This week on the RV Podcast we talk to a woman about how to renovate an RV, learning her fascinating back story and how she is now helping others to do what she does.

She is Cortni Armstrong, known as The Flipping Nomad, who was nearly homeless a few years back and discovered her gift for renovating and redesigning RVs after she moved into one to keep from living on the streets.

You can see the entire episode (#415) of the podcast in the video below, which features Corni in our interview segment.

If you prefer an audio-only version, you can listen on your favorite podcast app or click the player below.

Cortni is an expert on how to renovate an RV

In fact, she is so much an expert that Keystone RV and several major RV suppliers approached Cortni a while back because they were so impressed with her skills that they wanted to build "the Ultimate RV" and gave Cortni a deluxe 37-foot Montana Fifth Wheel and told her to go at it, to design and tweak it however she thought best.

And did she ever!

If you want to see how that project turned out, take a look at this video we did last week on our YouTube Channel. That Ultimate RV is amazing. Click the player below to see:

Jennifer and I loved what she did and asked her if she would take a look at our Arcadia Fifth Wheel and come up with some design tweaks to give me a dedicated work area. Come back to our YouTube Channel Saturday if you want to see how that turned out!

Cortni's story: From Near-Homeless to an RV Design Queen

In this week's podcast, Jennifer interviewed Cortni to learn how The Flipping Nomad came about. Here's an edited version of the podcast interview.

Jennifer

Cortni, you have a great backstory as to how you learned how to renovate an RV and became the Flipping Nomad. So can you tell us a little bit about it?

Cortni

So most people when they get into RVing, they have a story that's almost out of a movie. They got fed up with life and sold everything and bought the RV and hit the road.

And it sounds like some fairytale. But my story's actually very opposite of that. It started eight years ago. My dad had a stroke and he had two businesses, but neither business was doing very well. So I had to drop everything and take them over. And I was basically facing a do I feed myself or do I feed my dog type situation.

And it was pretty dire. And I found myself in desperate need of affordable housing. And a family friend turned me onto living in an RV, just stationary. I was not traveling. And so I moved into it basically. That was the only option that I could find. And at first I hated it and I was embarrassed about it and, felt like I was at rock bottom.

And then a year went by and I had fallen in love with the lifestyle. And I was like, maybe this isn't so bad and, maybe I could get my feet underneath of me faster if I live this affordable lifestyle. And so I said I would just really like an RV that feels more like a bachelorette pad.

I was 25 at the time.