then that went into architecture, plans, and then it went into reality.
Shara Terry:So, yeah, a lot of his blood, sweat and tears, but I think he was ready to move on from it.
Steve Dubel:Just how long did they live in it before they decided to sell it?
Shara Terry:Well, he lived in it when they were building it, when it was able to live in it.
Steve Dubel:Oh, okay.
Shara Terry:So he was there still doing the final touches.
Shara Terry:And they created a website.
Shara Terry:And so a lot of people, they would get inquiries with this website.
Shara Terry:He would direct a lot of them to me if I created a conversation regarding selling it.
Shara Terry:So I'm sure he, you know, the recognition that he got at being the first one was pretty big.
Shara Terry:Am I allowed to give the address or the website or is that not.
Steve Dubel:No, you could do that.
Steve Dubel:Go ahead.
Shara Terry:Okay.
Shara Terry: So the address is: Shara Terry: uth Mountain Ave, Phoenix, AZ: Shara Terry:And he has a website called Gold Container Home.
Steve Dubel:Gold Container Home.
Shara Terry:Gold Container Home.
Shara Terry:And you'll see a lot of the pictures there.
Shara Terry:I've kept all the pictures there.
Shara Terry:I labeled every single one.
Shara Terry:So you would kind of see within the walls what he did, you know, with the WI fi, with the.
Shara Terry:There's electric charger in the garage.
Shara Terry:He was just kind of ahead of his time.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, you know, it sounds like it.
Shara Terry:No, it really was.
Shara Terry:So I was.
Shara Terry:Again, it was an honor to be a part of this project and glad to see it go to fruition and glad to see it go to a buyer who really appreciates it.
Steve Dubel:And I'm sure, yeah, I'm sure that that was important to do because I would.
Steve Dubel:If I put that kind of blood, sweat and tears into it that I would want, I wouldn't just sell it to anybody.
Shara Terry:Right.
Steve Dubel:And it wasn't.
Steve Dubel:And it would.
Steve Dubel:It had to be.
Steve Dubel:Not just the money issue.
Shara Terry:You're connected.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, yeah, you connected.
Chris Conover:I remember.
Steve Dubel:I remember one of my.
Steve Dubel:One of my things on my bucket list that I always wanted to do.
Steve Dubel:I always wanted to build.
Steve Dubel:Build my own house.
Steve Dubel:And when I had an opportunity to do that, I mean, I, you know, it was.
Steve Dubel:I.
Steve Dubel:I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the house myself, even though I had subcontractors are building it.
Steve Dubel:But I was.
Steve Dubel:I was the project manager.
Steve Dubel:I was the owner.
Steve Dubel:And I made sure that if I didn't see anything, you know, no, gotta fix that.
Steve Dubel:That doesn't.
Steve Dubel:That gotta fly for me.
Shara Terry:Right.
Steve Dubel:And.
Steve Dubel:But to be able to go do that once it was all done, it was.
Steve Dubel:It was a very gratifying feeling.
Shara Terry:Absolutely.
Steve Dubel:To be able to do that.
Steve Dubel:In fact, Now, I mean, the house is sold.
Steve Dubel: we sold the house way back in: Steve Dubel:And now I drive by that house and I look at it and they, they don't take care of it.
Steve Dubel:Just the outside like I used to do.
Steve Dubel:And I was like, it, it kills me to see it.
Steve Dubel:I'm like, if the outside looks like that, what does the inside look like?
Steve Dubel:Because I had, I had, you know, stained concrete floors throughout, except where we had rugs in certain of the bedrooms, you know, and I had a lot of custom things that I had built in there.
Steve Dubel:A fountain on the inside of the house and all this.
Steve Dubel:And I can imagine what this house looks like on the inside if they don't even take care of that.
Steve Dubel:Because, you know, I was, I was, you know, for those of you out out in the valley, you know, who wonder why when it rains, I always get the grass comes up through the gravel.
Steve Dubel:Well, you know, I got.
Steve Dubel:There's the first house I ever had that, you know, gravel outside, you know, and a hardscape.
Steve Dubel:I had to make sure that like a day or two before or hours before, sometimes before a rainstorm, that I went out there and rolled out my pre emergent so that when it rained, the pre emergent sunk into the ground and can killed any chance of roots coming up from the gravel.
Steve Dubel:I don't think they even know the word.
Shara Terry:The best time to pull a weed is when it's soaking.
Shara Terry:Well, you just come right up in the root.
Steve Dubel:And I learned that in a very hard way too, because the first time I, I did it, I couldn't believe it.
Steve Dubel:And it got a little ahead of me when I first moved in the house.
Steve Dubel:I'm like, oh, I can't hit this with, you know, God.
Steve Dubel:Thank God I didn't use Roundup.
Steve Dubel:Otherwise I'd be.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, otherwise I'd know I'd be doing that class action lawsuit.
Steve Dubel:Oh my God, I've been using Roundup.
Steve Dubel:I can't get me help.
Steve Dubel:No, but seriously, the only way I had rid of it and got it under control, I had to take a weed whacker and I weed whacked it down to the ground and then it burned off from the sun.
Steve Dubel:And that was the only way to get it out.
Steve Dubel:And then whatever weeds didn't blow away, I just picked out and said, never, ever let that happen again.
Steve Dubel:So all you homeowners out there, you know, who think that, oh, I put black plastic down before I put the gravel on top of it, Take it from me, you'll get grass through there somewhere.
Shara Terry:Water will always find its way and grass and weeds will continue.
Shara Terry:And truly the curb appeal is the face.
Shara Terry:Yeah, it's the face of meeting a person.
Shara Terry:So think about it that way.
Shara Terry:And you're absolutely right.
Shara Terry:If the face has a scowl on it, probably their heart is a little dark too.
Steve Dubel:That's right.
Steve Dubel:But anyway, so, Shara, tell our listeners how they could contact you.
