11-year-old girl transforms junky RV into ‘Tiny Home’ for $800!
With most summer activities canceled this year, many kids were struggling to find ways to keep busy. But one upstate girl used that downtime to complete a unique project: building a tiny house.
Lauren Nelson, 11, spent the last two months turning a rundown camper into a diminutive domicile after drawing inspiration from an American Girl doll magazine.
“She showed us a $650 little VW bus that they sell. My husband was like, ‘That’s ridiculous, you could buy your own camper for that price,’ ” Aimee Nelson, her mother, told local news outlet WKBW.
So the preteen decided to give it a go. Lauren started saving some money while keeping an eye out for a camper she could buy near her hometown of Attica, New York, located 35 miles east of Buffalo. Opportunity struck when a neighbor put a “For Sale” sign on their RV. “She squealed the whole way home,” said her mother.
The young girl approached her neighbor, who said he was selling the 20-foot-long, beat-up camper for $500.
Lauren had managed to save up $400 after selling items at garage sales and taking the funds she would have used to go to 4-H camp.
People are renting RVs in droves for safe adventures amid coronavirus
“Lauren really does have an envelope where she saves money,” Aimee told The Post. “And it’s just a little bit here and there from things, like $5 at Easter or Tooth Fairy money. It just added up.”
Lauren negotiated with the neighbor and struck a deal.
“It wasn’t very hard. He said ‘$500,’ and I said ‘$400,’ because that was the money I had in my bank account, and he said, ‘Sold,’ ” said Lauren.
With the camper in her possession, it was time for the renovation to begin. But given its condition, the first step was to clean it. “It was a process,” said her mother. “We brought home a family of mice. So there was a lot of deep cleaning.”
Despite the mess, Lauren was motivated because she wanted a place to hang out and call her own. With the help of family, friends and help from HGTV’s “Tiny House Hunters,” she transformed the dated space with a beachy boho vibe.
Read more at the NY Post