Young couple who bought abandoned house with dark past reveal astonishing transformation

A young couple moved into an abandoned collectible house and embarked on a stunning renovation that revealed the dark past hidden beneath the piles of trash inside.

Influencers Drew and Becky Bidlen purchased the 1894 Midwest home just 12 days after the birth of their daughter, Aurora, in 2023.

The couple have since tackled piles of rubbish and discarded items to transform the troubled wreck into their new family home.

After leaving South Carolina, they documented the DIY process of redecorating the house, including the gruesome photos of the messy interior.

The couple also discovered their former home’s “dark past”, which included hauntings, arson and cult rumors.

In one of their videos, Becky said: “We’re Becky and Drew, and we bought the craziest renovation we’ve found. We are in the middle of renovation; but here’s a flash forward. The place was gross, but we saw the potential.

Their vision was able to pierce through the black mold, water damage, collapsed ceilings and mountains of trash, and both men saw what could be.

“One of the most common comments we’ve received so far is ‘Wow your house is horrible, I hope you at least got a good deal’. We paid $150,000 for this house.” as is.’ It’s 3,000 square feet and on half an acre,” Becky said.

“Even though the house looked and smelled horrible at first glance, it was really obvious to both of us that the bones were incredible,” Drew added.

Their entire process takes place on their TikTok and Instagram pages, where they show every step of their work.

In their latest TikTok, the two discovered damage to the drywall while installing insulation, and their slow process is paying off as they announce that it’s *almost* time to decorate… Ok , we still have a long way to go, but I don’t think it’s too early to create the mood boards!’

The two men have been repairing the house since December. As they prepared to “ransack” the house, they suited up in full protective gear and Drew carried Becky over the threshold.

They said they were offered more than $10,000 for a professional service, so they called on their friends and family, who are “as crazy as they are,” to help them.

A 40-yard dumpster was filled on day one, but as people began to criticize their choice to renovate such a dilapidated house, both men were adamant.

This was not an easy task, and certainly not for those with weak stomachs. Their videos show the rooms with so much trash you couldn’t see the floors, and the two men talk about dead animals and mold found among the rubble.

However, their cleaning process also has benefits. They also documented the “treasures” they found along the way, including jewelry, a marble table with matching chairs, a silver platter, numerous ancient coins and much more.

Just as an old house contains buried treasure and the remains of a family of raccoons, like this one it also contains a lot of history and mystery.

The two also embarked on some detective work to uncover the “dark past” of their old home, and they learned many different stories, including that it is haunted, that it housed a cult, and that it was inexplicably set on fire – twice.

A neighbor informed them of the ghost stories surrounding the house and fanned the fire by telling them they had seen eyes in the attic. The same neighbor gave them a book of ghost stories with a chapter about their new house.

The story centered around a young woman who lived there as a child and knew the house was haunted. The family described childish muttering and a column of black smoke that disappeared when looked at.

The woman came back later and asked the gardener if they had ever seen a ghost, and they replied that they had seen a little boy with a bullet in the window.

Becky made it her mission to uncover the history of the house by exploring every avenue possible.

Through their renovations, she learned more and more about the previous owner, knowing that the building had been abandoned since the time they took on the challenge.

“The last owner mysteriously left everything behind,” she says in a video. “The house sat vacant for two years before we bought it, but neighbors told us it appeared vacant for much longer than that. They hadn’t seen the light in years.

The previous owner’s family hadn’t taken anything from inside the house over the past two years, they had just taken the car.

The pair made huge progress on the house with significant room clearances, gutting a bathroom to completely renovate it, as well as installing new flooring and fixing holes in the walls .

Their renovations have a long way to go as they discover new problems, like covered archways and more rotting wood, but Becky and Drew hope to be able to move in by February.