A Very Haunted Renovation: The Haunting of Bihl Manor

What happens when you take six interior designers, move them into one of America’s reportedly most haunted houses for a month, and ask them to renovate it?

That’s the unusual premise behind A Very Haunted Renovation, a new HGTV series that combines a home renovation competition mixed with the paranormal.

The six-part series premieres on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, and takes place inside Bihl Manor, a Victorian-era mansion in Fremont, Ohio, with a long-standing reputation for unexplained activity.

But while the programme might sound like a Halloween themed twist on the usual renovation show, the alleged hauntings surrounding Bihl Manor existed long before the television cameras arrived.

So, what is the story behind the house?

Welcome to Bihl Manor

Bihl Manor stands on a quiet residential street in Fremont, Ohio. The once-grand Victorian property has fallen into considerable disrepair over the years, leaving parts of the building vacant and deteriorating.

According to HGTV’s recently published history of the property, visitors have described uncomfortable sensations inside the house, while neighbours and others outside of the property have reportedly witnessed the figure of a man looking from a second floor window.

The attic has produced some of the property’s strangest stories.

Multiple visitors are said to have glimpsed a red-haired boy, while unexplained sounds reportedly include children’s laughter, heavy footsteps and shuffling noises.

Whether these experiences have paranormal explanations is, of course, impossible to establish from eyewitness accounts alone. But Bihl Manor’s reputation has become firmly established in local ghost lore and it is that reputation that forms the backdrop to HGTV’s new series.

Bihl Manor

Who Are the Ghosts of Bihl Manor?

Among the spirits most closely associated with the house are Lizzie and Alvie Bihl, whose alleged presence even plays a part in the programme’s opening episode.

The designers are divided into two teams and given just four days to renovate two bedrooms, with their designs inspired by the spirits said to haunt the rooms.

Other paranormal claims surrounding Bihl Manor go considerably further.

The property’s own paranormal investigation website describes different areas of the building as having distinctive types of reported activity. Investigators and visitors have claimed to hear voices, footsteps and slamming noises, while equipment used during paranormal investigations has reportedly reacted in several rooms.

The basement has an especially sinister reputation, with alleged entities nicknamed “The Bitter” and “The Scratcher” by those investigating the property. These names and incidents are paranormal claims associated with the location rather than independently established events, but they have helped make the basement one of Bihl Manor’s most notorious areas.

And then there is that red-haired child.

Accounts of a young boy appearing around the staircase and attic occur in the property’s own haunting reports as well as HGTV’s history of Bihl Manor.

Six Designers Will Live Inside the Haunted House for 31 Days

Rather than simply bringing a paranormal investigation team into Bihl Manor for a night, A Very Haunted Renovation is doing something considerably more ambitious.

Six designers will actually live inside the house for 31 days while renovating it.

The contestants are SK Stokes Kennedy, Patrick Peel, John Ryan, Bershan Shaw, Logan Wright and Diana Vogel.

Each episode features elimination challenges as they gradually transform the deteriorating mansion, with the eventual winner receiving a $50,000 prize.

Actress Anna Camp hosts the series, while HGTV designer Michel Smith Boyd acts as mentor and judge.

There are also some familiar names among the guest judges, particularly for paranormal and horror fans.

Jack Osbourne, who has appeared in numerous paranormal investigations and television programmes, joins production designer Hannah Beachler, Billy Porter, Cassandra Peterson, better known to horror fans as Elvira, filmmaker Eli Roth and actress LuLu Wilson.

It’s an unusual combination. Part renovation competition, part haunted house experiment and part reality television.

Anna Camp, the host of A Very Haunted Renovation, outside Bihl Manor

Will the Renovation Disturb Bihl Manor’s Ghosts?

It’s a question that crops up repeatedly in haunted building stories.

Renovation work is often claimed by paranormal investigators to coincide with increases in reported activity. Floors are lifted, walls opened, rooms altered and parts of a building that may have remained untouched for decades are suddenly disturbed.

There is no scientific evidence establishing that renovation causes paranormal activity, of course. But the idea has become a familiar feature of haunting accounts.

That makes Bihl Manor a particularly interesting setting.

The contestants aren’t just visiting the property and leaving a few hours later. They’ll be sleeping, working and living in the manor for more than four weeks, while dramatically altering the building around them.

If anything unusual does happen during production, there should be plenty of people, and cameras, around to witness it.

When Does A Very Haunted Renovation Start?

A Very Haunted Renovation premieres in the United States on HGTV on Tuesday, September 15 at 8/7c.

New episodes will then be available to stream on HBO Max from the following day, beginning September 16.

The first season consists of six episodes.

HGTV has also launched a companion paranormal series on YouTube called Would You Buy This Haunted House?, in which psychic Steffi Hill visits reportedly haunted properties currently on the market and explores their histories.

A Different Kind of Haunted House Show

There have been countless television programmes in which paranormal investigators spend a night inside supposedly haunted buildings. A Very Haunted Renovation takes a rather different approach.

The paranormal activity isn’t really the competition, the renovation is. Bihl Manor and its alleged inhabitants provide the backdrop while six people attempt to live and work inside the property for an entire month.

And that may make the programme interesting even to viewers who wouldn’t normally watch a home renovation series.

Whether the designers experience anything genuinely unexplained remains to be seen. But with stories of mysterious footsteps, children’s laughter, shadowy figures and the recurring apparition of a red-haired boy already attached to Bihl Manor, they’ll certainly know what to listen out for once the lights go off.

A Very Haunted Renovation premieres September 15, 2026, on HGTV.

Sources:

A Very Haunted Renovation IMDb

Bihl Manor Hauntings