Hello Boxcar Universe family. As we close out an incredible year, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the journey that we've shared in 2024. This has been a year full of insightful conversations, groundbreaking ideas, and some truly unforgettable moments. Today's episode is a special treat, a compilation of some of the best highlights from Boxcar Universe from this year.
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. From fascinating guests and inspiring stories to game changing innovations in container living and beyond, we've captured the essence right here in 2024. So sit back and relax and let's take this trip down memory lane together. We will be back next week and I want to wish everyone a happy new Year.
Thank you for being part of the Boxcar Universe family. Here's to an even more amazing 2025. Since the dawn of time, mankind has searched for ways to shelter themselves from the elements. Over the centuries, these shelters have evolved from bamboo huts to concrete towers. The last few years, there's been a push to save the planet. Are you ready to embark on a more sustainable lifestyle? Look no further. You're about to enter the adventures of Container Home Living.
And now, contractor, radio and TV personality and your host for Boxcar Universe, Steve Dubel. Hi, I'm Steve Dubell, host of Boxcar Car Universe, along with my co host Mel Alva. And here's what's coming up on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe. Chara Terry is here from Berkshire Hathaway's Home Services. And if you know anything about real estate, you know the name Berkshire Hathaway. And Char is actually going to give us some insight into the real estate market and trends of 2024.
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. Also, as you know, we do our segment, Mel and Steve on the Street. Well, last night it was Steve on the street and we were in downtown Phoenix. 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.
And this restaurant was built with shipping containers and some conventional construction and they were having a Valentine's Day event down there. So I had gone down and spoke to several different people down there. And for all you online people who love to get their news from Facebook, make Sure.
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. 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.
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. So if you are a fan of shipping container homes, you've got to check this out. Make sure, if you are in the Phoenix area, make sure you go down to the Churchill.
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. And I know Colin be down there if he wasn't here with me right now, right. He's laughing. Okay, well let's get started today with, with today's show. Charateri is here with from Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Shara, first time at Boxcar Universe. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. Steve and Colin, appreciate it.
You know, this is, it's an interesting time, especially the way the market is. And I think judging from the realtors that I've spoken to, everybody has a different take on the condition of the market. But let's get into that in a minute. But tell our listeners a little bit about you and Berkshire Hathaway. 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. So I've seen the market come up, I've seen it go down.
I saw the huge bubble, if you will, when everyone and their brother was buying a home and 2005, 2006 and then the crash and then the big. Then the world ended. Then the world ended. 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.
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. And tell us a little bit about that. So this was a very, very intriguing project. And it started with a vision from his children. Jorge Salcedo is one of the build, along with Louis, Lou. Sorry, Leo. Leo, Lanny and the children came up with the concept. They put it to paper, and then they found the land.
And so that was kind of the first key element was, where do we want to be? Where do we want to build this? So they bought the land, and then he strategically found the different containers. And the purpose of it was to make sure that they had history, they had a story. So he selected containers which had traveled along all the world, and one of them was even stamped in Vietnamese. So he selected the containers, but it wasn't just a normal container house.
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. So it was a seamless project. 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. So it was really quite the vision. Took them two years to build. Of course, you know, they ran into obstacles, as you would probably imagine.
And all the looky loos from the neighbors and the firemen and the policemen were constantly coming in going, what are you doing? What is this? But it was really very well thought out, Steve. 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. And the purpose of it was to have beautiful mountain views in your backyard, literally as a backdrop. And then the city lights to the north, like tiers of city lights.
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. And so it was an amazing project. He did get energy audits, and he got duct testing and the whole works. The first question I asked, and many people ask is like, okay, it's a container, it's metal. We're Arizona in the summertime. How hot does it get? See, I mean, that the first question, right? How many times have we brought that up on this show, right?
People turn around and they say, well, they asked Melanie, it's like, well, it's hot. How do you live in a metal container? I said, it is obviously looking. Have you ever heard of insulation? Yes. I mean, of course, insulated. And there's a lot of different things now that we've had as guests on the show. And there's stuff out there that probably was not available back then there. Now that you don't have to worry about. 1. I was talking to a gentleman this morning about.