Shara Terry:Well, I am available on email with Shara S h a r aharatarry.com Last name spelled T as and Tom E R R Y.
Shara Terry: -: Shara Terry:You can literally google me and there's not a lot of people named Shara in the world.
Shara Terry:So that's kind of my benefit of having a unique name.
Shara Terry:But I do have two first names, so make sure the Terry is the last name.
Steve Dubel:That's right.
Shara Terry:Oh, yeah.
Steve Dubel:When they first saw it, it was like, well, wait a minute, is that like middle name or where's the last name?
Steve Dubel:You know?
Shara Terry:I know, I know.
Shara Terry:It's two first names.
Shara Terry:And I, I.
Shara Terry:Yeah, I have to explain it every time.
Steve Dubel:Well, that makes you special.
Shara Terry:Well, thank you.
Steve Dubel:Well, yeah, I mean, absolutely.
Steve Dubel:So I want everybody to stay tuned.
Steve Dubel:You are listening to Boxcar Universe.
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Steve Dubel:Let us help you design and build your dream home with the expertise that comes from decades of experience in the business.
Steve Dubel: -: Steve Dubel:Remember Ideal home improvement and legacy custom homes az where your dream home becomes Reality.
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Steve Dubel:All right.
Steve Dubel:You are tuned into Boxcar Universe and we are here.
Steve Dubel:We're talking about energy savings today, especially when it comes to, you know, it's going to be very, very hot.
Steve Dubel:We're getting into, I think Mel and I were talking about getting into those triple digit figures here and I think we're just right about there because it's getting to be mid high 90s here in the valley of the sun.
Steve Dubel:And one of the things that people need to realize, especially when you are adding something onto your home, you know, an actual room addition or just expanding whatever you have, you know, there comes the time that either you need to expand your existing system that's on your home, your air conditioning system, or explore the use of mini splits.
Steve Dubel:And mini splits are very economical and energy efficient.
Steve Dubel:And we have our expert on the show today, Dennis Stinson.
Steve Dubel:He's the vice president of sales for Fujitsu General America.
Steve Dubel:And Dennis, welcome to the show today.
Steve Dubel:Thank you for being taking time out for being on with us today.
Dennis Stinson:Well, thank you, Steve.
Chris Conover:Thank you, Mel.
Dennis Stinson:It's a pleasure to join you on Boxcar Universe.
Dennis Stinson:And I look forward to talking about all the changes and the happenings in the world of heating and cooling.
Dennis Stinson:So thank you.
Steve Dubel:That's great.
Steve Dubel:Thank you for being here.
Steve Dubel:And we always want to keep our listeners up to date on the things, you know, there are when you think about using container homes and stuff like that, there are so many things that are similar to regular stick built homes that people use.
Steve Dubel:And I think with container homes I tell people when, if you walk into a container home, a lot of times if you didn't know that you were in it, it wouldn't look any different because it's, it's, it's finished off the same way is drywall, there's lighting, there's air conditioning, is like I said in these, any homes there, kitchen, everything looks just like a regular home would.
Steve Dubel:But when you're thinking of what you want to build and what you want to have, whether it be a four or five container home unit home or if it's just one unit, there are things, cost effective things that you need to do.
Steve Dubel:And one of the costs, one of the best things that I know that you can have are when you do especially multi container homes are mini split units.
Steve Dubel:But why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about Fujitsu and a mission statement for the company, then we'll get into some of the products.
Dennis Stinson:Yeah.
Dennis Stinson:So Fujitsu General America is a global manufacturer of H VAC products and we specialize in mini splits.
Dennis Stinson:And, and these are units that are one indoor unit and one outdoor unit and come in a couple of different styles.
Dennis Stinson:I'm sure we'll get an opportunity to talk about that.
Dennis Stinson:But they're slightly different technology, not in the refrigerant cycle but in how we manage the power.
Dennis Stinson:And we're using inverter technology because of that.
Dennis Stinson:Steve and Mel, we tend to be incredibly efficient.
Dennis Stinson:So when we take a look at a standard measure of efficiency with the requirement being either 13 or 14 here based where you are in the US we're as high as 33.
Dennis Stinson:So the efficiency of our product, the amount of heating and cooling we put out to the energy in can be more than twice what the normal unit is.
Dennis Stinson:So this allows us to address certainly sustainability but also provide a great value for the property owner.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, and that's I think what it's all about too.
Steve Dubel:It's value like you said as well as, you know, we will get into some of the obviously the different units, obviously there's different pricing.
Steve Dubel:But I think, you know, you go to some of the big box stores, you know, and you see it a lot during the summer.
Steve Dubel:You see, well, you know, you know, they want to, they show you, well, this mini split by this company or that company.
Steve Dubel:And I think sometimes with all the advertisement that all these companies do that some of the, some of the technical stuff gets lost in the translation.
Steve Dubel:It's more about, they try and sell a name more than the actual efficiency of the unit, you know, and then they, it just, maybe it's just a slick sales pitch.
Steve Dubel:Maybe that's what I'm trying to say is that people go through and they look at that and you know, they look for, they look for someone who is genuine and honest who's going to be able to give them value for their dollar.
Steve Dubel:And I think that's what I've always done and I know Mel does with her designs for her customers as well as the remodeling work that we do so that people understand that we're going to give it, we're going to give it everything that we would normally would put in our own homes and it surely would be.
Steve Dubel:Fujitsu is a very well known name in the heating and cooling industry.
Dennis Stinson:Well, thank you, thank you for recognizing that.
Dennis Stinson:We, we make a variety of different products for both residential and commercial.
Dennis Stinson:But Steve and Mel, I think it's probably important to, to help your listeners understand what a mini split is.
Dennis Stinson:If they're not as familiar with it as, as we are as we talk about it.
Dennis Stinson:So we know that a mini split is a traditional heat pump.
Dennis Stinson:So that means that I'll have an outdoor unit and they'll have an indoor unit and they'll have some piping and wiring that runs between them.
