This TINY HOUSE is the Future of Housing!
This is a 425-square-foot tiny home that is designed like a Tesla. It can be built in one month, and it is claimed to be more efficient and better engineered than any conventional home. Now, it costs around $350,000 to build one of these. Is it worth it? Well, let's go find out. Imagine being able to design a custom home straight from your iPhone. We have the best engineers from Apple, SpaceX, Tesla, Ferrari working together to build the homes of the future.
We want to make building a high-performing, modern home easy and affordable for everyone. There's a reason houses have been built the same way for over 100 years because unlike cars or cell phones, every home needs to fit its environment and your specific needs. Building in a factory is better than conventional construction because you can build efficiently, you can build with higher precision, and you're not impacted by external variables. Today, we're going to tour one of the first homes that is built in the factory and can be customized perfectly to your property. We've toured tiny homes before, but we've never seen one like this. Oh, no. I was trying to get that.
We're going to see if it lives up to the hype. Stay inside for 24 hours. We got a lot to see today, so let's dive right in.
All right, everyone, let's start our tour on the exterior. I'm beyond excited for today's video. We're touring this gorgeous modern prefabricated home built by Cover. And not only we're touring this property, we're also getting a chance to stay in it tonight. That way, we can give you guys the full experience. Now, on the exterior, we can see that this property is built on a Hillside, consists of two levels.
We have the garage on the first floor with the exposed concrete foundation, and on the second floor, we have this amazing 425-square-foot unit with this really cool, warm wood exterior, stainless steel railing, wrap-around deck, staircase is to my left, and we're going to check out upstairs in a second. But first, I actually want to show everybody the garage. Dal, can we hit it? It has this really cool glass garage door, and it opens up from the street level. There you go. Nice polished concrete floors. We also have the electrical box and the water heater on this level, all concrete walls.
These walls are essentially the foundation of this property. And yeah, you get a nice, spacious two-car garage. Now let's walk out for a second one more time. I also really like how it has these sliding glass doors opening up the spaces to this wrap around deck. And we also got a chance to meet the team that's behind Cover.
We met the CEO, their lead designer, went to their factory to understand a little bit more how they fabricate and produce some of the panels that it takes to put these homes together. Super fascinating, and I'll talk more about that later. Now, Dal, follow me this way. Let's go through this gate so we can check out the staircase that takes us up to the top floor.
This is actually a pretty compact lot. But when you pre-manufacture a home like this, you can place it nicely and maximize the lot. This is the concrete staircase that takes you up to the upper section.
Let's go up there. It's really nice that they built this wrap-around deck. That connects all the rooms to each other. We have the front door on this side. And if you continue, deck turns to the left where we have the bedroom and the living room, which we're going to check out later in the tour.
Now, let's talk about the exterior material for a second. They have these horizontal wood slats, which give the home a very nice, warm, and minimalist feel. Behind these wood slats, we have pre-manufactured wall panels that are built out of steel and high-density foam. The beauty of this panelized system is the freedom it gives you when designing and constructing your home. You can think of the cover building system as a set of life-size Lego blocks.
These panels are made in the factory with plumbing, with electrical, with insulation, with waterproofing, with the connection system already made. Then they're flat-packed on a regular truck shipped out to the site, and then assembled without the use of heavy machinery or a crane. Saving time, money, and ultimately making the entire process headache-free. In a few weeks, they can produce these amazing, minimalist modern homes, which is fantastic. We're looking at one today, and with that, we're done with the exterior. At least for now, next, we're going inside.
Welcome to this amazing home. To my left, we have the kitchen, and over on this side, we have the living room, white oak hardwood floors. Track lights on the ceilings.
White minimalist wall panels, with shadow reveals both on the ceilings as well as the floors. And this 425 square foot tiny home packs a lot of unique details and finishes that I'm going to cover throughout the tour. But first, let's talk about the specs.
So this one is a one-bedroom, and it costs around $350,000 to build one of these. That includes the site work, engineering, permitting. It's basically a turnkey product for that price. They also have different layouts. They have an S1 layout. They also have an S2 layout, which is a two-bedroom model.
