Most people searching for a new home look at houses. Whitney Anderson bought a church. In 2024, she left New York City and paid $45,000 for an abandoned church built in 1898 in Michigan. It was hardly a move-in-ready property, but Whitney could see something beyond the years of neglect: a home that nobody else would have. She started documenting the transformation as House of Vitrail.
She calls the building her “chouse,” a combination of church + house, and shares it with her cat, Lady Marmalade. The renovation is still underway, which is part of what makes following her progress so interesting. Rather than removing everything that reminds visitors of the building's past, she is finding ways to put old materials to work again. Even furniture from the original church has been given a second life.
The result is becoming far more personal than a conventional renovation. Original stained-glass windows remain part of the experience, while salvaged wood has found its way into everyday furniture. And the building isn't her only project: a former parsonage and an empty neighboring lot are also waiting for attention. But first, step inside the church itself. The largest space makes an unforgettable first impression.