Mom's DIY 'Project' Using An Old Trailer Winds Up Raking In A Small Fortune

Sarah Lemp home schooled her kids and took care of things around the house. To keep her idle hands busy, she always took on a new DIY project when she had a minute to spare, and she loved planning family vacations. As her kids grew older, though, vacation costs skyrocketed.

Of course, Sarah's husband Jason put in the hours at work, and while he made good money, supporting a family of 5 kids and 2 adults proved to be a constant, exhausting fight. The Lemp parents agonized over finances and worried that family vacations would disappear and their kids — Natalie, Carissa, Taylor, Olivia, and Asher — would struggle to afford college. They needed alternate income streams.

So Sarah and Jason put their heads together in 2014 and started brainstorming ideas for their kids' futures. Tuitions were at an all-time high, and they could only imagine how much college would cost by the time their oldest was ready to attend. Because the kids were homeschooled, they couldn't commit more time to a 9-5. Finally, Sarah came up with a brilliant idea.

To spare the family the cost of vacationing at an expensive hotel, Sarah proposed buying an RV and vacationing with her family out on the road. The idea was born from her childhood, when she regularly went camping with her beloved father. However, her plan didn't stop at simply buying a hotel room on wheels.

Sarah's father was also a huge fan of DIY projects. "He was always reading manuals to fix cars or whatever else [needed] fixing," Sarah recalled. "He taught himself everything he knew about auto mechanics." The memories were inspiring.

For Sarah, DIY meant crafts for the kids. But if her dad could teach himself to rebuild cars, why couldn't she take on equally daunting projects? If she wanted to save money, she and Jason couldn't drop a few hundred thousand on a cushy RV — they'd need to buy something cheap and get creative.

The first RV Sarah bought was a run-down 1956 vintage trailer she'd discovered on Craigslist. Looking more like an oversized tin can, the thing was wrecked, with gaping holes in its ceiling, water damage, and a dark, musty interior. Sarah saw the potential in it, but even she couldn't anticipate the payday this purchase would eventually lead to.

Sarah's plan to renovate this rundown RV had its skeptics. Her mother saw the little trashed up room on wheels and spat out, "I wouldn't pay 5 cents for that!" But Sarah paid more than that, a total of $1,700 to be exact. She aimed to make her mom eat those words and went to work.

The family grew to love the DIY fixer-upper project, naming the tin RV trailer "Gidget." Sarah had a plan for how she would tackle the renovating project, and she decided to include her children. This way, the whole clan could get their hands dirty together and build something to be proud of.

New to the idea of renovating an RV — especially one that had so much damage to it — the family looked to Sarah for guidance. Like her father, she taught herself everything she needed to get the renovation done, though she had access to YouTube videos as well as old car manuals. When she hit a wall, she asked friends and pros for advice.

It took a few years to finish, but in the summer of 2015, the family RV "Gidget" was transformed from a decrepit tin mess to a mini home away from home. The Lemps enjoyed some trips in their project, but Sarah and Jason couldn't help but remember their main goal: send the kids to college. That wasn't going to happen by just saving on vacations.

As perfect as the vacations were, and for such a low cost, in 2017 Sarah and her family decided to set their sights on something bigger. They put Gidget up for sale on Facebook's marketplace, and sought out another DIY journey, but not before making Sarah's mother eat her own words once and for all.

Gidget wound up selling for $8,900. For a trailer that cost only $1,700 to buy and roughly $2,000 to renovate, that's a profit of $5,200. Not bad, considering Sarah's mother believed the trailer wasn't even worth a penny! The profit was enticing to Sarah and Jason — could they get even more money out of a second renovation?

So Sarah found a larger trailer a couple of months later, calling it "Gidget 2.0," and she and the kids went to work yet again. With all the experience she had from her first RV renovation, this one was done in just a few weeks — and with a lot more confidence! The kids learned valuable lessons, too.

See, Sarah wanted her kids to understand the importance of money, so she paid them for each task they completed. Removing all the curtains and blinds from a busted RV might be worth $10, while scrubbing out the fridge might be $5. For Sarah, these lessons came from a personal place. She wanted her kids to be better with money than she was.