I believe that one costs around $514,000. You get a turnkey product for that price. Now back to the living room.
Again, love the minimalist approach here. You have a couch, small dining area, TV is mounted to the wall, track lights on the ceiling. Again, very minimalist space. In fact, Dal, why don't you come over to this side? Because I want to talk about this sliding glass door assembly. Cover designs and builds their own windows and doors as well, which is great. That way they can integrate these openings perfectly to the structure of the home.
If you look closely, you will see that tracks are perfectly flush on the floors as well as the ceiling, which gives you this true floor to ceiling opening, maximizes the natural light that comes into this unit. They also tuck their automatic shades nicely to the ceiling as well. And let's actually open up this sliding glass door. There's a magnetic release here. Operates very smoothly, and there you go, opens up the living room to the wrap around deck.
In fact, Dal, let's go outside. It's a beautiful day here in Silver Lake, and this is your cozy outdoor deck off of your living room, and you can just walk to your bedroom, which is fantastic. Dal, can you come outside for a second? I want to talk about this detail.
They have these recessed key fobs, which are nice convenience. You can place them next to a sliding glass door or a regular door, so you can come in and out of the property very easily and lock it here or unlock it. You can see the rest of the deck here. In fact, actually, Dal, can you walk backwards for a second? I want everybody to see the span of this tiny home.
I mean, it's a pretty good size, right? Oh, it's a great size. Just enough for all the comforts you'd expect from a regular home, but really stays true to that minimalist theme. And this wrap around deck gives you such a great outdoor experience. I feel like this house is perfectly designed for your needs. It's not too much, it's not too little, it's just the right amount.
You get an outdoor deck, you benefit from the great weather, and you can just flow straight to the inside, which is amazing. Now, let's talk about some of those minimalist details. You can actually see the seams on the walls as well as the ceiling. That's where we have the pre-manufactured panels. And Cover wasn't shy about these panels.
In fact, they've embraced it and made these seams or these panels part of their design esthetic. In fact, that's why they have these strip track lights. That's where each panel is actually joining each other, which is super cool, very clever. They use this approach and worked it to their advantage and really embraced it on their design esthetic. Now, I know some of you are thinking, Enes, this living room is a little bit too small.
We don't know if this would be enough for myself. Well, you're going to find out because me and Dal are going to be hanging out here this afternoon. This looks ridiculous. - [Luis] You cooked this? - [Sandra] I can eat this every day. I feel like I'm doing math homework with my dad. I have a feeling it's going to be just fine.
Now, we have the kitchen behind me. Before we talk about the kitchen, I got to talk about this really elegant detail that they apply throughout the entire space. Because they're pre-manufacturing their walls, pre-wiring it, and pre-plumbing it, it gives them an opportunity to recess in their light fixtures, their plugs, very efficiently without any cover plates. You can only do that when you can precisely cut panels.
The way they do that is through CNC machines, and that's exactly what they have at their factory. These machines allow you to cut with precision, which accomplishes a perfect fit and finish, wasting no time or materials. During our tour, we learned from the CEO that they now have a machine that can automatically switch each drill bit, getting them closer to mass-producing homes as efficiently as possible.
In fact, they also have this really cool software where you can go to their website, type in your address, and it literally shows you whether you can build an ADU, basically a backyard home, to your property, how big you can build it. You can literally design it on their website, select a few options, and voila, you get the pricing on the spot, and they guarantee that pricing for you all the way to the finish line, which is unheard of in the construction world. We're trying to make the process of building a home really simple for people. The first question people often have is, What can I even build on my property? What fits? What can I afford? What's allowed based on the zoning? We solve that with software.
Being able to go to a website and see how much it's going to cost you. To get a space like this and be able to predict the timeline. That's a difficult challenge, and that's what they're going after, which is super, super cool.
Now, next, let's cover this really minimalist kitchen. Beautiful white modern cabinetry. We have the sink to the left, composite countertops, induction cooktop here that's nicely recessed into the countertop, vent above, open shelving on top. This open shelf is actually bamboo. Bamboo is an amazing material that's really strong, very sustainable, grows incredibly fast.
