Budget Breakdown: He Singlehandedly Gave a ’76 Airstream a Redwood Reinvention for $180K

David Horner makes his living building out camper vans as principal of the Buena Vista Van Co, but when he set out to design his own full-time home, there was one project he couldn’t stop thinking about. "Once you start dreaming about an Airstream, it’s hard to stop," says David with a laugh. 

 When his girlfriend, Darian Rubow—a monitoring and stewardship coordinator for a regenerative ranch—found a small, wooded lot for rent in Santa Barbara, it was time to turn the dream into reality. 

David found a ’76 Airstream on Facebook marketplace that seemed to be just the right level of fixer-upper. The owner had started a reno on the 160-square-foot unit and done the "dirty work" that David says he was not keen to do—grinding off the rust, replacing the subfloors, and repairing the frame. Sure, two of the wheels fell off as he was driving it down the highway from L.A. to its new home base, but it was otherwise ready for David to put his well-honed van-build skills to the test.