These millennials gave up traveling full-time and bought a 1970s cabin for $83,000. They spent a year renovating it into their light-filled, colorful dream home see inside.
Kelsey Neubauer  Â
- Summer Ginther, 28, and her husband, Ryan, gave up living and traveling in an RV to buy a home.
- In 2021 they moved back to their hometown in Illinois and purchased an A-frame house for $83,000.
In 2019 Summer Ginther, 28, and her husband, Ryan, decided to hit the road with a Shasta Compact camper and travel full-time.
They drove through all of the US and parts of Canada for nearly three years, including through the pandemic.
La Push Beach on the Washington coast is Ginther's favorite place the couple visited.
They wanted to buy a home in the Pacific Northwest, but couldn't find one in their price range.
After a summer of extreme weather in the Pacific Northwest, where temperatures reached upwards of 115 degrees and wildfires ravaged the coast, the stress of being on the road became too much. They decided it was time to buy a home.
"I was spending more time than not in tears with stress, trying to figure out where we're going next, and how we're going to get water," Ginther told Insider. "It was also a lot harder to find community, and that is what you need. All of those factors pile up. We decided we needed a place that had some stability, a safe place to return to."
So the couple moved back home, to Southern Illinois, and bought a 1970s A-frame cabin for $83,000.
While living in their camper, parked in Ryan's parents' driveway, they searched for an A-frame to buy.
The two stayed in an A-frame cabin on their honeymoon, Ginther said, and they knew then they wanted to buy one someday.
They searched for months before they found the one they would eventually buy.
"We fell in love with it," she said.
The house was listed for $89,000 but they got it at a discount after the first prospective buyer backed out.
They spent a year renovating it into their dream home.
They wrapped a $40,000 construction loan into their mortgage so they could renovate the house.
The exterior renovation included a new door, a fresh coat of paint, and a metal roof. The roof was one of the priciest parts of the project at $8,000.
From inside their house, they can hear the rain patter on the roof.
Removing a fence from the top section of the cabin helped give the home a more modern look.
When you walk in the front door, there is an open floor plan with a living area, dining area, and kitchen.
The couple tore down a second bedroom above the front door to create a vaulted ceiling. Now light pours into the living area.
The kitchen sits under the primary bedroom on the other side of the house.
They replaced the existing countertops with butcher block, Ginther said.
They took out some of the upper cabinets and replaced them with open shelving. Ginther also added a patterned backsplash.
Then, Ginther used a pink vinyl wrap for cars to cover the stainless-steel refrigerator.
Ginther, who shared the renovation process with her 513,400 followers on TikTok, said the pink fridge was the most "well-known, and controversial," design decision.
The kitchen is now colorful and bright.
The first room they renovated upstairs was their bedroom. They lived in their camper on the half-acre property until this was finished.
Across the hall from their bedroom there's a small balcony where the second bedroom used to be.
After removing the second bedroom to make the first-floor ceiling higher, they lost about 300 square feet of living space, but are happy with their decision. The house is about 1,000 square feet now.
They completely redesigned the bathroom. Ginther replaced the floors with a black and white penny tile and painted the walls pink.
They transformed the space by taking out the old shower and replacing it with a black claw-foot tub. Ginther's father and brother, who are both carpenters, helped with this part of the project.
The couple also added a deck to the back of the house.
Ginther has landscaped the property. Now it's filled with flowers and a vegetable garden.
While they now have a permanent home, it hasn't stopped them from traveling. They still live in a converted van and travel part-time.
After living in a camper and renovating a home, Ginther has advice for those looking to do either of those things.
If you want to travel full-time in a van or RV, "go for it," she said. If you feel you need to stop doing it, give yourself "a little grace" when you transition back, she added.
"It was a lot harder for me than I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be able to really just jump back into the way life has always been," Ginther said.
"I found it took me a little bit more time to adjust from what life is like on the road to the normal routine of being back and in a stable home," she added.
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