The team at Cover loves using bamboo. In fact, we're going to see it with the built-in cabinetry, vanities, and it's just an amazing material and goes with the ethos of Cover, so they use it a lot. Now, the rest of the cabinets are down below. We have a lot of drawers, storage spaces. Most of the appliances are actually paneled. We have the Subzero fridge behind this panel.
They use really nice high-end appliances, and they prefer this paneled approach because it makes the kitchen a little bit more minimalist and less cluttered, but you have everything you need. That's your freezer. It's a really well thought out, really cool kitchen, but gets better. If you want a bigger kitchen or a different layout because of their panelized approach, Cover can provide you any type of space you want, and they can reconfigure it to your needs.
Basically, options are endless. The reason this is so revolutionary is because it allows you to benefit from their factory approach while still being able to customize your home precisely to your property. No matter how big or small your plot is, whether you want multiple bedrooms, bigger bathrooms, a guest house that matches the shape of your backyard, Cover can design the perfect home for you.
In fact, later in the video, we'll also see another cover unit with a totally different layout. Now with that, we're done with the kitchen. I want to walk this way so we can talk about this hallway. Essentially, your kitchen cabinetry continues to have additional storage here. Again, track lights.
Door behind me leads to the bedroom, which we're going to check out in a second. Bathroom is to my left. I got to say, with this design esthetic, the way they put these homes together, I feel like I'm in a Tesla home. Yeah, it almost has a futuristic feel to it with how sleek and modern everything is. The straight lines, the way so many features disappear when you're not using them.
Everything is concealed. In a way, I feel like this is the modern-day approach of Sears Homes back in the day. You know those catalog homes where Sears used to print these massive catalogs with all these homes that you can. Just go- Oh, yeah, like when you bought it out of a newspaper or something. Exactly.
They ship it on site and you basically assemble it. If anybody that watches our channel, that's out there that has one of these homes, please let us know in the comments below or just send me an Instagram DM. I want to come and see one of these homes. I've never toured one of these, and I was just always fascinated by the fact that you can buy a home off of a catalog. Seriously, you've done something great.
All right, let's continue. Now I want to show everybody this amazing bathroom. You have your vanity, wall-mounted toilet, walk-in shower on this side.
And what did I say earlier? Cover loves bamboo. That's your bamboo vanity. Then you have your minimalist sink with these sleek black fixtures. Of course, that's the medicine cabinet.
And of course, they recess in the plug nicely into the cabinet, so it's very, very minimalist. Same track lights continue. And on this side, we have the walk-in shower. Considering the fact that this home is 425 square feet, you would assume that your shower would be really small.
Totally opposite. I'm very comfortable here. I have a massive rain head. You have this obscure glass that runs from the floor all the way to the ceiling, so you get great natural light. It feels very good to be here.
Your floors are nicely flush, drain right in the center, waterproof wall panels. So you don't really have a ton of seams or a ton of details. It's basically foolproof. And like I said earlier with the kitchen, you can configure the space differently as well. There are some Covers with freestanding tubs. There are some Covers with bigger bathrooms.
So even though they're using these panels, they can basically build a space that fits your needs, which is really, really nice. During the time we were making this video, we saw and experienced some of the other Cover homes. Meet Patricia, who is the owner of this 450-square-foot unit. We got a chance to talk to her firsthand to see if she is happy with her tiny home after two years of ownership.
But before we get there, let's get a quick tour of this unit. This one is an actual proper ADU because we have the main residence on this side. So this structure is positioned on the backyard.
Let's go in. Check this out. This one is actually a studio, so the entire thing is all open. We're looking around 450 square foot. And yeah, this is the interior space. We have a small office off of the entry, beautiful hardwood floors, same track lighting system.
On the other side, we have this really nice modern kitchen, again with white cabinetry. You have your sink, dishwasher, open shelving, induction cooktop, oven. You literally have everything you need here. Then you go to the other side, dining area with a TV, living room right in the center.