Dennis Stinson:They come in various sizes and various capacities obviously, but to connect them together, it's a three and a half inch hole in the wall.
Dennis Stinson:So this is a product that's not going to use ductwork.
Dennis Stinson:So when we take a look at perfect instances in the container housing market, we may not have the opportunity for a lot of head space in there.
Dennis Stinson:So by not being able to take up that space with ductwork to be able to distribute heating and cooling throughout the property, we preserve the size and the spaciousness of the container to be able to be used for living.
Dennis Stinson:The other really nice thing about ductless heat pumps is that we are built in zoning.
Dennis Stinson:So that means as somebody expands their property into multiple containers, then you have one that's for sleeping and one's for living.
Dennis Stinson:There's no reason why you need to condition the entire occupied space or dwelling space for what you're not occupying.
Dennis Stinson:So if I'm downstairs watching the hockey game, there's no need for me to air condition the bedroom, but when I go upstairs to go to sleep at night, there's no need for me to heat or air condition the first floor when I'm not occupying it.
Dennis Stinson:And you can extend that along.
Dennis Stinson:If I have an extra bedroom and the kids are off to college, there's no need for me to heat or cool their room to the same room throughout the house.
Dennis Stinson:So a couple of the built in benefits of ductless heat pumps is that it's a year round comfort.
Dennis Stinson:So it's not just spot heating and cooling, it's built in zoning.
Dennis Stinson:So you condition the spaces that you want to condition and they're incredibly efficient and very easy to install.
Dennis Stinson:Especially in the circumstances that you've invested your careers in the container market.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, I mean it's really, when you think about it, it's a no brainer if somebody is going to be doing something like that.
Steve Dubel:Because I know there are a lot of DIY people out there who they, they like to go get a container home.
Steve Dubel:They don't want to, they want to build it themselves.
Steve Dubel:I mean you see it all over YouTube.
Steve Dubel:They have people doing this, people doing that, and there's a lot of people are making mistakes along the way and I think that's what we try and help people with, because sometimes those people that do that, they think, well, we're going to share what we're doing.
Steve Dubel:Does it mean that they're doing it right?
Steve Dubel:And a lot of times they may opt out for money reasons.
Steve Dubel:You know, they're, they're spending thousands of dollars.
Steve Dubel:Even if they're doing it themselves.
Steve Dubel:If they don't go out and get a quality unit, especially when you talk about your heating and cooling, it's going to, it's going to come back to bite them later down the road.
Steve Dubel:And I know I run into homeowners that have had units that, hey, you know, I was down in Mexico and they have a Mexican plant down there and they're selling, you know, mini splits for like pennies on the dollar.
Steve Dubel:Okay, I'm not saying that those are, are bad units, but I got to believe that they're not the same quality as a Fujitsu unit.
Dennis Stinson:Well, and thank you again for recognizing that.
Dennis Stinson:I mean, we're, we're operating in a more mature market.
Dennis Stinson:And that means that as you grow products into a more mature market, you tend segmentation and that's, you get your good, better, best, often defined as a destination brand, a mid tier and then a value tier.
Dennis Stinson:And there is a difference between screws and metals and clip and plastic.
Dennis Stinson:Right.
Dennis Stinson:And you get what you pay for.
Dennis Stinson:But when we take a look at the product line, we look at a nice wide offering of it.
Dennis Stinson:And to help your, your listeners understand the product line, we talk a little bit about how they go in and why they might want to use them.
Dennis Stinson:But then just a discussion along the line of what does it look like and how does it operate inside my property?
Dennis Stinson:And I know Mel would be interested in certainly how does that appeal to the homeowner and how can I make that fit?
Dennis Stinson:The most common of all of our indoor units is a wall mount.
Dennis Stinson:And that is a rectangular shaped unit that would hang on the wall and that would provide all the heating and cooling.
Dennis Stinson:But we also make a ceiling cassette.
Dennis Stinson:So this would be a two by two area and it would be about 10 inches in depth.
Dennis Stinson:And that can be put in the center of a room, similar to what you might do for a ceiling fan, but obviously a different shape and be able to throw heating and cooling downward throughout four sides.
Dennis Stinson:Then we also have a floor console.
Dennis Stinson:And being from the east coast, I know that both of you are, that would remind you a bit of a radiator.
Dennis Stinson:So it would normally go underneath of a window and be able to return air in the bottom and provide tempered air out of the top.
Dennis Stinson:So that could be very traditional style looking that way.
Dennis Stinson:And then even though we call ourselves a ductless company, we do have ducted product.
Dennis Stinson:So if there's an instance where maybe you say, I want to put two bedrooms or two bedrooms on a bath on the same zone, then we have some modest ducted product that we could put some ductwork on and pick up some smaller rooms.
Dennis Stinson:So if your listeners say, you know what?
Dennis Stinson:I like the idea of the wall mount product.
Dennis Stinson:I'm good with that.
Dennis Stinson:Or a ceiling cassette or a floor mount.
Dennis Stinson:But if your listeners say, you know what?
Dennis Stinson:I think I want to be a little more traditional, and I want to see grills and registers and diffusers, we can still do that, and we can do that with the efficiency and the zoning and the performance.
Dennis Stinson:That really the reasons you invest in ductless product.
Steve Dubel:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:And it's so important to be able to have this information going forward to make educated decisions, because, you know, especially in remodeling, I found that homeowners and I came up with this many, many years ago.
Steve Dubel:Actually, there was a variation of it when Mel got a kick out of it when I used to live outside Boston when I lived in an apartment.
Steve Dubel:Well, he used to say, a renter with tools could be a dangerous thing.
Steve Dubel:But I.
Steve Dubel: ement and got my show back in: Steve Dubel:A homeowner with tools could be a very dangerous thing, because they don't.
Steve Dubel:You know, a lot of people just make decisions without thinking, and that's what we try and educate people, because they wind up hurting themselves.
