Whitney Anderson paid $45,000 in June 2024 for a 128-year-old abandoned Methodist church in Bay City, Michigan, complete with human-sized holes in the roof and extensive water damage. Two years later, the 45-year-old interior stylist and decorator is still deep into what she calls the biggest gamble of her life, turning the crumbling sanctuary into what she affectionately refers to as her dream chouse.
From New York Stylist to Michigan Renovator
Anderson lived in New York for more than 30 years and was a New York City-based interior stylist, according to CNBC. She had searched nationwide for roughly a decade for an affordable church before finding the Bay City property on Zillow, where the listing included a parsonage house priced at $125,000 along with the church itself. The purchase, made in cash, ultimately covered a 3,500-square-foot church, a four-bedroom parsonage house, and an adjacent 10,000-square-foot grass lot, the outlet reports.
The property is at 301 N. Madison Avenue in Bay City.
Gutting Mold, Saving Stained Glass
Anderson had saved about $250,000 for what she calls her chouse fund and has since spent roughly $194,000 on renovations, per the CNBC report. She tackled much of the demolition herself, repairing roofing and gutters, waterproofing both buildings, and addressing long-standing mold and water damage. She also installed floor joists and drywall and painted exterior and interior walls on her own.
Despite the extensive teardown, Anderson preserved the original stained-glass windows and some overhead lighting fixtures dating to around the 1940s — fitting, she says, given she has been obsessed with stained glass since childhood. She repurposed old church pews into furniture, a library wall, a dining table, and chairs, and turned an entryway door and an old communion table into a kitchen island, the outlet notes.
Not every repair has gone smoothly. In October 2024, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy issued a violation notice to Anderson, the property's owner, after A-Z Roofing & Construction removed and replaced about half of the roof, which contained transite roofing material with 20 percent chrysotile asbestos, without a required asbestos inspection survey having been completed, according to Michigan EGLE records — a reminder of the regulatory hazards buried inside many aging church renovations.
Viral Fame Brought a TV Crew — But No Paycheck
Anderson's renovation journey took an unexpected turn in early March 2025, when a 30-second video she posted to Instagram racked up 16 million views and nearly 3,700 comments. The clip caught the attention of producers at Magnolia Network, and by the end of that month she had signed on to appear on the network's Home Reimagined, hosted by Vern Yip, per CNBC's reporting.
She documents her daily progress under the handle @mychurchofchaos, where she has built an audience of more than 300,000 followers, according to a profile on Stayamo. CNBC reports that her viral video attracted producers and that she was signed later that month. Home Reimagined was released in 2023 and follows homeowners converting unusual structures — former garment factories, schoolhouses, breweries, and churches — into livable spaces, per discovery+.
Anderson spent almost eight months working around the clock on the renovation for the show and was not paid to appear, but the production brought sponsorships, free materials, and free labor she otherwise could not have afforded. Sponsors supplied kitchen cabinets, appliances, countertop slabs, and flooring, and carpenters built her library wall at no cost, CNBC reports.
Next Up: A Bed and Breakfast, If Zoning Allows
Anderson hopes to keep total renovation costs under $400,000 and plans to restart her interior styling business in Michigan while monetizing her social media presence and pursuing brand partnerships. She's aiming to earn as much money as possible over the next six to eight months and has set a roughly $40,000 excavation goal.
Anderson is turning the church into a home.
Part of a Nationwide Church Exodus
Anderson's project reflects a broader shift playing out across American religious real estate. Lifeway Research reported in January 2026 that an estimated 4,000 U.S. Protestant churches closed in 2024 while 3,800 were started, a net loss of 200 congregations nationwide — though that gap has narrowed considerably from a net loss of 1,500 congregations in 2019. Even so, a Lifeway Research survey published in April 2025 found that 94% of Protestant pastors expect their churches to still exist in 10 years, a striking contrast with the broader decline.
The Hartford Institute for Religion Research's Faith Communities Today study found median weekly attendance at U.S. Christian congregations dropped from 137 attendees in 2000 to just 65 in 2020, with small congregations — a third of whose members were 65 or older — facing the highest closure risk. Those numbers help explain why historic sanctuaries like the one on Madison Avenue keep landing in the hands of individual buyers willing to take on the gamble, structural damage, asbestos notices, zoning battles and all.