Okay, we've had the gentleman who actually created green cork products. 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. It's only like a sixteenth of an inch thick. It does. It's so good of an insulator, they call it. It's like a radiant barrier. Yes. Okay. It doesn't even have an R value. It's that good. I mean, you could spray the outside of the container if you like the corrugated look.
And you'd gain not just an aesthetic look, but you'd also gain a great insulating value by doing this. And then whatever you want to do on the inside, it'd be a plus. Right. Well, this project was literally containers, but it was the inside insulation they used. And they used, like an aluminum woven material that was a barrier. And it would radiate the heat outward. Cause he really wanted the containers to be on the outside.
Sure. And then he left little, slight reminders of the inside where the containers kind of stopped and started. Because, again, it was really seamless. Well, really, really well thought out. 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. 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.
So when we first took it, the listing, I really spent a lot of time looking at who we could get out there. How can we bring the market to the property. So we literally had news channels doing live feeds from there. Jorge was the host. He's such a great man. Cause he was the one who was visionary. So we had several, several news channels out there running it in the mornings and in the afternoons and in the weekends. We had HG out there quite a few times. YouTube videos. I mean, everyone.
It was like the talk of the town. We had inquiries from all over the world, let alone just Arizona. And I think the sticking point was, how do you get financing? So from day one, I was on the phone trying to find news channels that can go out there and film it. And then my next phone calls were gonna be talking to every single lender I possibly knew and getting referrals. How can we get this project financed? Cause every buyer is gonna be like, I love it.
I just don't know that I want to be the first. And then if I have to resell it, then I'm going to rely on another buyer who's cash. So that reduces your buyer pool, of course. So finances, I mean, people are like, yeah, yeah, we can do it. We can do it. And they're like, oh, no, I can't find anything to appraise it with. Exactly. They have nothing. There is no comparables. No, no, not even close. And so it was kind of a long journey.
But they were patient with me and I was patient with them, and I was so was sold on the project itself. It was so unique. And again, everyone who came out there, the jaw dropped because you will never see it again. There's still not another one out there that has this type of traditional framing inside. He even used one of the containers that was on the lower west end he pre plumbed for a kitchen. So it could literally be in law quarters. It could be a studio. You could rent it out.
Airbnb, it had its separate entrance and the bleachers that stepped up to the container from that separate entrance were from asu. So, I mean, a lot of just so much history. It was like just the story of this property. So luckily we did get a few offers, but the lending situation kind of held our hands. And then we finally got a lender who would be willing to finance it, and we closed in 2021 to an awesome buyer.
Why did they decide to sell the home once it was all built and it had so much history built into it? Originally, he was gonna live in it, and then he decided that he wanted to make it maybe a project. Cause he's a construct. He's a builder himself. And he and Leo, his partner, have. They still have permits and they've got a license to build, and so they're doing other projects.
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. But once it finally did, then his vision kind of changed. Now their model is. They're doing custom homes in Sedona and that kind of a thing. So it was just his baby. And I think after a while he's like, okay, I think I'm ready and just kind of move on. Yeah, it's like a feather in your cap.
Well, it was like I said in the very beginning, it was the vision that was just an idea, a concept. And then that went to pen and paper, and then that went into architecture, plans, and then it went into reality. So, yeah, a lot of his blood, sweat and tears, but I think he was ready to move on from it. Just how long did they live in it before they decided to sell it? Well, he lived in it when they were building it, when it was able to live in it. Oh, okay.
So he was there still doing the final touches. And they created a website. And so a lot of people, they would get inquiries with this website. He would direct a lot of them to me if I created a conversation regarding selling it. So I'm sure he, you know, the recognition that he got at being the first one was pretty big. Am I allowed to give the address or the website or is that not. No, you could do that. Go ahead. Okay. So the address is 2753 E. South Mountain Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85042.
And he has a website called Gold Container Home. Gold Container Home. Gold Container Home. And you'll see a lot of the pictures there. I've kept all the pictures there. I labeled every single one. So you would kind of see within the walls what he did, you know, with the WI fi, with the. There's electric charger in the garage. He was just kind of ahead of his time. Yeah, you know, it sounds like it. No, it really was. So I was.