Steve Dubel:And I'm sure if you don't have, you know, any kind of skills in that area in the way of construction and stuff, you may not want to go and just go out and purchase.
Steve Dubel:Purchase a unit and say, well, I can install this.
Steve Dubel:And then before you know it, you get halfway through it, you've got a.
Chris Conover:Hole in the wall.
Steve Dubel:And then all of a sudden, it's like, okay, well, wait a minute.
Steve Dubel:What about this?
Steve Dubel:Or what about that?
Steve Dubel:So, you know, doing the right thing and spending the money and having a professional do it with a quality unit like Fujitsu has is so important because, you know, at the end of the day, like, you know, Dennis, like when I do a kitchen remodel, some people, they say, well, I want to do this or I want to do that.
Steve Dubel:Well, it doesn't make a difference whether you do it yourself, and maybe it doesn't come out right.
Steve Dubel:And then you want to share it and show your friends and your family, hey, you know, I did this or did that, but it really didn't come out right and you're not quite happy with it.
Steve Dubel:But if you would have spent out and called a general contractor who knows what he's doing and you would have gotten a quality job, okay, you had to pay for it anyway.
Steve Dubel:So why wouldn't you want to have it done right by a professional and showcase it to your friends and family?
Steve Dubel:So being smart in your decisions with your home, with anything, whether it be kitchen cabinetry or how you heat or cool your house, is just money in the bank for you and putting money back in your pocket.
Steve Dubel:And I think that's one of the things that, you know with the different products that you have.
Steve Dubel:And like you say, different areas of the country require different types of units.
Steve Dubel:And I think being able to have that kind of variety is, is very good because you can appeal to everyone everywhere.
Steve Dubel:Hang tight.
Steve Dubel:We'll be right back.
Steve Dubel:You're listening to Boxcar Universe.
Sean:Hello, my name is Sean with Mr.
Sean:Electric and I have a safety tip for you today.
Sean:Aluminum wiring.
Sean:If you have warm receptacles or maybe even receptacles that only work sometimes, and maybe even a small smoke trail that comes up from the top of your outlet, this may indicate that you have a aluminum wiring in your house.
Sean: shows that homes built before: Sean:The problem is the connection of the aluminum wire to copper devices or wiring.
Sean:When aluminum and copper come together, the result over time is oxidization or rust.
Sean:And over time, this condition creates resistance to the flow of electricity, causing the connections to overheat.
Sean:The longer the time goes, the worse this condition gets.
Sean:If you have aluminum wiring, bring in a licensed electrician to educate you on the use of AFCI breakers, which sense electrical arcs, and also Consumer Products Safety Commission approved methods of connectors to greatly improve the quality of the aluminum connections in your home.
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Steve Dubel:For more info, visit stardustbuilding.org all right.
Steve Dubel:And we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe right here from the beautiful and palacious Boxcar Studios here in Phoenix, Arizona.
Steve Dubel:We have got a great guest on the show coming up.
Steve Dubel:You know, for a lot of people over the weeks have questions about, you know, what does it take to get a tiny home or a container home or you know, what goes into it, how is it built, how do you live in a container in 120 degree Arizona heat?
Steve Dubel:And all those kind of questions, you know, how even how far fetched and ridiculous they are.
Steve Dubel:But we have the man to answer all those questions regarding container homes.
Steve Dubel:Chris Conover from Tiny Custom House is with us.
Steve Dubel:And Chris, great to have you back on the show again.
Chris Conover:Great to be with you guys again.
Chris Conover:Thank you for inviting me.
Steve Dubel:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:And it's, we're all getting ready for fourth of July weekend.
Steve Dubel:It's going to be people I could see people are going to be bailing early probably, we think anyway, you know, and Tuesday, 4th of July falls on a Tuesday this, this year.
Steve Dubel:So it's, it's kind of crazy.
Steve Dubel:You know, it creates havoc in the business world because you don't know if, or businesses going to take Monday off and do a long weekend or are they going to work Monday and just be off Tuesday.
Steve Dubel:And it just in and everybody's different, you know, so there's no rhyme or reason, you know.
Steve Dubel:But much like Mel and I, I'm sure, Chris, you're always working 24 7.
Chris Conover:Well, I try not to, I try to avoid as much as possible but it seems like I'm working more than I, more than I want most days.
Steve Dubel:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:Well, yeah.
Steve Dubel:Join the crowd.
Steve Dubel:That's right.
Steve Dubel:You know, you know, as, as, as Mr.
Steve Dubel:Spock says on Star Trek, the need of the many outweigh the need of the few or the one.
Steve Dubel:So you've got to take care of the public.
Steve Dubel:That's all you got to do.
Chris Conover:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:But anyway, tell our listeners who may not have heard you on our show before, have you tell us a little about, about your, about your company and what you're doing and how you got started.
Chris Conover:Yeah.
Chris Conover:So Tiny Custom House is just an idea that I had one day watching all the DIYers on YouTube turn these containers into really cool homes.
Chris Conover:And I, I thought to myself, you know, I'm pretty handy.
Chris Conover:I think I can do that.
Chris Conover:And so I started on my first container as a cabin for myself and my family.
Chris Conover:We were going to put it up north somewhere in Flagstaff or Prescott, you know, just a place to get out of the heat.
Chris Conover:And I was putting it on YouTube and social media and kind of sharing my experience converting one of these containers into a tiny house.
Chris Conover:And I have a construction background, I'm a contractor by trade, so I have kind of all the skills and the know how to do it.
Chris Conover:And you know, some people started reaching out, telling me how cool the container was, that they, they would possibly like a container themselves.
Chris Conover:And one person reached out and you know, people here, local, probably heard of the Maricopa county home show.
Chris Conover:They reached out in particular, they were doing a tiny home feature and they asked me to bring my container to the show.
Chris Conover:And I wasn't really prepared to go to the show, but you know, I wanted to maybe judge the market and see if there was an interest there.
