I Toured 14 Mini Homes

Welcome back to another episode of Atlas Survival Shelters. We stopped off today at this place right by Sulphur Springs that has these mini houses. It's called Recreational Resort Cottages and this company's Homeco. We're gonna go take a tour of a bunch of these little mini houses. One thing in Texas, if they're under 399 square feet, you don't have to pay property taxes on them. But Kat, our PhD, wants to take a look at this little blue one first. I think she likes the color. But let's go check it out. There you go. All right, let's see what's inside it. Okay, it's got tall ceilings. So if you wonder why we come and check out these houses, I get inspirations for my bunkers by visiting these little mini houses because my bunkers really are just like a little mini house, they're just underground. So this one's got vaulted ceilings. See, I got this sliding doors ideas that I use now. It came from these mini houses. This is a pocket door here. I haven't done pocket doors yet. I do like the vaulted ceilings. We use granite counters, this is not granite. But it's nice. So guys, make sure you comment below on the one that you're gonna like the best today, but let's go see some more. And how much is that one over there? 82,000 for that one right there. Let's go check it out. Personally, I like this one because it has more of a cabin feel. And I like the porches because if you're gonna have this out in the country, you're gonna wanna sit outside, but it's got a little bar in the window that opens up over there. That's pretty cool. I bet that window does open. Yeah, so you can have a indoor outdoor bar. It's got a fireplace, here you go. They give us one key so we can walk around and open them all up. But it's got a wood-burning stove outside here. I like this one. But you're giving up square footage for the deck. So she said the deck does not count in the square footage for the actual taxation. So this is probably under 400 square feet. This is really nice. Wow. See, so as I was telling you, I can make your bunkers look and feel just like these little mini cabins. And this is why I admire them. Again, there's the sliding doors that I use. This would be the only bedroom in here. I would say this has 10-foot ceilings. You got plenty of storage for your wardrobe, okay? Jack and Jill bathroom, which means you can walk into it from the bedroom or the living room. It's got a walk-in shower. I like that. Tall ceilings. Now, I can actually make a bunker with a vaulted ceiling. I haven't ever done it. Maybe I'll do it for making a cool video. Stackable washer and dryer. Okay. So this is number 24, guys, for 82 grand. All right, so like I said, it's right off the freeway here, I-30. So this is number 15, and this one is $76,000. Let's go take a look inside this one. Okay. Well, they don't have this one all dressed up. See, it's amazing that when you put the furnishings in here and everything, it makes them feel all homey and stuff. But yeah, I like this one the least so far. This is probably a different brand. I think the first ones were from a company called Platinum, and they're made in Athens, Texas. This has got the mini split on the wall. But this is definitely a different brand than the first one I saw. You can just tell the craftsmanship's a little different. It does have a bigger shower, walk-in shower. All right, number 15. Let's jump over here to number 17. This one's real pretty. There we go. All right, number 17, 100 grand. Well, this one's got a little staircase and a loft in it. This is cute. Put your TV right there. Now, when I first started covering these things like four years ago, one like this was about 60. So they've definitely come up in price. I'm gonna say this one is probably a Platinum based on the quality that I'm seeing. This has got a bathtub, tall ceilings in here. You can get a queen in here, that's for sure. Not much more. There's your mini split ceiling fan. Got your washer dryer hookup right there. What did you like in here? Oh, the sink? Yeah, it's a nice sink. Okay, just a little loft. Huh? You bumped your head? Okay, well, it's very tall in here. All right, all right. So number 27 here, 114,000. I like this one. It looks like a log cabin. Wow, super cool. Look at this outside porch even. Yeah, this is very cool. I think this is a very popular selling one. Wow, look at this. Yeah, this is really, really nice. Of course, you're gonna give up a lot of square footage of cabin probably for that big old deck out there. Okay, so you got a kitchen island, plenty of cabinets, tall ceilings, probably 11-foot ceilings if not higher. Oh, this one's got the loft too. I like the combination of wood and wrought iron there. It's even got electric fireplace. Now, this has washer dryer hookup, Jack and Jill bathroom again, but it has the low ceilings because when you add the loft, see how the ceilings get low? So there's seven-foot ceilings in here, but you're gonna probably spend most of your time in that beautiful den anyway. Plenty of storage, but I'm trying to find new ideas where I can improve the bunkers I'm making for you guys and make them feel more like a resort cabin than a bomb shelter. So number 27, 114,000, what do y'all think on this one? We're gonna go down to this pink one down here. 88,000, she said, for number 22. Now, it's