Of course, it opens up to a really cozy backyard. You have a deck right next to the property, and then your open bedroom area. You get a queen-size bed, stacked washer and dryer, additional cabinetry, motorized shades, and then you have a full bathroom on this side with a walk-in shower. This is amazing. Dal, what do you think? I got to say, I prefer this one to the one we were in.
But if you like privacy and value that, the other one is a great option as well. True, if you want to have a separate bedroom area, more of a formal layout, I think the other one is better. But if you are looking for a space that's very efficient and open, I feel like having no walls make the space feel a whole lot bigger. And, you can do a lot here. I mean, this could be a studio, this could be an office, and then just like the other ones. Sliding glass doors open up.
To a really nice, cozy deck and the backyard area. This backyard is super private, and I got to say, Covers panelized approach really allows them to create unique spaces and adapt to different environments. How did you come about Cover and what was the thing that made you decide, okay, instead of conventional construction, I'm actually going to go with Cover? - [Patricia] Yeah. So I have been interested in prefab architecture for 15-plus years, and I just couldn't find the company that checked all the boxes. I wanted prefab.
I wanted beautiful design. They just checked all those boxes, and I'm very happy with choosing them because once we embarked on the actual planning and construction phases. They handle everything, and they're very experienced with L.A.
And with permitting, site board, all of that. It was such a refreshing experience. Every detail in here, every appliance, everything is determined upfront. So you know exactly what you're getting and the process they handle from the very first step all the way to get in your certificate of occupancy, and there's just virtually no risk in the process and no frustration.
I highly recommend Cover. And now back to the tour. Now, Dal let's walk outside because we got a bedroom to see.
In fact, it's right behind this door. This 170-square-foot bedroom feels very spacious. We have a queen-size bed here and so much room to move around. In fact, let me close this door. This wall is all cabinetry. This is where you hang your clothes, store stuff.
These cabinets are actually very deep, which I'll talk more about in a second. We have the same eight-foot ceilings here, but new Cover homes actually come with nine-foot ceilings, so they're going to feel even more spacious. Floor the ceiling picture window on this side to bring natural light with a motorized shade. It's a really nice bedroom. What do you think, Dal?
Oh, it's massive. It really feels like a proper primary bedroom. Yeah, when you think about 425 square feet, you assume the space is going to be very tight. But because of the way they design these homes with minimalist wall panels with no cutouts, and by the way, these are not dry wall panels, these are actually composite material walls, so they're way more durable. You don't have to bring any additional light fixture or any accessory because you have everything you need.
It's definitely that less is more approach, but it works. Again, you have your cabinetry on this side. This is your storage area.
You can hang your clothes. You have drawers down below. In fact, Dal, why don't you come over to this side so we can turn around and show the rest of this bedroom? We even have bedside tables, small built-in desk area here with some open shelves.
Let's go outside and see the deck again. Let's see it. So magnetic door opens up and there you go, straight to the deck.
And not only that, we're going to get a chance to stay here, hang out in this property, see how it lives, see if you feel comfortable being here spending more than 24 hours. So I'm excited to take you guys on that journey. Hey, Sandra. Dal and I are staying at the Cover property tonight. - [Sandra] You guys are staying there? Yeah, we decided this morning. Place is really cool, and we want to know what it's like to live here, so we're staying overnight.
So you guys, do you want me to go Christmas shopping for you guys? I don't know. Just some food and some cookies maybe, you'll figure it out. This is where Sandra got a little carried away. I was okay with almost everything then I saw the string lights. I was like, okay, she's crossing the line. But this really did it for me. PJ's?
Now that Sandra made this infrastructure investment, let's put it to work. Let's set it up and let's get some Christmas spirits in here. Sandra, this looks ridiculous.
We cooked an amazing dinner for the team. I could just eat this every day. You cooked this? Okay, kidding inside, I did not cook this. We're benefiting from the luxuries of life. We got a delivery order.
Dal, don't give away my secret right away. We played some games. You're moving the whole thing. What?
Wow. Dal what? No, it's going to go down. Yes.