Chris Conover:And so I ended up taking it to the show.
Chris Conover:We ended up winning best in show.
Chris Conover:We sold, I think on that show, we sold 10 or 15 units at that show specifically.
Chris Conover:And so we kind of went from zero to a hundred really quick with orders.
Chris Conover:And we've been trying to fulfill those orders for the last, you know, we've been doing it now for two years.
Chris Conover:And we've placed half a dozen containers in actual properties within, you know, Phoenix area as well as maybe some surrounding areas.
Chris Conover:We have one up north of Payson in a town called Young, Arizona.
Chris Conover:We have one up there.
Chris Conover:And if you know anything about Young and it's a very remote place, I often get asked, well, how do you deliver these containers and can you deliver to a remote location?
Chris Conover:Well, Yonge is a 20 mile dirt road.
Chris Conover:It's a fire service road to get to the town.
Chris Conover:And the container made it down that road and into its location just fine.
Chris Conover:So if I can deliver there, I can deliver anywhere.
Steve Dubel:Okay.
Chris Conover:Yeah, it's, it's been a fun experience.
Steve Dubel:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:And it's a great story when you think about it, because I bet you when you got all those sales at, at the, at the home show, it must have been, I know you were excited, that's for sure, but it must have been something like, oh my God, what did I start?
Steve Dubel:You know.
Chris Conover:Yeah, it's a little, I was a kind of a knee jerk reaction.
Chris Conover:Now I've got to go build all these containers for these people.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:So we kind of strapped up our boots, we went to work.
Chris Conover:We've been building like Crazy ever since.
Steve Dubel:Oh, that's something.
Steve Dubel:That's really good.
Steve Dubel:And then just from the time that we met you last fall over at the home show in Scottsdale, you guys have actually grown a lot since then.
Steve Dubel:In, in an effort to, as we say, maybe maintain the influx of sales leads and purchases so that you could fulfill them.
Chris Conover:Yeah, yeah, we've grown quite a lot.
Chris Conover:I mean we have over, I think we're right around $2 million in pre orders alone for these containers.
Chris Conover:And not only have we had an increase in orders, but we also are developing a container community out in Mesa where we're going to have multiple units for rent or these will be long term rental units out in Mesa, Arizona.
Steve Dubel:Now that's pretty cool.
Steve Dubel:Now is, is that going to be near where you're located as your new address out in, in Mesa?
Chris Conover:Correct.
Chris Conover:Yeah.
Chris Conover:So that address is our production yard out there off of McKellar.
Chris Conover:That's where we have been building all the containers.
Chris Conover:We had 10 containers on that lot at one time and we've kind of moved a lot of them off and we, we are now converting that, that production yard into a tiny home community where we'll probably have half a dozen units of tiny homes there as well as some other residential areas as well.
Steve Dubel:So that was, you know, it's going to be pretty much exciting because there's a lot of traffic being able to go by there.
Steve Dubel:So you should be able to get a lot of, a lot of looks and a lot of interest over there and it's pretty easy for anyone to be able to get to, you know, who, anybody who knows the East Valley here in the Phoenix market.
Steve Dubel:And for those of you interested, you know, throughout the country and other parts of the state, there's going to be, you know, we're going to have, Chris has got connections so that this way you can get containers made of a high quality and like the one Chris does.
Steve Dubel:And they are just, I think they're just pretty amazing.
Steve Dubel:But you've got gone through a lot of different, you know, designs and when they're finished they look just like, they look just like your home.
Steve Dubel:And I think that's what people, I tell people all the time that they, they, they said well what does it look like it's in a container?
Steve Dubel:Well, like I said, if you're in a container and if you didn't know you were in a container, the rooms look exactly like they would do in a regular stick built home, you know.
Chris Conover:Yeah, they're actually rather spacious, right.
Chris Conover:They have nine foot ceilings in the containers.
Chris Conover:And they have quartz countertops, full luxury plank vinyl flooring.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:So like you mentioned, it is very traditional.
Chris Conover:It's feels like an apartment or a single one bed, one bathroom home.
Chris Conover:Yeah, it is very luxurious and we do very traditional build processes with these containers.
Chris Conover:They've all been structurally, electrical and plumbing designed and engineered so it can be placed anywhere in the country.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, and that's the one thing that I always liked about the containers that you built, that they are very compact in areas like, for instance, like the kitchen, the cabinet area, you know, the appliances and then also, you know, how you incorporate bathrooms and showers.
Steve Dubel:So I think that's.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, it looks, it looks, it looks pretty amazing when you go out there and you know, just one of these days, you know, Mel, we should do a.
Steve Dubel:Mel and Steve on the street.
Steve Dubel:We should get someone who, who is interested in a home.
Steve Dubel:Let's blindfold them, bring them to a container home over at Chris's, take the blindfold off and see if they could tell if they're in a container.
Steve Dubel:What do you think?
Steve Dubel:Okay.
Steve Dubel:Why not?
Steve Dubel:I mean, you know, hey, we might have some fun.
Steve Dubel:Febreze also.
Chris Conover:Just kidding, right?
Chris Conover:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:Well, you know, hey, we just like to have some fun here too, besides all the great information that we share.
Steve Dubel:But it's really, really an up and coming thing.
Steve Dubel:And I know you, you're, you're.
Steve Dubel:And think about this too, right?
Steve Dubel:You're growing in these challenging times with the high inflation rate, high interest rates, and people are still buying.
Steve Dubel:I mean, that's, you know, that's, that says a lot about what your company and what you're doing to be able to withstand some of those forces that are actually, we're trying, they're negative forces, but, you know, trying to work against what you're trying to do.
Steve Dubel:But you seem to be doing a great job at moving forward.
Chris Conover:Yeah, you know, I think that is probably what is impacting our business in a positive way, really.
Chris Conover:I think people are looking for alternative options to housing because a lot of people have been priced out of the market or maybe they're waiting for the prices to come down for homes and are looking for an interim possibility.
