This Tiny Home From Walmart Looks Like an iPhone
gizmodo.com
You can now find multiple listings for prefabricated homes on Walmart for under $16,000, but you'll inevitably run up against zoning codes.
  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    How’s the insulation on that “home”?

    I kid, the no way in hell those are adequately insulated or waterproofed.

    Enjoy your corroded tin can.

    • mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      1·
      31 minutes ago

      I watched a video for one and it showed them caulking the joints after unfolding the building.

      You are probably right about the insulation though. Walls are pretty thin, so you probably can’t fit much in them.

      I wonder what the head clearance is on them too.

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    11 hours ago

    I’d have a look. Been figuring ways to make a cabin at my swamp property. A decent storage shed easily costs $17,000, depending on a dozen factors.

    I sure wouldn’t be an initial buyer. Let other people test them for me thank you very much.

  • ALilOff@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    12 hours ago

    I’m getting strong dystopian feature vibes from the pods.

    I feel I’ve seen this in a sci-if movies when the characters live in extremely overpopulated areas.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    27·
    16 hours ago

    I’m not sure how much demand there will be for a house in that form factor, but it might make sense as a sort of guesthouse or spare bedroom or similar, an easy way to extend a house’s effective space.

    Honesty, if you’re going to aim to go serious with prefab houses like this, I’d think that it’d make a ton more sense to make the thing modular. Like, sell a selection of prefab “rooms” and then just have the end user hook 'em up. If you do that, I’d also think that you’d want the exterior to be modular, as it’s something that people are going to care about.

    Second. I am absolutely boggled that Walmart is selling this. It’s clearly intended to evoke the iPhone, with the “Apple” name even being on the Walmart site. I’m sure that Apple is not affiliated with this. Apple is litigious as hell about their phone design; at one point, I recall them fighting a case on a design patent that merely covered the rounded corner rectangle.

    kagis

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.

    It’s from a Chinese manufacturer. I can absolutely believe that Chinese companies are making infringing knockoffs of all sorts of stuff in China, flying below the radar. But Walmart offering them in the US seems like it’d be a prelude to litigation.

    • Zahille7@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      9 hours ago

      Apparently the Walmart site is kinda like Amazon, where anyone can sell anything as long as they fill out the right stuff.

    • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      83·
      14 hours ago

      I think you are either too wealthy or too attached to city living to understand the point of these.

      Tiny homes:

      • are affordable to anyone with almost any income, not just $80-100k+ a year incomes (which are practically mandatory now to buy a home in the current economy)

      • Can be set up literally anywhere that zoning allows for

      • A good choice for off-grid/prepper lifestyle

      • A good choice for solo living or for a couple to share with no kids

      • burgersc12@mander.xyzEnglish
        1·
        3 hours ago

        For the 18k they’re charging you could get like 3 12x24 foot sheds, plus some shit to put inside of it, which is a hell of a lot better than one 20x7 hut.

      • BigPotato@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        8 hours ago

        Hell, at that price point, buy two and have an awning setup in-between them to link them.

        Privacy from the kids and still under $38k.

        I’d get one as an in-law suite even!

    • Grimy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      13 hours ago

      Apple doesnt own all white rectangles with rounded edges. You can’t sue for that.

    • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      16 hours ago

      In the pic it doesn’t seem to have a home button. What kind of iPhone is that? What kind of home is that? They could at least install the doorbell button that way.

  • RonnyZittledong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    16 hours ago

    I bet in 3 years this things roof and window seals starts to fail and it is just a moldy, leaky pile of shit

    • iAvicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      11 hours ago

      no in three years this thing will cost $100000 because some shareholders will realise that this is the only feasible home ownership for the younger generation and mass buy them.

      • formergijoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        10 hours ago

        It is 19x20 feet. The article points out that this puts it 20 ft2 under the minimum required 400 ft2 for housing units in the state of New York. Even this isn’t feasible.

    • lordnikon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      14 hours ago

      Yeah just like an iPhone when the battery starts to go. You buy a new one and they “recycle” (sell in a poorer country or landfill)