Ordering a Tiny House from China, what's the real COST? Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 So, behind me is a 40ft expandable uh container home. We're going to talk about the cost, the company that we we got it from, how long it took to get it, what the setup process was like. Let's dive right into it. >> Okay, so starting off, [music] this is a video walkthrough of our pre-fabricated tiny home. We opted for the 40ft [music] length. They come in 20 and 30 foot, but we went with a 40.

00:28 So, the [music] company we ordered this from is called Haiti Integrated Housing Co. They're based out of China, [music] and we found their company using Alibaba, and they just had [music] excellent reviews, and they specialized in these pre-fabricated homes. So, that's why we decided to go with that company. Their production [music] time was approximately 30 days at the warehouse.

00:54 And then it took about a month of shipping overseas. [music] Once the container home arrived at the port, we were given about a 24-hour [music] notice of delivery to our property. And because of that short notice, Kurt only had about 12 hours to prepare the pad. [music] And that wasn't necessarily due to lack of planning on our part. We were just incredibly busy finishing out the build of our second food truck [music] and working on the home.

01:21 and we thought we would be given at least a 2e notice of delivery. However, that didn't happen. So, [music] anyways, um moving on, the cost of the house for the container home itself, it was $15,800. [music] Once you added in the shipping, which was doortodoor, [music] the tariffs and the taxes and all fees associated, our total came out [music] to $28,689.

01:54 So, if you'd like to stick around and see how we got it all set up, just continue watching. Today is Wednesday, May 14th, 2025, and we have something very exciting happening today. We are getting our container home delivered. As you can see behind me, Curt's in the skid steer getting the final touches done on our house pad. Well, not house pad, container pad because it's going to get delivered in about 30 minutes from now.

02:22 So, we've been so busy with getting the food truck started that we haven't had a chance to get this pad totally ready. So, he's doing the best he can to get it leveled out right now. Ideally, we would have had gravel out here, but you know, you can't win them all. So, our teleahandler got delivered this morning for unloading and setting it in place.

02:46 Very exciting. Making huge moves. And uh yeah, we can't wait to show you what it looks like when we get it unloaded, unfolded, and just what that whole process looks like. So, stay tuned. What about you, Harve? Get it. Huge shout out to Pro Reynolds getting us this giant teleahandler last minute. Literally like I don't know what >> 12 hour notice. We can have him unload it either forward or back and then we can All right, taking the door off so we can climb in and out of the skid steer if we need to be chaining and

03:55 doing stuff with it. uh halfway holding up the tiny house. >> Okay, we got everything set up and ready. Tail handler over there, Harvey right here, Olive right there, skid steer, and Kurt is just checking grade one more time. We just spoke with the delivery driver. He said that he's about 15 miles away. So, yep. Pretty soon there's going to be a tiny home here.

04:49 >> A lot of stuff on the plugers. >> Yeah. Nice. >> Yeah. Sweet. Yeah. This So, we'll want we'll want to pull straight in and slide it out. Yeah. So, it's a tiny home. >> Tiny home. >> Yeah. And the sides they can flip up >> and then the wall and the wall on the floor drops down and then the wall stands up to hold out the sides. >> Oh, really? >> And then the outsides pop in.

05:23 So it basically it goes uh out to 19 ft wide >> and so 19 ft by the length of the container here. And >> what does this come from? From uh China. >> Yeah, from China. We bought it. So how much Doesn't take much cuz if you look if you look down here they greased it up so it's it it wants to just slide in and out. Yeah, just chug the ball like this. I'm going to try to keep it tight.

06:58 There we go. I want to check something real with that. All right, now the big Okay, so we just got the container out of the semi. So now what we're doing is we're going to get the corners chained up so that we can lift it up and shift it this direction and we can get the semi out of here before our 2hour unloading limit is up. We still have about 40 minutes.

08:37 So we should be all good. Kurt's just making all sure that all of the chains are even and we'll get it lifted up and moved and the semi out of here. Unfortunately, we don't have another way for him to drive out. So, nice calm day. No wind. >> All right, we got it out of the road here. This isn't where it's going to stay, but we did move it far enough to where the semi can back out of here now and he can get on with his day.

10:09 All right. Well, the door works. You can see the elevation change. Right up here is like 4 in and over there it's tight. >> This is good news. Uh I can already tell that there's multiple outlets. I've seen reviews where people say that there's only one outlet per room and we were prepared for that. But >> Oh, I like these windows. >> Check it out. Ooh, they they seal up nice.

10:54 Here's our switches. So far, the fit and finish seems good. Electrical. They did a good job with all the silicone. >> Oh, I'm excited to unfold it. >> I I really This is what the It's a metal um that looks like wood and it's got foam backing on it. Yeah, we paid for the upgraded insulation, >> right? With the metal. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Upgraded insulation.

11:30 And then on this, this is what the exterior windows look like. It's black. And that's actually really nice trim details. Doesn't look bad at all. >> I'm excited. >> What do you think, Olive? >> All right. So, we just kind of got this propped up. We got this one with the gas struts, which really helps. We were wondering if we should put any um poly down on the ground.

12:03 You know, I think it would be nice to, but at least there's cement board. If this was like OSB or something, I would be like, "Yeah, let's probably get some." Here's for lighting. Done really easy. Okay. Heat. Oh my goodness. after we unfold it. You can So, we're just analyzing right now how we want to try to get this wall lifted up. In all of the tutorial videos that we got sent from the manufacturer, they usually have like 10 or 15 guys along this side that all lift it up at the same time.

