Fourteen-year-old Ellie Yeater proves that you can pretty much do anything you set your mind to, regardless of your age. This teen took an old beat up 1974 model camper and completely revamped it into a gorgeous “glamper.”
We’re not sure what’s more impressive, the drastic changes she made to it or the fact that she did all of the remodeling work herself.
Well, mostly herself. She did have a little help from her family.
Here’s what it looked like before she started:
“It needed work,” Ellie’s mom Lori told Woodcraft. “…lots of work.”
Ellie purchased the 1974 Wilderness camper for $200 bucks from an ad on Bulletin Board and basically gutted the entire thing so she could spend her summer remodeling it along with her family.
She started with repainting the exterior, which was a brown rust-looking color, to a color called “Mystic Sea,” an Anti-Rust Armor from Valspar.
Then, the West Virginia teen scrapped all of the glue up from her floors.
She knew the renovation would be a huge undertaking so she had her grandfather Lawrence teach her some carpentry skills, including bracing and how to plug holes.
She chose a beautifully feminine color pallet for the interior of peach and aqua blue and painted the entire interior.
Ellie also installed wooden tiles to cover the outdated, frankly horrific-looking, original yellow and green floor print.
Once all the hard work was done, Ellie had fun decorating the interior after getting some inspiration from Pinterest. Her mom and grandmother repurposed the camper’s original upholstery into some beautiful new curtains.
She also used some pavers in a cool crooked design.
“I love that the path isn’t straight,” Lori said, “Just like life.”
Though her project included a lot of hard work during some hot summer days and nights, she says it was all worth it.
“I couldn’t have gotten this far on this project without my family helping me bring my vision to life,” she told Woodcraft. “My biggest lesson,” Ellie said, “has been learning that teamwork is how you really get something done.”
Ellie said she was happy her family pitched in and encouraged her to follow through with the project.
“I have never told her that she couldn’t do anything. She has always been an out-of-the-box thinker. I don’t want her to ever feel she has to color inside the lines. I want her to color the entire page!” Lori said. “That’s why she thinks she can remodel a camper into a glamper, why she thinks she can do theatre, and why she can compete in pageants. I’ve never told her she couldn’t.”
Ellie says she can’t wait to have a sleepover with her friends and play her ukulele in her brand new glamper which cost her a total of $500 to make.
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