Dear reader, we’re taking a break from the memoir-in-progress to assess the accomplishments of the past year. My husband and I closed on the 126-year-old Methodist church just shy of a year ago, and the changes have been immense. For the next week or so, I’m going to tell the story in before-and-after photos. Whenever possible I’ll try to use the same perspective in the “after” shot as I did long ago in the “before.” Yesterday, we checked out the back door, and today we proceed down the hallway to the left of the kitchen that we’re calling The Hall of History.

The Hall of History leads to the master suite and the back stairway to the second floor. We intend to hang historical images of the church and pictures of our ancestors here so we chose to keep this hallway as original as possible. The door to the hallway is original, we left some of the paint patina on the floor and all the light fixtures were found elsewhere in the church when we purchased it.

Here’s a closer look at the back steps which were rebuilt and recarpeted (I finally removed the sticky-backed protective plastic covering for this “after” photo). We also had new hand railing fabricated. The walls on the stair landing are shiplap we simply painted after removing the paneling (no Sheetrock there). The door on the left leads to a closet beneath the belfry; this area used to be the original entrance to the church. The French doors on the right lead to the master bedroom.

Here’s a look from the stairway back through the Hall of History into the great room. You can see the antique light fixtures a bit better here.

# # #

Today’s headline is a quote from modern Uruguayan journalist and novelist Eduardo Galeano. 

Tomorrow: The master bedroom. See it here.