Chris Conover:And so we actually have.
Chris Conover:I think that's probably helped our model.
Chris Conover:It seems like there is a lot of buzz out there around containers and maybe this kind of, you know, kind of like nomadic lifestyle too, right.
Chris Conover:With traveling and not being, you know, so tied down to a single location.
Chris Conover:These containers, you know, you know, as soon as we kind of get everything moving further, we Would like to start to kind of build outside of Arizona and have different container community communities and different vacation destinations or you know, desirable areas across the country.
Chris Conover:So people can, you know, lease different containers in different areas that are advantageous to their lifestyle at the moment.
Steve Dubel:And that's, and that's important and that would be something that's really good.
Steve Dubel:But I think, you know, Chris, I think we're going to get there eventually.
Steve Dubel:It's just going to take a little bit of time.
Steve Dubel:Like any good new trends, the word spreads and when it spreads it's going to become more mainstream than it already is.
Steve Dubel:Which I think, you know, we go back several years, you know, five, 10 years, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of information out there regarding container homes.
Steve Dubel:I know with the city of Phoenix, you know, when you try and bring a container home plans to them, they're looking at like, you know, they have nothing, nothing to refer it against because all their protocols and guidelines haven't been brought up to this new way of building.
Steve Dubel:So they're gauging all these plans under old guidelines.
Steve Dubel:So I mean, I wouldn't even want to begin to think about how many plans were refused because not saying that they were, their plans were incorrect in the way they were structured.
Steve Dubel:They just wasn't what the planners were used to approving.
Steve Dubel:And I think that was, that led to a lot of frustrations, I know with a lot of builders as well as a lot of architects.
Steve Dubel:But I think we've come a long way in that area.
Chris Conover:Yeah, we have.
Chris Conover:And they are becoming more mainstream.
Chris Conover:And I like to think of containers as an alternative building material and that we can put multiple together to create larger homes.
Chris Conover:We can do our single unit homes for easy transferability and quick on site, you know, up, up, up and running operations.
Chris Conover:We even have some going out in California.
Chris Conover:And California, as you know, has become very friendly to multi generational type housing ideas.
Chris Conover:Tiny houses, containers.
Chris Conover:Even where they had kind of taken a stance on containers previously, they've now become very open to these types of ideas because there's such a need out there.
Chris Conover:So we have a few containers even going out in different areas of LA and Southern California for container homes.
Chris Conover:So it's pretty, pretty awesome to see the, the trend in, in a positive way where people are accepting the containers more and more often.
Steve Dubel:That's really, that's really good news that, that people are, and municipalities are moving in that direction.
Steve Dubel:But we're going to take a short break.
Steve Dubel:When we come back, we're going to have More with Chris Conover from his great, great container tiny house.
Steve Dubel:And I'm going to have to edit that.
Steve Dubel:How did I do that?
Steve Dubel:Hold on a second, Chris.
Steve Dubel:I got tongue tied.
Steve Dubel:All right, we're going to just do that over.
Steve Dubel:All right, we're going to take a short break and when we come back on the other side, Chris Conover from Tiny Custom House.
Steve Dubel:We're going to be going through and asking him some FAQ questions.
Steve Dubel:And Allison, who's here in the studio, I know she has a few questions because she is interested in tiny homes.
Steve Dubel:And we got some great FAQs to talk to you about.
Steve Dubel:So stay tuned.
Steve Dubel:You're listening to Boxcar Universe.
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Steve Dubel:All right, we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe and we are talking with Chris Conover from Tiny Custom House.
Steve Dubel:And we're talking about container homes and what it takes to put a container on your property and a little bit about the things that go into a container.
Steve Dubel:You know, the same things that go into a stick built house, but they're significant differences.
Steve Dubel:But you know, some of the houses that we've seen that containers that Chris has actually built, he makes it all come out just right.
Steve Dubel:And you would never, never know that you were in a tiny home.
Steve Dubel:But Allison, who's here with us, has some questions about container houses.
Steve Dubel:And Allison, let's talk to Chris and see what he can answer for you.
Shara Terry:Okay.
Chris Conover:Yeah.
Chris Conover:So I have a question and I'm wondering how does somebody prep their space before they're going to drop a container home on their land?
Chris Conover:Yeah, so that's another reason we use a container itself is because the side prep is fairly easy.
Chris Conover:It doesn't require a lot of, you know, you don't need a structural foundation for these containers.
Chris Conover:So generally what we advise is that you, you pour a foundation or not a foundation, but a 4 inch slab, 4 inch thick slab for the container to sit on, kind of like when you would maybe install a hot tub at your property.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:You need to pull utilities and services to the hot tub or the slab for the hot tub.
Chris Conover:Does it go on top of usually have permits required to pull those utilities and those services to that location and then you just put the unit right on top of that slab.
Chris Conover:So generally our site prep is about three weeks.
Chris Conover:That's one of the, the benefits of a container than doing a stick build house is a stick build.
Chris Conover:We're going to, you know, be on your property for months at a time, six months to a year.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:Building a container we can build in six weeks, the interior and then we can place it on your property in three weeks.
Chris Conover:Okay, that's pretty cool.
Chris Conover:And is that something that you guys do yourself or is that something that you guys can do where you guys come out and you guys prep the land or is that something that is up to the landowners?
Chris Conover:Yeah, good question.
Chris Conover:No, great question.
Chris Conover:So I, I am a contractor by trade, so I can absolutely come and do the site prep for our, our buyers.
Chris Conover:Thus far we've done all the site prep for all of our customers.
Chris Conover:It's an additional fee to the price point of the container itself.
Chris Conover:Outside of Arizona, I would be able to help guide and direct people of how to do it, but I don't have any licensing outside of Arizona.
Chris Conover:So that would be up to our customers that are outside of Arizona to do the site prep.
Chris Conover:They don't always have to pour a slab.