not exactly pink. I don't know what color you'd call this one. Of course, it's got the porch and everything, but no fireplace. Oh, yeah. It's almost the same as that last one, you know? So it's got the island in it. It doesn't have the vaulted ceilings. It's got tall ceilings, but they're not vaulted, but it does have crown molding in it. Okay, it's not a Jack and Jill bathroom, so it has an independent bathroom. Walk-in shower. Okay, washer-dryer hookup right here. One bedroom, but the bedroom has the tall ceilings because you give up the loft. So the difference between this one and that last one, this one has no loft, so it gives you the 10-foot ceilings in there. There's definitely a bigger bedroom in this one, too. All righty, next one. And this one is $125,000. All right, let's go check it out anyway. This one has the Texas star in the door. I like the color combination. Okay, this feels... Yeah, this thing's wide here. This is more like a house. This is probably 16 feet wide, 15, 16 feet wide. This is like the size of our Fat Boy bomb shelter that has the sunken living room and the handrails. So that's what I feel like when I'm in here because this one has like 10 or 11-foot ceilings where our Fat Boy has 10-foot ceilings. It's got multiple bedrooms. It's probably even got two bathrooms. Got a little desk area here. Size, you could live in this one full-time. Here's bedroom number one for the kids. Little eight-by, or nine-foot-by-nine-foot bedroom. Washer-dryer hookup right here. I don't know what this is. It's probably, yeah, the paneling. Oh, that covers the electrical panel. I like that. We could do that in our bunkers. Here's the master bedroom. Okay, so it's got a walk-in bathroom, yeah. So this is two-bedroom, two-bath for 120 grand. Overhead ceiling fan. Now, this costs more than what I paid for my double-wide. I bought a Clayton double-wide house, oh, like three years ago. Paid like 110,000 for it, and it was like 2,800 square feet, or 2,400 square feet, and I only paid 110. So this one single house costs more than that, but it's probably from Platinum, and Platinum makes the best manufactured houses. It's why I have a line of shelters that we call the Platinum as well. See number three and four. How much do these two cost? 93, 95? All right, let's go see number three first. Bless our home. Now, this one feels wider than the others. I like that. It's wider, but it's shorter, you can tell. They gotta keep them down at 399 square feet to avoid the taxes. So she can walk up the stairs right there. You can't stand up there, though, can you? No. No, so it's basically, you put in some beds and you crawl. Yeah, that's pretty cool. I like all the wood in here. It's very nice, and this is 93,000, huh? It's pretty nice. Again, it's got the kitchen island, couch. Your TV would go right in here. It's got 12-foot ceilings, easy. Stainless steel sink. What brand of appliances? Whirlpool. Okay. Jack and Jill bathroom, but now you're down to the seven-foot ceilings in the bedroom, which is okay. I mean, all you're gonna do is sleep in here, but see how short it seems in the video, even? Sliding doors, again, like we use in all the Atlas bomb shelters. It's got a mini split for your air conditioning. Swinging door on this part. Let's go up the stairs. Ooh, I like that. They put drawers in the stairs here. Yeah, look at that. Yeah, that's good. You can utilize all your storage there. That's smart. And of course, you've got this little deck up here. How cool is this? Kids would love playing up here. Okay. Wow, look at this. This is nice. It's small, but it's nice. If you just wanted a cabin up in the woods with all the comforts of a regular house. I like the width, though. I like them wider more than skinnier. Let's go see number four at 95,000. See what the extra $2,000 will get you. Got a big porch here. So this one costs more than the last one. I like the last one better, honestly. It's almost the same floor plan, you know? It really is. It's basically almost identical. I just like the last one better. I guess I like the wood color. Again, you got the stairs, but you see this one does not have the storage under the steps. It's more like a ship's ladder. Yeah, then you've got the little loft up there. Okay. Jack and Jill bathroom again. You can enter the bathroom from the kitchen. You can go straight into the bedroom from the bathroom. Seven-foot ceilings in here. No, this one doesn't have the sliding doors. This one's got folding doors. Again, a mini split. Number four. So I hope you guys comment on the ones that you like below. So which ones have we not seen now? The Colonial one over there? We got all these here too. Let's take a look at a couple of these. Oh, look at that one with the window over it. Wow, that's nice. She said number six here is 100 grand even. I heard an O. What's the O for? I like the porch. It's got a little window up here. This is really nice. Wow. Really, really nice. I like this porch a lot. Okay. So this is probably a platinum as well, right? It's a very similar floor plan. You got the little electric fireplace. TV will mount in the wall there. They even got the, see the cable hookup right there for the TV couch. That's more or less gonna be a love seat where a couch is gonna have to take the whole space. It's got the loft, so