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. And I'm sure, yeah, I'm sure that that was important to do because I would. If I put that kind of blood, sweat and tears into it that I would want, I wouldn't just sell it to anybody. Right. And it wasn't. And it would. It had to be. Not just the money issue. You're connected. Yeah, yeah, you connected. I remember. I remember one of my.
One of my things on my bucket list that I always wanted to do. I always wanted to build. Build my own house. And when I had an opportunity to do that, I mean, I, you know, it was. I. I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the house myself, even though I had subcontractors are building it. But I was. I was the project manager. I was the owner. And I made sure that if I didn't see anything, you know, no, gotta fix that. That doesn't. That gotta fly for me. Right.
And. But to be able to go do that once it was all done, it was. It was a very gratifying feeling. Absolutely. To be able to do that. In fact, Now, I mean, the house is sold. And, you know, we sold the house way back in 2017 when I got divorced. And now I drive by that house and I look at it and they, they don't take care of it. Just the outside like I used to do. And I was like, it, it kills me to see it. I'm like, if the outside looks like that, what does the inside look like?
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. A fountain on the inside of the house and all this. And I can imagine what this house looks like on the inside if they don't even take care of that.
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. Well, you know, I got. There's the first house I ever had that, you know, gravel outside, you know, and a hardscape.
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. I don't think they even know the word. The best time to pull a weed is when it's soaking. Well, you just come right up in the root.
And I learned that in a very hard way too, because the first time I, I did it, I couldn't believe it. And it got a little ahead of me when I first moved in the house. I'm like, oh, I can't hit this with, you know, God. Thank God I didn't use Roundup. Otherwise I'd be. Yeah, otherwise I'd know I'd be doing that class action lawsuit. Oh my God, I've been using Roundup. I can't get me help.
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. And that was the only way to get it out. And then whatever weeds didn't blow away, I just picked out and said, never, ever let that happen again.
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. Water will always find its way and grass and weeds will continue. And truly the curb appeal is the face. Yeah, it's the face of meeting a person. So think about it that way. And you're absolutely right. If the face has a scowl on it, probably their heart is a little dark too. That's right.
But anyway, so, Shara, tell our listeners how they could contact you. 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. Phone number is 602-692-0538. You can literally google me and there's not a lot of people named Shara in the world. So that's kind of my benefit of having a unique name. But I do have two first names, so make sure the Terry is the last name. That's right. Oh, yeah.
When they first saw it, it was like, well, wait a minute, is that like middle name or where's the last name? You know? I know, I know. It's two first names. And I, I. Yeah, I have to explain it every time. Well, that makes you special. Well, thank you. Well, yeah, I mean, absolutely. So I want everybody to stay tuned. You are listening to Boxcar Universe. Don't go away. Discover the future of sustainable lifestyle living with Boxcar Universe.
Your go to source for cutting edge container home and container pool information. Want a dream container home or pool? We can build it for you. Hi, I'm Steve Dubell from Boxcar Universe. For the latest in container innovation and expert insights, tune into our weekly podcast, Boxcar Universe. Ready to start your project? Call us today at 602-332-6203 or email us at steveoxcaruniverse.com Remember Boxcar Universe, where your container dreams come to life. Listen, learn and build with us.
Looking to transform your space with over 30 years of construction experience and featured on radio and TV, ideal home improvement and legacy custom homes. Azure does it all from repairs, remodeling and restorations to new builds, container homes and container pools. Plus cutting edge solar systems to help homeowners save money on their utility bills. Hi, I'm Steve Dubell. Let us help you design and build your dream home with the expertise that comes from decades of experience in the business.
Call me today at 602-332-6203 or email me at Steve idealhomeimimprovementaz.com to get started. Remember Ideal home improvement and legacy custom homes az where your dream home becomes Reality. Don't wait. Call today. All right. You are tuned into Boxcar Universe and we are here. We're talking about energy savings today, especially when it comes to, you know, it's going to be very, very hot.
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.
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. And mini splits are very economical and energy efficient. And we have our expert on the show today, Dennis Stinson.
He's the vice president of sales for Fujitsu General America. And Dennis, welcome to the show today. Thank you for being taking time out for being on with us today. Well, thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mel. It's a pleasure to join you on Boxcar Universe. And I look forward to talking about all the changes and the happenings in the world of heating and cooling. So thank you. That's great. Thank you for being here.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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. Yeah. So Fujitsu General America is a global manufacturer of H VAC products and we specialize in mini splits. And, and these are units that are one indoor unit and one outdoor unit and come in a couple of different styles. I'm sure we'll get an opportunity to talk about that.