After Sarah graduated from college, she was bombarded with debt. Navigating a career and home life while also scraping together the money she owed spurred her to start renovating RVs in the first place. She didn't want her kids to make the same money management mistakes, though the DIY projects proved to be a more valuable lesson than she anticipated.

Over the course of the renovations, the kids learned building techniques, and these constructive skills, put them ahead of the curve. More importantly, watching their mom working so hard, going from zero experience to becoming a master, was also a pretty fantastic lesson, even if she did stumble quite a lot.

Sarah was well aware that she wasn't a pro — not yet at least — and with every step she shared her own mistakes on her blog "All Things With Purpose." Her goal wasn't to become an inspirational icon, but she inspired many women to pick up a hammer and earned a wide DIY audience. In the end, all her hard work paid off.

Followers of her blog were regularly stunned by the upgrades Sarah made to the RVs. Her eye for interior design showed in all her projects as she gave outdated vehicles a modern pop. Bare bones vehicles became quaint tiny homes worth a lot of money.

In a month Gidget 2.0 was sold at an asking price of $9,800, all while Sarah was finishing up with another large trailer. Her third project sold for about $7,800. As the weather became colder and colder, Sarah had to work less and less on her renovations, but over time, the business brought her family a small fortune.

While renovating RV after RV, Sarah gained recognition Disney! She made deals with company executives to advertise their products on her blog, helping to lower the cost for her business and bringing in more money. By the spring of 2021, she had made roughly $60,000 for her five children's college funds. She wondered how far the business could go.

Even through the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, Sarah kept working hard. Taking stories from her camper renovating Facebook group, she began to share other's RV renovation projects on her blog. Now, she's thinking of the future, which may come with a business expansion.

Living in Michigan means less warm weather for Sarah to work outside, but recent talks with her husband have been about amending that with a large working space. "with very few warm months in Michigan, I would need to build a heated pole barn or rent a space to accommodate this,” she said. “We are open to this, but are currently weighing the pros and cons.”

For now, the RV flipping business has been working for the family as is, bringing them even closer than ever before to their financial goals. A percentage of the $60,000 is saved for her kids' college (but now they may go to trade school)! In the meantime, Sarah keeps her eyes out for other renovation projects that could serve as inspiration.

Sarah loved projects like the "Cosmic Collider" — a 1948 Chevy Bus renovation led by California's Ryan Lovelace. Just as Sarah fell for a cheap rust-bucket RV, Ryan saw the charm in the bus he bought off Craigslist. In fact, he and his girlfriend loved their '48 Chevy so much that they completely transformed the vintage clunker not once — but twice!

Ryan was in Australia when he saw the perfect remodel subject on Craigslist: this 1948 Chevy Bus. The vehicle was a Frankenstein creation, a bus modified with parts from a Volkswagen, but Ryan asked the seller to hold it until his return from Down Under.

When Ryan and Katie returned, they bought the van and went right to work on a remodel. After examining the van, however, the project seemed larger than they'd imagined. Years of baking in the California sunshine, coupled with a lack of use, made the bus a complete disaster both inside and out. Nevertheless, Ryan and Kate began renovation #1.

A mish-mash of different paint colors failed to cover up all the rust coating the exterior, so they used a grinder to sand off years of wear and tear until only the bare metal remained. With the project underway, Ryan and Katie started imagining even more for their renovation.

See, for Ryan and Katie Lovelace, living in Santa Barbara was paradise. Nestled on the California coast north of Los Angeles and protected by the beautiful Santa Ynez mountains, Santa Barbara afforded the couple opportunities to live modestly and comfortably near the beach. To truly thrive, however, they needed a van.

Ryan Lovelace loved to surf. He also enjoyed making surfboards. On his website, he wrote: "I truly enjoy hand shaping surfboards. He was a craftsman who knew his way around a workshop, and he needed a way to easily transport his surfboards. They didn't exactly fit in a car trunk.

Meanwhile, Katie Lovelace shared his passions. An illustrator and designer with her own brand, Psychedelic Honey, Katie made swim and activewear. She loved surfing too, and as a hands-on creative, the idea of renovating an old van to take them up and down the coast with their surfboards was too good to pass up. There was an issue with the plan, however.