you're gonna have the short seven foot ceilings in the bedroom. Nice kitchen setup. Full fridge. Okay, the steps again with the storage. There's the loft up there. All right, here's the only bedroom. Again, there's the mini split. I like how they did the walls here. They use it like a paneling going sideways. So the bed's definitely gonna be here cause you got reading lights left and right. The bathroom. Oh, this is actually a walk-in closet. So this is the first one I've seen with a walk-in closet. There's your washer dryer hookup. I like that walk-in closet. I'd rather have that. This is a nice layout here. I like the shower too. This shower, you just walk in, you're gonna have a curtain. Yeah. Yeah, I like this one. 100 grand, number six. What do you guys think? Is this your favorite so far? I don't know. It's one of my favorites. It's between this and that log cabin one. I forget which number it was. Yep. Yeah, I got a little pantry right there. Yeah. Okay. All right, so let's go look at this blue one, number 37 over there. How much is 37? 85,000. Okay. Let's go check this one out. Now, this one's narrow. This is a 12-foot wide, obviously. Okay. This is gonna have the tall ceiling, so no loft for sure. So your couch is gonna be over here. You could have an electric fireplace. TV's gonna mount on the wall right there. You're gonna have a wet bar, so you're gonna eat right there. No dinner table unless you put it over here. Kitchen's different in this one. I think it's taken up too much space. I don't like that dead space over there. Okay. But it's a narrow shelter. No, it's a narrow mini house. It's not a shelter. Oh, I do like the way the bathroom is. You can walk in. It's already glassed off. Yeah. Who's that good-looking guy? Oh, that's me. Okay. The door's really narrow. It's like a 24-inch door in this thing. I don't know if a fat person could fit in here, so I don't know if I can even get in here. Oh, the bedroom's really small. Wow. Very tight, very small bedroom. I'm talking like maybe eight foot by eight foot if we're lucky. Wow. Okay. All right. I think this one was one of my least favorites. Second least favorite. All right, let's go to this one over here on the left. This is number 35. We're coming from 88,000. We're going to 92,000. Number 35. If you're curious, the numbers are in the windows. Each bunker, or each bunker, each mini house has a number in the window. So that's not bad. This is very feminine. Okay. You got room for a large couch in here. You're going to have the 12 foot ceilings. TV's going to go right here. Okay. This one does have the stairs and the loft up there. Where are you going to eat at? I guess you'll have to put a table right there. So this one has porcelain instead of stainless steel. Okay. Full fridge, oven, the shower. Okay. It's got a bigger bedroom than the last one, that's for sure. Yeah, this bedroom here is about 11 or 12 feet long by about eight and a half, nine feet wide. Here's your mini split. Does have the vaulted ceiling in here. Okay. Electrical panel should be behind here. Yep. I like that. Covers it up. Think we'll start doing that in my platinum bunkers just to make them look more aesthetically pleasing. You got a couple closets. You know, I'm letting the cat out of the bag where I get my ideas on improving my interiors, but you know, who cares? I'm just trying to make them feel like this. So what do you guys think? Number 35. We're not going to go see those last two, but the platinums do have this label on there. So there's the platinum cottages and their phone number. They're in Athens, Texas. So if you're interested, you could contact them and try to find one of their dealers. Ooh, that one was really wide. Did we go in 16? I can't remember if we did, but we're going to go over here and see some of these. Now, this mini home place, this one's right by Sulphur Springs. It's actually in Cumbee, Texas, which is 10 minutes from Sulphur Springs. There's one that's even just as big, owned by the same people, Recreational Resort Cottages in Rockwall, Texas, which is only like 15, 20 minutes from Dallas. But she wants to go in this one over here, and this looks like number 12 because the door's already open. So number 12, $105,000. This one's wide. I can already tell this is a 16 foot wider. Now this is bigger than 399 square feet. Now this is nice. Yeah, this is roomy. I mean, look at that. You got loveseat, couch, tall vaulted ceilings. You got an, I could live in this one easily. This one's nice, you know it, but you're going to pay property taxes on this one, but who cares? They're not that much, but this one's really, really nice. Wow. Big kitchen area. Nice big island. Big living room. It's got the overhead beam. See, we do that in our Atlas bomb shelters. All of the platinum have a beam overhead, and we put ceiling fans in some. Big kitchen, roomy, spacious. Pantry closet. Jack and Jill bathroom. So you can enter it from here and exit into the bedroom. Big bathroom. Yeah, I like this one best, but this falls out of the mini category, you know it? Huge bedroom. Good God, this bedroom's huge. Yeah, you can get a king size bed in here with side tables and everything. If you're going to live in one full time and you just want a one bedroom, this one by far, so far from what I've seen, takes first place, big