But they're slightly different technology, not in the refrigerant cycle but in how we manage the power. And we're using inverter technology because of that. Steve and Mel, we tend to be incredibly efficient. 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.
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. So this allows us to address certainly sustainability but also provide a great value for the property owner. Yeah, and that's I think what it's all about too. 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.
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. You see, well, you know, you know, they want to, they show you, well, this mini split by this company or that company. 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.
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. 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.
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. Fujitsu is a very well known name in the heating and cooling industry. Well, thank you, thank you for recognizing that.
We, we make a variety of different products for both residential and commercial. But Steve and Mel, I think it's probably important to, to help your listeners understand what a mini split is. If they're not as familiar with it as, as we are as we talk about it. So we know that a mini split is a traditional heat pump. 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.
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. So this is a product that's not going to use ductwork. 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.
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. The other really nice thing about ductless heat pumps is that we are built in zoning. So that means as somebody expands their property into multiple containers, then you have one that's for sleeping and one's for living.
There's no reason why you need to condition the entire occupied space or dwelling space for what you're not occupying. 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. And you can extend that along.
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. So a couple of the built in benefits of ductless heat pumps is that it's a year round comfort. So it's not just spot heating and cooling, it's built in zoning. So you condition the spaces that you want to condition and they're incredibly efficient and very easy to install.
Especially in the circumstances that you've invested your careers in the container market. 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. Because I know there are a lot of DIY people out there who they, they like to go get a container home. They don't want to, they want to build it themselves. I mean you see it all over YouTube.
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. Does it mean that they're doing it right? And a lot of times they may opt out for money reasons. You know, they're, they're spending thousands of dollars. Even if they're doing it themselves.
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. 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.
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. Well, and thank you again for recognizing that. I mean, we're, we're operating in a more mature market. 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.
And there is a difference between screws and metals and clip and plastic. Right. And you get what you pay for. But when we take a look at the product line, we look at a nice wide offering of it. 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. But then just a discussion along the line of what does it look like and how does it operate inside my property?
And I know Mel would be interested in certainly how does that appeal to the homeowner and how can I make that fit? The most common of all of our indoor units is a wall mount. And that is a rectangular shaped unit that would hang on the wall and that would provide all the heating and cooling. But we also make a ceiling cassette. So this would be a two by two area and it would be about 10 inches in depth.
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. Then we also have a floor console. And being from the east coast, I know that both of you are, that would remind you a bit of a radiator. 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.
So that could be very traditional style looking that way. And then even though we call ourselves a ductless company, we do have ducted product. 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. So if your listeners say, you know what? I like the idea of the wall mount product. I'm good with that.
Or a ceiling cassette or a floor mount. But if your listeners say, you know what? 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. That really the reasons you invest in ductless product.
Yeah. 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. 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. Well, he used to say, a renter with tools could be a dangerous thing.
But I. I changed that when I started doing home improvement and got my show back in 2005 and started doing radio. A homeowner with tools could be a very dangerous thing, because they don't. 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.
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. Purchase a unit and say, well, I can install this. And then before you know it, you get halfway through it, you've got a. Hole in the wall. And then all of a sudden, it's like, okay, well, wait a minute. What about this? Or what about that?
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. Well, it doesn't make a difference whether you do it yourself, and maybe it doesn't come out right.
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. 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. So why wouldn't you want to have it done right by a professional and showcase it to your friends and family?
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. And I think that's one of the things that, you know with the different products that you have. And like you say, different areas of the country require different types of units. And I think being able to have that kind of variety is, is very good because you can appeal to everyone everywhere.
Hang tight. We'll be right back. You're listening to Boxcar Universe. Hello, my name is Sean with Mr. Electric and I have a safety tip for you today. Aluminum wiring. 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.
A survey by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission shows that homes built before 1972 and wired with aluminum branch circuits are 55 times more likely to have one or more wire connections at an outlet reach what's called a fire hazard condition than homes that were wired with copper only. The problem is the connection of the aluminum wire to copper devices or wiring. When aluminum and copper come together, the result over time is oxidization or rust.