Chris Conover:You know, they could kind of level it out, put some ab down or something like that to keep it more mobile.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:But yeah, outside of Arizona we, we would be more of a, you know, a consultant.
Chris Conover:We wouldn't be able to do that, that work for our customers.
Shara Terry:Chris, I have a question for you.
Shara Terry:Give us an idea of the cost of the shipping containers.
Shara Terry:And with that being said, do you have access to financing so people are not coming out of pocket completely for these containers?
Chris Conover:Yeah, great question.
Chris Conover:So we have a couple different tiers when it comes to containers.
Chris Conover:The model that we've taken to the home show recently, that comes with all luxury finishes and appliances and it has a large 9 foot bi folding door.
Chris Conover:So you can kind of do an inside, outside type living space with the containers.
Chris Conover:That container comes ready to live in with your appliances, your finishes, everything in that container drop and ready to go.
Chris Conover:That one is $95,000 ready to go.
Chris Conover:And that's 320 square feet.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:And so you get a livable apartment at 320 square feet and $95,000.
Chris Conover:We do have some better, you know, a little bit lower cost models that don't include maybe some of the luxury finishes.
Chris Conover:Those start right at 75,000.
Chris Conover:And then we do have a complete off grid package where all of your solar panels, your batteries, your inverters, we even have an agreement with Starlink to provide off grid, off, off grid WI fi that starts at115,000 for those off grid units.
Chris Conover:So all in all, you're gonna be looking about 2, about 200 to $225 a square foot on these container units.
Shara Terry:That's amazing.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, I mean that's that and that pricing is not, not bad, especially when you think about what you're getting.
Steve Dubel:And that's a 40 foot container, basically a one bedroom.
Steve Dubel:Right Chris?
Chris Conover:Yeah.
Chris Conover:Okay.
Steve Dubel:So I mean, I mean, and, and the spacing, like you said earlier, there's a lot of space inside those.
Steve Dubel:And with those nine foot, we'll call it nine foot bi folds, they look, yeah, they open up and you know, very easily once the container is placed, you could put, you know, a shade structure in front of that with another more or less like a, a patio, concrete floor or tile or even pavers to be able to have an additional shade structure out there.
Steve Dubel:So your space just naturally seems to increase when you do that.
Steve Dubel:And it's great way to let the outside in, in the inside out.
Steve Dubel:So it's, it's something really, really nice that people should consider.
Steve Dubel:But yeah, go ahead.
Chris Conover:It is really nice because it takes your livable space from 320 inside the container to living more like 500 square feet with those BI folding doors.
Chris Conover:And we've got a couple containers on Airbnb.
Chris Conover:And that's the number one comment we get from our guests is that they love the bi folding doors and be able to have the entryway right there into the kitchen and be able to have dinner and things like that outside and inside the container.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, and again, that's just, it's a great, great way to be able to basically, you know, have that huge entryway and especially it's off the kitchen.
Steve Dubel:The ones that I saw in the models that you had out in the production yard, they were right off the kitchen area.
Steve Dubel:So it's great if you're entertaining and you bring, and you have that additional patio square footage outside.
Steve Dubel:So it's great.
Steve Dubel:It's easy to bring all the food and stuff outside to your guests and they can enjoy, you know, the area that you've placed the container in.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Steve Dubel:You know, one of the other things that people ask for, ask.
Steve Dubel:Well, you know, is it safe to live in a shipping container?
Chris Conover:Yeah, it is very safe to live in a shipping container.
Chris Conover:The way that we actually prep the containers is there is no vapor or water barrier between you and the container.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:So we use an inch and a half of closed cell industrial spray foam around every piece of that container.
Chris Conover:And so that, you know, there's no vapors, there's no toxins, there's nothing coming from the container through to your living space.
Chris Conover:And so it is very safe to be inside the container.
Chris Conover:We also, one thing that we do to mitigate any kind of concern with maybe chemicals or anything like that is we use one way containers that have only been used one time have never had any sort of hazardous material inside the containers.
Chris Conover:So they are very safe and clean containers.
Chris Conover:Some of them I don't even like covering up because they're so clean.
Chris Conover:But you know, kind of we've talked maybe in the past about doing an industrial look where we insulated it from the outside and keeping the walls kind of bare.
Chris Conover:We haven't done any of those yet.
Chris Conover:We've stuck with the traditional look of the, you know, the drywall and, and everything on the interior.
Chris Conover:So yeah, the answer to that question is very safe.
Chris Conover:There's no, there's no transfer of chemicals or vapor between the existing container and your living space.
Steve Dubel:That's.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, and that's important for, for people especially because, you know, there are people out there who are, I mean, I know our resident home inspector, Dan Hayden actually had gone out and checking on healthy homes where people actually can be allergic to certain materials that are used within the home.
Steve Dubel:So making sure that those are not, you know, in a container home are so very important.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Steve Dubel:So one last question.
Steve Dubel:If you had to choose a shipping container house instead of a traditional house, why would you choose that?
Chris Conover:So I really like, obviously I'm biased.
Chris Conover:I love the container house idea and I love the idea of maybe even adding multiple together.
Chris Conover:A single unit container home wouldn't work for me because my wife, she's not looking to go tiny as much as I am.
Chris Conover:We have a two and a half year old and she doesn't, she doesn't think it's big enough.
Chris Conover:However, I would love to live in a container home with our family, but she doesn't, she's not quite there yet.
Chris Conover:But why I would choose a container is the structural integrity of a container is very good.
Chris Conover:And you ask any engineer, architect, he'll Tell you how well designed these containers are.
Chris Conover:They're stacked on these shipping yards, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 high, and they're fully loaded with product material.
Chris Conover:Containers are loaded up to as much as 40, 000 pounds.
Chris Conover:10 of those high and the one container is on the bottom.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:So structurally, these are incredibly strong resources and, and very strong to use in, in a building.
Chris Conover:You know, methodology and way.
