Lauren Nelson first got the idea to get an RV when she was browsing an American Doll Magazine.
A New York 11-year-old spent her summer renovating an RV that she bought herself and she’s been hanging in ever since. Lauren Nelson first got the idea to get an RV when she was browsing an American Doll Magazine and saw a miniature one for $650, and when she proposed the idea of buying it to her family, her dad told her she could get a real one for that price.
“I went out and I started looking for one and then our neighbors, they got a pop-up camper for $500, so that kind of piqued my interest,” Lauren told Inside Edition Digital. “Then we saw down the road a house had a camper for sale that I had been looking at for a while. I really wanted to get it and the guy said it was for $500 and then I told him $400 because that was what I had, and he said ‘sold.’”
Lauren and her family began renovating the RV in July. They worked on it little by little, beginning with gutting the inside. The preteen designed the interior completely by herself. She was going for a “beachy, Boho style,” she said.
“She went to Home Depot and she's quick. I'm a little more indecisive than she is when it comes to decorating and I kind of mull over ideas and thoughts,” Lauren’s mom, Aimee Nelson, said. “She walked in and opened up the brochure of the paint colors and just picked it out instantly… We were in and out of there in about 30 minutes total.”
Lauren painted most of the RV herself.
“I am very creative and artistic, so I love to paint and draw and stuff like that, so it kind of came to me naturally,” she said.
Thus far, the RV is decked out with a kitchen, four beds, and a ton of homey decorations. The total cost of renovations thus far is $400. She hopes to spend next summer redoing the outside of the RV.
While COVID-19 has prevented Lauren from having the sleepovers she was hoping for, she’s making the best of having a new home away from home, right in her backyard.
“I spend a lot of time in it. It's very fun,” Lauren said.
RELATED STORIES