And over time, this condition creates resistance to the flow of electricity, causing the connections to overheat. The longer the time goes, the worse this condition gets. 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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For more info, visit stardustbuilding.org all right. And we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe right here from the beautiful and palacious Boxcar Studios here in Phoenix, Arizona. We have got a great guest on the show coming up. 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?
And all those kind of questions, you know, how even how far fetched and ridiculous they are. But we have the man to answer all those questions regarding container homes. Chris Conover from Tiny Custom House is with us. And Chris, great to have you back on the show again. Great to be with you guys again. Thank you for inviting me. Yeah. And it's, we're all getting ready for fourth of July weekend.
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. So it's, it's kind of crazy. 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. And it just in and everybody's different, you know, so there's no rhyme or reason, you know.
But much like Mel and I, I'm sure, Chris, you're always working 24 7. 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. Yeah. Well, yeah. Join the crowd. That's right. You know, you know, as, as, as Mr. Spock says on Star Trek, the need of the many outweigh the need of the few or the one. So you've got to take care of the public. That's all you got to do.
Yeah. 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. Yeah. 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. And I, I thought to myself, you know, I'm pretty handy. I think I can do that. And so I started on my first container as a cabin for myself and my family.
We were going to put it up north somewhere in Flagstaff or Prescott, you know, just a place to get out of the heat. 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. 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.
And you know, some people started reaching out, telling me how cool the container was, that they, they would possibly like a container themselves. And one person reached out and you know, people here, local, probably heard of the Maricopa county home show. They reached out in particular, they were doing a tiny home feature and they asked me to bring my container to the show.
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. And so I ended up taking it to the show. We ended up winning best in show. We sold, I think on that show, we sold 10 or 15 units at that show specifically. And so we kind of went from zero to a hundred really quick with orders. And we've been trying to fulfill those orders for the last, you know, we've been doing it now for two years.
And we've placed half a dozen containers in actual properties within, you know, Phoenix area as well as maybe some surrounding areas. We have one up north of Payson in a town called Young, Arizona. We have one up there. 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? Well, Yonge is a 20 mile dirt road. It's a fire service road to get to the town.
And the container made it down that road and into its location just fine. So if I can deliver there, I can deliver anywhere. Okay. Yeah, it's, it's been a fun experience. Yeah. 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? You know. Yeah, it's a little, I was a kind of a knee jerk reaction.
Now I've got to go build all these containers for these people. Right. So we kind of strapped up our boots, we went to work. We've been building like Crazy ever since. Oh, that's something. That's really good. 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. In, in an effort to, as we say, maybe maintain the influx of sales leads and purchases so that you could fulfill them.
Yeah, yeah, we've grown quite a lot. I mean we have over, I think we're right around $2 million in pre orders alone for these containers. 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. Now that's pretty cool. Now is, is that going to be near where you're located as your new address out in, in Mesa? Correct.
Yeah. So that address is our production yard out there off of McKellar. That's where we have been building all the containers. 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.
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. 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.
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. And they are just, I think they're just pretty amazing. 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.
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? 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. Yeah, they're actually rather spacious, right. They have nine foot ceilings in the containers. And they have quartz countertops, full luxury plank vinyl flooring. Right.
So like you mentioned, it is very traditional. It's feels like an apartment or a single one bed, one bathroom home. Yeah, it is very luxurious and we do very traditional build processes with these containers. They've all been structurally, electrical and plumbing designed and engineered so it can be placed anywhere in the country.
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. So I think that's. 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. Mel and Steve on the street.
We should get someone who, who is interested in a home. 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. What do you think? Okay. Why not? I mean, you know, hey, we might have some fun. Febreze also. Just kidding, right? Yeah. Well, you know, hey, we just like to have some fun here too, besides all the great information that we share. But it's really, really an up and coming thing.
And I know you, you're, you're. And think about this too, right? You're growing in these challenging times with the high inflation rate, high interest rates, and people are still buying. 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.
But you seem to be doing a great job at moving forward. Yeah, you know, I think that is probably what is impacting our business in a positive way, really. 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. And so we actually have. I think that's probably helped our model.
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. With traveling and not being, you know, so tied down to a single location.