Katie Lovelace planned out her designs, pulling inspiration for her products from old books and collections. Ryan was the opposite. His ideas came spontaneously, and he acted in the moment with limited pre-planning. Buying and renovating a van together would be a test of their creative philosophies.

What stood out to anyone who saw the van was the attachment Ryan and Katie fixed on the roof. Essentially, they mounted a small bedroom up there, supported by two beams welded to the bumper. Was it safe? Probably not. But it gave the bus a unique appearance, though, after the renovation, a look inside confirmed this was no ordinary bus.

Inside, Ryan and Katie put a lot of work into making their "surf bus" a place they'd actually like to spend some time. The floors, ceiling, and walls were all redone or touched up with redwood, and a small kitchen was put into the back, as well as a desk and closet. This was only the start.

As the couple worked, the barren space inside the bus was given a new life. From the inside, the sleeping cabin looked cozy (and less like a welding hazard). The makeshift bedroom fit a queen-sized mattress, perfect for resting after a long day on the waves. Soon, however, the interior looked completely different.

In fact, it looked like this: torn out and destroyed. No, this wasn't the result of a wild surf party, a band of thieves, or even a natural disaster. Just eight years after sprucing up the inside of the bus, Ryan and Katie formulated a new plan for the vehicle.

Before renovation #2, Ryan and Katie introduced friends to the vintage bus, which became known as Ophelia (the name came from a song by The Band, seen below). Eventually, the bus developed a reputation in the surfing community, where it was known as the Cosmic Collider. After 8 years, however, mechanical issues piled up.

Begrudgingly, Ryan Lovelace returned to Craigslist, the same site where he first found the Cosmic Collider, and put his creation up for sale: $18,200 or best offer. "I will be doing some serious vetting before I can make time to show it to anyone," he wrote. He wanted the right owner, though, if he were being honest, he didn't want to sell at all.

The first potential buyer to impress Ryan and Katie? An herb company called Old Pal noticed the Collider was up for sale. Representatives swiftly contacted Ryan, hoping to prove themselves worthy of being the new owners of Ophelia, the "Cosmic Collider." But Ryan made a peculiar choice.

Letting go of Ophelia proved too much for the Lovelace's. They ultimately decided to merely lend the Collider over to Old Pal, which ultimately led to renovation #2. The company hired a team to turn the Collider into a pop-up shop for the approaching Coachella festival, which was in just three days! A frantic renovation took place.

Ryan and Katie wanted the new renovators to keep the vintage look of the Cosmic Collider, maintaining the spirit of the vehicle they'd loved for eight years. Jessie and Mike, the duo in charge of the new project, liked that challenge and went to work giving Ophelia her second makeover.

While the Cosmic Collider was first designed to travel from beach to beach, affording weary surfers a place to rest up before hitting the next wave, the new iteration needed to function as a store. Mike and Jessie removed a lot of the tables and couches, installing shelves in their place.

The attached bedroom stood out as another element that needed repair. Two beams welded to a bumper didn't inspire confidence in the Old Pal crew, so Mike and Jessie created an extended platform for the cabin to sit squarely on. For three days, they worked tirelessly.

When they were done with remodel #2, Jessie and Mike couldn't help admire their work. The cramped living space was gone, replaced with a wider, more spacious common area, perfect for supporting multiple milling shoppers. The space felt new and vintage all at once — just like Ryan and Katie requested!

From the opposite angle, Jessie and Mike could appreciate the skylight that kept the bus flooded with that famous California sunshine. In keeping the spirit of the vehicle alive, the queen-sized bedroom survived the second renovation. Even as a pop-up shop, there was a bed to sleep in!

Since its grand entrance at Coachella, the Collider has since traveled through the desert and highways along the California coast. Despite a sterling reputation among surfers and Coachella attendees, Ophelia didn't turn heads the way Ryan and Katie imagined.

In the book Surf Shacks, Ryan said: "Driving [Ophelia] on the freeway is an adventure, but what surprises me most is how little people seem to notice it when it’s on the highway. I always look at people because I’m so stoked while driving it, wondering if they find it as novel as I do."