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Good Bones’ Karen E. Laine Reveals Why She Sleeps in Her Car: ‘I Have Everything I Need’
Good Bones star Karen E. Laine is gearing up for the next chapter of her life after wrapping filming on season 8 of the show. The HGTV personality revealed that she has been sleeping in her car while working on her latest project — renovating her new home in Wilmington, North Carolina.
“I have a thing; I do not like to waste money,” she explained during an episode of the “What’s Up Wilmington” podcast on October 31. “To me, a hotel is a waste of money because what am I doing? I’m paying $150 to sleep.”
Karen, 61, ordered a handcrafted contraption from Germany that allows her to sleep comfortably in her car as she continues to manage renovations on her home.
“It’s a bed, and it’s all adjustable,” she said. “If you have a hatchback, you put your backseat down and then you fit this bed in there. And then you have to screw it all together to put it in the car, and it’s got slats and it’s got a mattress, and I sleep in my car. It’s a little camper.”
In addition to her makeshift bed, the DIY expert has a “little cook stove,” a “portable toilet” and a “portable pop-up tent to put the toilet in so that nobody has to watch [her] use the portable toilet.”
“I have a water supply, and I have everything I need,” she maintained.
Karen also got a new “gizmo” for her car — a tent for her hatchback that she describes as a “car condom.” The tent offers her “a little more room” to put her portable toilet in there.
At the time of the podcast episode, Karen’s new home had just undergone an interior gut to repair termite damage. Her team also removed the house from its old foundation and built a new foundation. Ceiling joints were going in that day, and she was excitedly looking forward to her team starting to frame a roof over the home.
Earlier this year, Karen came down to Wilmington in search of the perfect house to retire in. After looking on Zillow, she purchased the quaint cottage in February. Four months later, the TV star found a contractor to help get started renovating the historic home.
Karen is newly single, as she and her fourth husband, Roger Rominger, filed a joint petition for legal separation on April 26, 2022, according to court documents viewed by Closer. He later filed a petition to convert their legal separation into dissolution on January 13. The case is still ongoing, with the next court date scheduled for November 27.
The home improvement star is excited for what’s to come in her future, including a potential HGTV spinoff series.
“There is currently not going to be a season 9 [of Good Bones], which I’m sad about because I felt like I finally was figuring out how to do TV,” Karen said. “Unscripted TV is kind of unique, even for a production company. The first year, everybody is figuring out what they’re doing. I feel like we’d finally gotten into a little bit of a groove, and I really love our production team. HGTV was a great place to land, and I would love to keep making TV; that would be great.”