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. So people can, you know, lease different containers in different areas that are advantageous to their lifestyle at the moment. And that's, and that's important and that would be something that's really good.
But I think, you know, Chris, I think we're going to get there eventually. It's just going to take a little bit of time. Like any good new trends, the word spreads and when it spreads it's going to become more mainstream than it already is. 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.
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. So they're gauging all these plans under old guidelines.
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. They just wasn't what the planners were used to approving. 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. But I think we've come a long way in that area. Yeah, we have. And they are becoming more mainstream.
And I like to think of containers as an alternative building material and that we can put multiple together to create larger homes. We can do our single unit homes for easy transferability and quick on site, you know, up, up, up and running operations. We even have some going out in California. And California, as you know, has become very friendly to multi generational type housing ideas. Tiny houses, containers.
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. So we have a few containers even going out in different areas of LA and Southern California for container homes. 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.
That's really, that's really good news that, that people are, and municipalities are moving in that direction. But we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we're going to have More with Chris Conover from his great, great container tiny house. And I'm going to have to edit that. How did I do that? Hold on a second, Chris. I got tongue tied. All right, we're going to just do that over.
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. We're going to be going through and asking him some FAQ questions. And Allison, who's here in the studio, I know she has a few questions because she is interested in tiny homes. And we got some great FAQs to talk to you about. So stay tuned. You're listening to Boxcar Universe. Improve your home's energy efficiency by calling I foam your comfort and efficiency insulators.
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so what's in your attic? All right, we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe and we are talking with Chris Conover from Tiny Custom House. 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. You know, the same things that go into a stick built house, but they're significant differences.
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. And you would never, never know that you were in a tiny home. But Allison, who's here with us, has some questions about container houses. And Allison, let's talk to Chris and see what he can answer for you. Okay. Yeah. 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?
Yeah, so that's another reason we use a container itself is because the side prep is fairly easy. It doesn't require a lot of, you know, you don't need a structural foundation for these containers. 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. Right.
You need to pull utilities and services to the hot tub or the slab for the hot tub. 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. So generally our site prep is about three weeks. That's one of the, the benefits of a container than doing a stick build house is a stick build. We're going to, you know, be on your property for months at a time, six months to a year. Right.
Building a container we can build in six weeks, the interior and then we can place it on your property in three weeks. Okay, that's pretty cool. 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? Yeah, good question. No, great question. So I, I am a contractor by trade, so I can absolutely come and do the site prep for our, our buyers.
Thus far we've done all the site prep for all of our customers. It's an additional fee to the price point of the container itself. 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. So that would be up to our customers that are outside of Arizona to do the site prep. They don't always have to pour a slab. You know, they could kind of level it out, put some ab down or something like that to keep it more mobile.
Right. But yeah, outside of Arizona we, we would be more of a, you know, a consultant. We wouldn't be able to do that, that work for our customers. Chris, I have a question for you. Give us an idea of the cost of the shipping containers. And with that being said, do you have access to financing so people are not coming out of pocket completely for these containers? Yeah, great question. So we have a couple different tiers when it comes to containers.
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. So you can kind of do an inside, outside type living space with the containers. That container comes ready to live in with your appliances, your finishes, everything in that container drop and ready to go. That one is $95,000 ready to go. And that's 320 square feet. Right. And so you get a livable apartment at 320 square feet and $95,000.
We do have some better, you know, a little bit lower cost models that don't include maybe some of the luxury finishes. Those start right at 75,000. 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. So all in all, you're gonna be looking about 2, about 200 to $225 a square foot on these container units.
That's amazing. Yeah, I mean that's that and that pricing is not, not bad, especially when you think about what you're getting. And that's a 40 foot container, basically a one bedroom. Right Chris? Yeah. Okay. So I mean, I mean, and, and the spacing, like you said earlier, there's a lot of space inside those.
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. So your space just naturally seems to increase when you do that. And it's great way to let the outside in, in the inside out.
So it's, it's something really, really nice that people should consider. But yeah, go ahead. 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. And we've got a couple containers on Airbnb.
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. 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.
The ones that I saw in the models that you had out in the production yard, they were right off the kitchen area. So it's great if you're entertaining and you bring, and you have that additional patio square footage outside. So it's great. 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. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, one of the other things that people ask for, ask.
