Exclusive: ‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ Star Whitney Way Thore Gives $690K Family Home a Sentimental Makeover—See Inside

“My Big Fat Fabulous Life” star Whitney Way Thore has been the subject of many a headline lately over her 100-pound weight-loss transformation—but her latest on-screen endeavor will see her tackling a very different kind of makeover: a DIY renovation of her family home.

The 40-year-old TLC star has spent the last nine years sharing every aspect of her life on screen, beginning with her struggles with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and the 200-pound weight gain she suffered as a result of the condition.

Now in Season 12 of her hit reality series, Whitney—who stars in the show alongside her father, Glenn Thore, and brother Hunter Thore—is moving on to a new venture: real estate DIY.

In the episode titled “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” Whitney and her brother learn that their father Glenn is considering selling the family home in Greensboro, NC, two years after the passing of his wife, Barbara “Babs” Thore.

But Whitney and her brother have other plans and quickly devise a strategy to convince their dad to keep the home.

“As soon as my brother and I learned that my dad wanted to sell the house, we immediately tried to scheme ways to incentivize him to not do that,” Whitney explained in a previous episode. “The solution is to reno the downstairs bedroom. Hopefully we are going to change this room into something that my dad will love.”

According to records on Realtor.com, the Thore family home is a Colonial-style, two-story place with five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and 4,068 square feet. The brick abode was built in 1980 and sits on just over a half-acre. Last purchased in 2000 for $382,500, it is currently estimated to be worth $687,489.

Updates are clearly needed, but since Glenn is hesitant to make any changes, Whitney hopes a transformation will win him over.

The room she wants to fix up first has all-white walls and baseboards, two nearly floor-to-ceiling windows, “some nasty carpet that’s been in there for probably 30 years,” and an attached bathroom.

In a preview clip shared with Realtor.com®, Whitney explains that particular room has “been through a lot,” as it was the backdrop of “a lot of my formative life experiences.”

“All my friends, we used to always dance in here,” she tells a representative from the floor company tasked with changing out the carpet to luxury vinyl floor planking. “This was like the playroom. We had a TV right there, so my friend taught me, we would dance and we would … use the TV as our, like, mirror.”

It’s also where she and former dance partner Todd Beasley filmed their earliest “107.5 KZL Fat Girl Dancing” videos, which became a viral series online; and the space became her bedroom when she moved back home with her parents later on in life.

“All of our memories from the last 20 years are tied up in this house, and it actually just feels like a big memory box,” she reflects.

With the room cleared out and the floor company coming out to assess it, the overhaul is full steam ahead, and Whitney finds herself happily immersed in the project.

“Even though this room renovation started as a way to convince my dad not to sell the house, it’s actually given me something to look forward to and something to work on and I’m really enjoying the process,” she says.

Earlier this season, Whitney shared some insight into her interior design preferences when she looked at LVP floor samples, saying, “I don’t like farmhouse, I don’t like rustic, I don’t like chickens.”

She leaned toward a light-colored floor but acknowledged that, “Ultimately, this is a Glenn Thore renovation, so I have to keep his taste in mind because I know we have different tastes.”

For a sneak peek of the room’s progress and to hear Whitney’s reflections on her childhood home, check out our exclusive clip below from the new Season 12 episode, “Who Let the Dogs Out.”

“My Big Fat Fabulous Life” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on TLC.

Watch: ‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ Star Whitney Way Thore Gives $690K Family Home a Sentimental Makeover