Things got a little competitive. Dal you can't do that. Look at Sandra. Look how cozy she looks right now. Then I taught them some lessons about real estate investments.
You jipped me. This is like a hood. You're getting a better trade than I do. You still won't get it. Pay me $220 and take this card. There's some cheating going on.
I feel like I'm doing math homework with my dad at the kitchen table. And you're crying. Luis, you owe me $210, Sandra $180.
All right, guys, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's build some ginger bread houses. Okay, so I made a sweet shop, and it has a candy door frame. Mine's an A-frame mid-century modern. The plasterwork could have been, a little bit nicer and cleaner, but I think overall, we're looking good.
Let us know in the comments who you guys think has the best house. Then we watched our favorite Christmas movies. As I look around the table and see all the picture windows, we're going to start our tour on the exterior. And to create some contrast, we're on this closer to the ancient Fortress. Yep, that's Sandra. What do you think Enes? What do I think about what? About the tiny home.
I mean, it's great. We've been here since 9:00 AM and the place is cozy. We've been hanging out with Sandra, Luis, you and me. I'm about to have a lovely sleep. I'm excited and I'm tired. You look real ready for bed. I'm so tired.
Dang, it looks comfy. It sure does. If it gets lonely out there, come join me. I'm kidding.
I lost monopoly pretty bad, so this is my bed for the night. All right, let's drink our coffees. Say cheese.
I didn't know you were going to be good, Dal is fully gimbaled up, ready to go. Capture everything. What a night. Oh, it was awesome. We had so much fun. I slept great.
It was super quiet. Even with all four of us hanging out, it never felt crowded in here. Yeah.
Honestly, it was super comfortable to be here at night. They have a fantastic bed in there. We had the motorized shades down. For two people, it's perfect. To me, this is what Cover is trying to let people experience, utility and luxury.
You have beautiful hardwood floors, modern kitchen, really nice bathroom, and bedroom was plenty enough for me. I'm really glad we stayed overnight here and got a chance to experience it ourselves. I can definitely see myself living in one of these. Staying in this home overnight really opened my eyes to the beauty of minimalism and impeccable design. As someone who appreciates functionality, I have to say this is one of the most efficient homes and impressive uses of space I've ever seen. I believe that the future of homes is about intentional design where every single square foot counts.
If building homes in a factory is the future, then having the ability to customize those homes is the only way to get there. The entire home is redesigned from the ground up to be a better product and to be geared towards manufacturability. I know $350,000 for a tiny home, might sound expensive, but much like the Roadster paved away for Tesla and electric cars, Cover is innovating one step at a time to make modern living affordable for everyone. A Cover home is a really high-quality, high-end product. As we ramp up production over time and as we invest further in engineering, tooling, manufacturing, supply chain, we'll make it a more mass market product and bring down the cost so that it works beyond California and into the rest of the country and even globally. When you consider the challenges Cover is trying to overcome and the technology they fit into these spaces, I truly believe that they have the potential to bring the luxuries we see on this channel to a mass audience.
When you think of the best phones, you think of Apple. When you think of the best electric cars, you think Tesla. That's because they have the best product and the best technology. We want to bring that to homes so that when you think of the best homes, you think of Cover homes. It's incredible to see how Cover is participating in an industry that has the potential to affect millions of lives around the world. I'm inspired to know that this ethos is a driving force behind their team.
The thing that excites me so much about what we're doing here is the possibility of democratizing great architecture. If we're successful, we're going to be able to provide incredible spaces for people to live in, which is one of the most important basic things in human life. The ownership experience for me has been incredible. They're such a smart company, and I think they're making a great product and constantly innovating and improving their product and their process, and they're paving the way for what the future is going to look like. It takes a tremendous amount of vision and dedication to accomplish what Cover is trying to do, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for them.
All right, everyone, that's it for the tour. I want to give big thanks to the team at Cover for making this tour possible. And as always, you can find more information about them in the description of this video.
Lastly, if you enjoyed the tour, give us a like, subscribe, and we'll see you guys on the next one.
2023-12-27 08:55