Chris Conover:And you know, if you're a prepper or you want something that's a little harder to get into, you know, just makes sense to have steel.
Chris Conover:Right?
Chris Conover:A steel container is a lot harder to, you know, infiltrate than a traditional home.
Chris Conover:The other great thing about containers is if you're in a remote area and there's any kind of pest problems, right, These are completely pest and rodent free, right?
Chris Conover:Your pests and rodents can't chew through the, the wood and the material.
Chris Conover:They can't chewed through the metal.
Chris Conover:And so you will, you won't have any pest problems if you put it up, you know, somewhere in the woods where a lot of people may have problems with rodents and whatnot.
Chris Conover:Containers won't have those types of issues because of the steel.
Steve Dubel:That's right.
Steve Dubel:You can't truce.
Steve Dubel:You can't chew through steel.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, that, that, that's definitely, that is one definitely good aspect of, you know, having a container home.
Steve Dubel:And I think one of the things also an advantage of if you're into, you know, different types of architectural design, that you can make some amazing combinations with containers to be able to give your, to actually be a piece in the.
Steve Dubel:If you're not off grid and you're in a neighborhood, to be able to get some, a lot of people interested in talking about your container home.
Steve Dubel:Because the styling and the architecture, it is so very different.
Steve Dubel:But you know, like I said, it's not for everybody.
Steve Dubel:I think it's, I think doing it that way is an exceptional type of architecture that people can, you know, it's a.
Steve Dubel:Your house becomes almost like a story that people talk about, you know, what was it before, what did it look like in it?
Steve Dubel:And then watching it being created and put on your property, that's just another whole story in itself.
Steve Dubel:It's, it leads, it's a different type of construction, which I, I understand where you're coming from, Chris, you know, wanting to do the container, but you know, hey, you know, give your wife some time.
Steve Dubel:Keep building, keep building them.
Steve Dubel:You know, one of these days she may just say, yeah, let's go ahead.
Steve Dubel:Well, you will put about six of them Together, what do you think?
Steve Dubel:Maybe put six together.
Steve Dubel:That might be okay.
Chris Conover:Yeah, you could make a really modern looking home out of some of the containers.
Chris Conover:A lot of people are more into the modern square metal, sleek look, kind of moving away from more of the Tuscany styles.
Chris Conover:So.
Chris Conover:Yeah, I think she'd like it.
Steve Dubel:Yeah.
Steve Dubel:All right, well, it sounds good.
Steve Dubel:Chris, tell our listeners how they can contact you.
Chris Conover:Yeah, so, you know, our, our best way to probably see some of our current projects is on social media.
Chris Conover:Tiny Custom House, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Chris Conover:You can also go to our website@tinycustomhouse.com there's a little bit of details there on, on our containers and what we do, what we do for people is we have a complete interior design team named Dwellify.
Chris Conover:Right.
Chris Conover:And what we have our listeners and people who are interested in our, in our products that they put down a down payment to design their own container.
Chris Conover:And also in with that down payment, we send them out a material box with all the samples of their materials to make sure they, they like it.
Chris Conover:And as soon as they like their container, then we go, we go to work and we start building it for them.
Chris Conover:So again, the price points are ranging around 75 to $115,000 for a container.
Chris Conover:And you can go and design your own.
Chris Conover:On our website, all you gotta do is put down the 500, you can design your own container and we can get to work on building one for you.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, and that's really great.
Steve Dubel:It gets the potential new homeowner involved in all the things that you're going to be putting into it.
Steve Dubel:So that this way there's no question about, well, did I really want this or do I want this particular product?
Steve Dubel:You send all that out.
Steve Dubel:So I think that's a great way in the consultation process to make sure that when you start building, you don't have to do it over.
Steve Dubel:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Steve Dubel:Chris, thanks again for being on the show today.
Steve Dubel:We look forward to working with you in the future and having you back on the show.
Steve Dubel:And like I said, we've got some, we've got some interested parties looking for some container homes, so we'll be able to touch base with you on that.
Steve Dubel:And do you got any plans for the July weekend?
Chris Conover:Well, you know, back at the beginning of our conversation, I'm working.
Chris Conover:The rest of my team is taking it off, so I've got a, I'm working Monday.
Steve Dubel:All right.
Chris Conover:Anywhere this weekend.
Steve Dubel:Okay, well, I know the feeling.
Steve Dubel:You know, you take what you can get.
Chris Conover:That's right.
Steve Dubel:There you go.
Steve Dubel:Well, listen, you best to you and your family this holiday long weekend, even though their Monday is stuck in the middle of somewhere.
Steve Dubel:And we'll talk to you real soon.
Chris Conover:Thank you for having me.
Chris Conover:Take care.
Steve Dubel:All right, Chris.
Steve Dubel:Yes.
Steve Dubel:You know that container, tiny house, it's just amazing.
Steve Dubel:It's just growing, growing, growing, growing.
Steve Dubel:And I want to take a few moments out to thank all our listeners for listening to Boxcar Universe.
Steve Dubel:You know, you remember we are your source for cutting edge information on container homes and container pools.
Steve Dubel:And I want to just say that we have had an influx of people interested in container pools and we're doing our best to make sure that we get that information out to you as soon as possible so that you can make a choice on those.
Steve Dubel:And it's just amazing that all the attention and interest that we've had on that.
Steve Dubel:So we're doing our best to get that out.
Steve Dubel:And if you haven't, make sure that you just touch base with us on social media.
Steve Dubel:You'll be able to find us at Boxcar Universe.
Steve Dubel:You could always email Mel or I@boxcarlivingmail.com or steveoxcaruniverse.com and you could always hear Boxcar Universe weekly on any podcast player and all our past and previous shows.
Steve Dubel:And I want all of you to remember this holiday weekend.
Steve Dubel:Let us containerize your lifestyle.
Steve Dubel:Bye bye now.
Shara Terry:You're a great American.
Chris Conover:I love.