time. Wow. Nice bathroom. Plenty of closet space. Again, electrical panel will be behind here. Washer, dryer hookup, and some storage for your detergent up there. Full fridge. I like this one. This is the best value. I wonder how many square feet this was. 782 square feet. No wonder. You're way above the 399 square foot mini cabin, but you know, it's not fair. It's almost double the square footage, but look at it, it's beautiful. Yeah, number 12 is my favorite so far. What one do you want to go into next? You want to do number 20? Because it's wide? It looks very similar to number 12. We'll pass up on number seven here. Let's do 20. So number 20 is 950 square feet. This will be the biggest one we've seen, and it's 116,000. So this one costs the same price as the log cabin one at 400 square feet. Wow. Yeah, this is just like a regular, this is going to have two bedrooms as well too. Yeah. Yeah, it's wide. I definitely like wide. So guys, this is why I make my bunkers eight foot, 10 foot, 12 foot, and 14 feet wide. When you're in a bunker, the width does matter. It feels so much more roomy. I mean, if you're going to be in there a long time, you're going to want that extra space. Otherwise, it feels claustrophobic in there. But big electric fireplace. It's got the whole kitchen island. Dinner table, room for the dinner table because you're 16 feet wide. 116 grand. Yeah, I'd rather, of course, you're giving up the mini cabin when you go to this because this is, wow, it's got a full bathtub in here. Big bathroom, holy cow. Well, this is a, oh God, it's got a walk-in shower too. You shower, look at this shower, it's double wide. Wow. Wow, super cool. Big, oh my God. This bedroom is gigantic. It's got a 14 foot wide bedroom and the depth is probably 14. So you got closets in here. Yeah, you got two foot of closets. What's the maker of this one? Is this a platinum as well? Here's your washer dryer hookup. What's this, a little pantry room? 116,000, but 950 square feet. So we're more than double the mini cabin thing. But it was here, we got to see it. So this is number 28, it's 110 grand. So this one has less of a port. It's got metal roofing on the inside. You know, I've yet to see one that has a double door on the front. Does not have the island, but you know what? How many square feet is this one? It's definitely more than 399. This one's probably seven, 800 square feet. This is number 28. 880, okay, wow. So you got room for a big dinner table. So if you got a family. So this is gonna have two bedrooms, that's for sure. Because otherwise you wouldn't have a family table. What we got here, a bathroom probably, yeah. Bathroom, okay. Washer dryer hookup. Second, a side door. Okay, first one of those I've seen. This is the kid's bedroom. It's a little eight foot by eight foot bedroom. There's a desk, I do like the desk. And this is just a closet for your coats. I like the working desk. Here's the master, okay. Does have a closet. Not much of a walk-in closet. And it's got its own private bathroom in here. See, I didn't pick up any ideas on this home for my bunkers. I'm already using the sliding doors. I'm using the same trim. So we even do this on our bunkers. The trim comes over, so we're copying this. We're copying the doors. Now we are using granite on our counters. We're not using linoleum. I haven't seen one. But they do have backsplash, ceramic backsplash. And I do do that on some of my bunkers. But yeah, okay, 28, not bad. $110,000, not a bad deal. All right, let's go see the last one. So number five, looks like a choo-choo train. Looks like a caboose on a train, don't it? Yeah, you know what, it's fitting. It's gonna be the last one we see. It's the last one on a choo-choo train. And for $74,000, let's see what you get. There's no porch, that's for sure. Okay, all right, it's got the tall ceilings. Who's the maker of this one? Is this a Platinum or somebody else? Calcedonium? Okay, I don't know that brand. All right, so it's pretty small. So this one is definitely in the 399, who? Eisenbach. Okay, so this is definitely in the 399 square foot range. It's also probably the least expensive mini house we saw today, or cabin. They're cabins, they're not really mini houses. But they could fall in that category. Now the master in here is small. Looks like it's eight feet by nine feet. Very small, so you can get a queen-size bed in here. And all you're gonna do in this bedroom is sleep. This is probably the smallest bedroom I've seen so far. Seeing those other houses before this one makes these all seem so small now. It's the same thing when you come to my factory and you see my bomb shelters. When you see the big ones, it does kind of make the other ones seem small. So we always start at the smallest first and then go bigger. But number five for $74,000, what do you guys think? Well guys, what do you think? Did you enjoy a tour of recreational home cottages or whatever it's called? Did I screw that up? And whatever, one take, Ron. But anyway, make sure you like and subscribe. And guys, go back and watch my bomb shelter videos. As I stop by here and I film this, this is the inspiration that I use to build the interiors of some of my platinum class bunkers. And you notice I call them platinum in respect to the company that makes these homes, which is called Platinum.