14:18 And we want to figure out the best way we can lift it using our machines without damaging the side walls or the ceiling or anything like that. So, we're just working on figuring that out right now. >> All right. Ready? You got the height. >> Got it. [sighs] >> Yeah, just the siding sitting on it right now, so I don't want it to push it through. Okay, Rosie.

15:04 >> Other end. You mind if I put Rosie in a bucket for a minute? >> You can take her home with you. >> Just put a lid on it just for a few minutes. >> Okay, that should do it. >> Okay. Does that look all right? All right. So, this to get this wall up with the tractor. I think what we're going to do is we're going to um use some 2 by sixes and I'm going to kind of screw them into a Cshape or like a U shape with three 2 by sixes and we're going to slide it on the end of the wall.

15:41 Hook our straps up to those 2 by sixes to pull it up because there's no good place to hook up to it without damaging it or having it taco on us. Ciao, Henry, go stand by mama. Thanks. >> I'm in here. >> There you go. Slide it on. Probably as far as you can go. >> Slowly. >> I'm hitting the ceiling already. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three.

16:36 You need me to come over there, Sh? >> That was it. So, because we only had a few hours to level this pad, it's probably only it's a maybe/ inch lower than the other side. And when you go to swing this out right here, it starts to hit just a little bit. [snorts] So, I uh I'm just going to pry down with this bar and Shell's going to swing that open. And it should give us Oh, let me get this 2x4 out of here.

17:09 It should give us the space that we need clearance-wise. So, I'll pry down on this and you can try to swing that door. Okay. >> Okay. >> I can tell if it's all the way on the outside. >> It looks good. And And there's spots to screw and suck it tight against those seals. >> Okay. >> Nice. Same thing on this side. This side's about an inch. Well, I'm just going to put my pry bar under there.

17:46 Pry it up. >> Ready? >> Yep. No scrapage. Oh, >> I think we're okay. >> Okay. All right. Push tight. One, two, three. >> And this will be the kitchen. Okay, so we have half of it popped out now. We'll have to do this later. We're running out of daylight, but nice nice hardware. >> This This side [snorts] opens up, too. But you can get an idea of it all opened up.

18:27 This wall right here is still going to swing >> swing out. swing out and it'll it'll be a big partition wall here. So, basically from this spot moving forward will be the start of the great room. This whole area Curt's walking in is the kitchen. So, we'll have to install all the cabinets and the sink. And here is the bathroom, which we were just measuring.

18:54 We're going to get a new vanity for in here. Um, this is a pretty small sink area. just not very much storage and no countertop space. So, I just found one we're going to replace. But toilet, shower. We'll probably get to the rest of this on Saturday after our concrete job, but this is where we're at so far. >> This is the hot water heater. [laughter] If that tells you how small that is.

19:32 been a couple of days since we've been able to work on the house and uh it's been raining every day that we've since we've gotten it set up and we're coming into the house finding a couple spots where we're having troubles with leaking. We did notice the other day that there's a crack under here where you can see daylight. So, we're going to have to get all those filled in.

19:56 Down here where Kurt is, we've got a problem with water leaking down the wall. I don't know if you can see it running down kind of pooling. >> It's leaking where I put the strap around it when we unloaded it with the tea handler where the strap was ripped the uh the seam tape which is why it's leaking. Anyways, we're going to work on some of the interior stuff and then if the rain lets up, we'll work on getting this other half unfolded.

20:32 >> Oh, there it goes. >> Man, the sweat hit the tractor. Jeez, that's a [laughter] lot of weight coming out of there. >> This guy. Whoa. [laughter] All right. >> It's definitely hitting. I kind of tucked him into here. >> Just pulled this off >> like this. The three of us are going to push the wall up higher. Kurt's just adjusting the 2x4s down there to be >> 2x4 >> out of the way.

21:23 >> It might be enough though to let me get into it here. Oh, somewhere. Nice. There we go. ball. >> All right, Sh, your honors. >> Oh no. >> Gosh, [laughter] curl bar. >> Oh no. >> Oh, this isn't good. Crowbar. [laughter] [snorts] We're back out here today to keep working on the house. Um Kurt's outside spreading some gravel so we can try to get better control over how much dirt is coming in and out.

22:49 But that'll help keep it cleaner. But yeah, we've got all these kitchen cabinets in the middle of the floor here that we'll need to get installed. We've got some trim to kind of close these gaps on the floor. We're going to work on weather sealing and [snorts] bolting and let's see what else. Oh, all of the light fixtures need to be installed. There's a handful of switches that need to get installed.

23:16 So, we're going to be just working on cleaning and unpackaging and doing some finish work. And hopefully we can make some good progress on all of that today. Oh, I forgot to mention that there's this plastic film on every square inch of this place. And I'm trying really hard to decide if this is a project I want to tackle or not. Ultimately, I'd like to have the plastic film off, but it doesn't peel easily.

23:47 I tried to get this off last night, but it just starts to tear and it just doesn't come off easily. But probably get a knife and cut it and see if we can get some of this off. But this is going to be a major task. I mean, it's on every wall, every piece of trim, the ceiling, the door. It's It's everywhere. So yeah, our house came saran wrapped Heat.

25:03 Heat. Mommy, where's that noise? >> He's in a power drum. >> Oh, it's too loud. >> Yeah. Which shape is going to be? Wow. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music]