Well, you know, is it safe to live in a shipping container? Yeah, it is very safe to live in a shipping container. The way that we actually prep the containers is there is no vapor or water barrier between you and the container. Right. So we use an inch and a half of closed cell industrial spray foam around every piece of that container. 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.
And so it is very safe to be inside the container. 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. So they are very safe and clean containers. Some of them I don't even like covering up because they're so clean.
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. We haven't done any of those yet. We've stuck with the traditional look of the, you know, the drywall and, and everything on the interior. So yeah, the answer to that question is very safe. There's no, there's no transfer of chemicals or vapor between the existing container and your living space. That's.
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. So making sure that those are not, you know, in a container home are so very important. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So one last question.
If you had to choose a shipping container house instead of a traditional house, why would you choose that? So I really like, obviously I'm biased. I love the container house idea and I love the idea of maybe even adding multiple together. 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. We have a two and a half year old and she doesn't, she doesn't think it's big enough.
However, I would love to live in a container home with our family, but she doesn't, she's not quite there yet. But why I would choose a container is the structural integrity of a container is very good. And you ask any engineer, architect, he'll Tell you how well designed these containers are. They're stacked on these shipping yards, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 high, and they're fully loaded with product material. Containers are loaded up to as much as 40, 000 pounds.
10 of those high and the one container is on the bottom. Right. So structurally, these are incredibly strong resources and, and very strong to use in, in a building. You know, methodology and way. 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. Right? A steel container is a lot harder to, you know, infiltrate than a traditional home.
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? Your pests and rodents can't chew through the, the wood and the material. They can't chewed through the metal. 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.
Containers won't have those types of issues because of the steel. That's right. You can't truce. You can't chew through steel. Yeah, that, that, that's definitely, that is one definitely good aspect of, you know, having a container home. 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.
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. Because the styling and the architecture, it is so very different. But you know, like I said, it's not for everybody. I think it's, I think doing it that way is an exceptional type of architecture that people can, you know, it's a. Your house becomes almost like a story that people talk about, you know, what was it before, what did it look like in it?
And then watching it being created and put on your property, that's just another whole story in itself. 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. Keep building, keep building them. You know, one of these days she may just say, yeah, let's go ahead. Well, you will put about six of them Together, what do you think? Maybe put six together.
That might be okay. Yeah, you could make a really modern looking home out of some of the containers. A lot of people are more into the modern square metal, sleek look, kind of moving away from more of the Tuscany styles. So. Yeah, I think she'd like it. Yeah. All right, well, it sounds good. Chris, tell our listeners how they can contact you. Yeah, so, you know, our, our best way to probably see some of our current projects is on social media. Tiny Custom House, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
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. Right. 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.
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. And as soon as they like their container, then we go, we go to work and we start building it for them. So again, the price points are ranging around 75 to $115,000 for a container. And you can go and design your own. 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.
Yeah, and that's really great. It gets the potential new homeowner involved in all the things that you're going to be putting into it. So that this way there's no question about, well, did I really want this or do I want this particular product? You send all that out. 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. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Chris, thanks again for being on the show today.
We look forward to working with you in the future and having you back on the show. 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. And do you got any plans for the July weekend? Well, you know, back at the beginning of our conversation, I'm working. The rest of my team is taking it off, so I've got a, I'm working Monday. All right. Anywhere this weekend. Okay, well, I know the feeling.
You know, you take what you can get. That's right. There you go. Well, listen, you best to you and your family this holiday long weekend, even though their Monday is stuck in the middle of somewhere. And we'll talk to you real soon. Thank you for having me. Take care. All right, Chris. Yes. You know that container, tiny house, it's just amazing. It's just growing, growing, growing, growing. And I want to take a few moments out to thank all our listeners for listening to Boxcar Universe.
You know, you remember we are your source for cutting edge information on container homes and container pools. 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. And it's just amazing that all the attention and interest that we've had on that. So we're doing our best to get that out.
And if you haven't, make sure that you just touch base with us on social media. You'll be able to find us at Boxcar Universe. 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. And I want all of you to remember this holiday weekend. Let us containerize your lifestyle. Bye bye now. You're a great American. I love.