Whitney Anderson's $45K abandoned church in Michigan, now with pews for dining chairs
The description puts the renovation at about $194,000 so far, and the reused pews are what the comment section keeps mentioning.
CNBC Make It
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 114,659 views a day, 29 times a normal first day on this channel (3,935).
I Bought An Abandoned Church For $45K & Spent $194K Making It A Home
"I Bought An Abandoned Church For $45K & Spent $194K Making It A Home" follows Whitney Anderson, who bought a Michigan church in June 2024. The building had stood empty, and it has stood for more than a century. She has been turning it into the place she lives.
The purchase price was the small part. The description says Anderson estimates she has put more than four times that amount into the renovation so far. She hopes to finish the bulk of the work by the end of 2028. Some of the footage is her own, shot along the way.
The video drew nearly 80,000 views in its first 12 hours, many times what a new upload on CNBC Make It usually gathers in a whole day. The channel's other recent videos cover how Imax profits from theaters it doesn't own, career advice from Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary and the near-disappearance of the $20K new car. None of them started like this. It is the second home story in a row to stand out here: last week it was a $72K house in Spain, as we reported here.
In the comments, viewers talk about the pews. Anderson reused them, some as dining chairs, and that detail comes up again and again. Others point to a bookcase they would like for themselves, or say the building kept its character instead of becoming a plain white modern box. A few have already folded church and house into a single word for the place.
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What viewers say
great restoration so far!! I love how she repurposed so many items from the church
@jbart5260See it on YouTubeI LOVE this renovation! Reusing the pews was very cool, especially those dining chairs.
@AlwaysForever-c3gSee it on YouTubeI can imagine the peace
@yvekay5139See it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- CNBC Make It
- Subscribers
- 2,000,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 1,479,424
- Channel views, pace per day
- 157,335 (on a normal day: 198,691)
- Video published
- October 6, 2026
- Video views so far
- 79,157 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 114,659
The numbers
A renovation story off to a start far beyond anything else the channel has posted lately.
💡 Test your knowledge
Michigan, where Whitney Anderson's church stands, touches four of the five Great Lakes. Which one does it not touch?
Michigan borders Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie, while Lake Ontario lies between New York and the Canadian province of Ontario.
