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 few days, I’m telling 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.” We’ve surveyed the main floor, and now we go upstairs. It’s not all that big, but I’m breaking it up into five rooms. First, we’ll take a look at my office.
When we purchased the church, it looked like the second story was last used as a Sunday School room. I think the local Alcoholics Anonymous group also may have been meeting here. Nearly everything you see in this shot was removed, including the wall with shelving and the carpeting. The window you can see in this shot led to the fire escape, which we removed a few months ago.This corner is now my office. The eaves (where a pile of colorful boxes is) goes along the entire roof line and is great for storing luggage.
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.” Today, we have a look in the master bath.
I’ve shared pictures of the shower corner of the master bath before. This perspective shows where the water closet was built. When we bought the church, this room was being used as an office. At one time in history, this area was a Sunday School.I had to sit on the vanity and take a panoramic picture to get this perspective because we moved the wall to make the bedroom behind it larger (the panorama is why the floor looks wavy in the picture). That’s another pocket door on the water closet. The door on the right is one of the linen closets.
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.” Today, we look at the master bedroom.
I’ve shown off pictures of the headboard side of the master bedroom before; that side didn’t exist when we purchased the church. Today, we look at the south side of the bedroom. When we purchased the church, there was an exterior stairway and doorway and a closet on this side of the room. Both were removed.Removing the doorway revealed the window. A TV on an imported cabinet now sits where the closet used to be. The foot of the bed is just showing in the bottom right.Initially, I wanted to show off the wood slats of the original ceiling in the master bedroom, but there were too many holes.So we repurposed the tin ceiling from the basement inside the tray ceiling. I love looking up at this ceiling when I’m in bed. Tyler says it’s a good think I like it because it was a lot of work.This is look mid-construction of the east side of the master bedroom. This is the pocket door leading to the closet.Here’s a look at the east side of the master bedroom now, complete with French doors.
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.
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Today’s headline is a quote from modern Uruguayan journalist and novelist Eduardo Galeano.
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 looked at the kitchen and balcony, and today we take a peek into the mudroom (the alcove to the right of the kitchen).
When we purchased the church, there was a closet in the space that would someday become our back door and mudroom.About three months into the renovation, we’d pinpointed where we wanted a back door, but we hadn’t opened it up yet because it would have been a door to nowhere–the garage hadn’t yet been built.Here’s how the mudroom looks today. The doorway to the left is a pocket door that leads to the powder room. the “rest room” sign was salvaged from the basement, which was the only operational bathroom in the church when we bought it. The door on the right leads to the garage.Here’s a peek inside the powder room. The wall behind the mirror is reclaimed wood from the basement ceiling (we also used this wood on our master bedroom headboard).
Tomorrow: The Hall of History. See it in all its before-and-after glory here.
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 and half 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 walked into the former sanctuary to see a fireplace where the altar used to be. Now we turn to the left to take in the kitchen.
This is how what I called the “overflow area” looked when we purchased the church. The doorway on the left led to a hallway, and there was a open area and an office through the wide doorway. From day one, we envisioned the back of the kitchen in that overflow.Here is how that area looked after demolition. You can see all the way through to our future master suite; upstairs, you can see the former choir loft. The doorway on the right side would lead to the mudroom and back door.First, Tyler installed a header to shore up this wide doorway.Then he built a balcony.Tyler and You-Can-Call-Me-Al smoothed out the edges of the balcony floor.The drywallers put up Sheetrock. You can see the doorway upstairs that leads to the second floor guest room with holes for stained glass windows flanking the door.We had a railing installed on the balcony and kitchen cabinetry. All those boards in front of the kitchen are trim boards (that’s You-Can-Call-Me-Al sawing a piece of wood behind there).We installed the kitchen island and stained the great room floor.Here’s how the kitchen and balcony look now, complete with back splash, paint and furniture.
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Today’s headline is a quote from 20th century Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran.
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 and half 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 took in the new front doors. Skipping through the entryway (which isn’t finished or even semi-finished yet), we walk into what used to be the sanctuary of the church.
This is how the sanctuary looked when we took ownership of the church. The congregation gotten rid of or distributed all the pews and the altar.It took us two months to demolish the interior, and even then, we had the drywallers rip out the ceiling (seen here). They proceeded to drywall and paint the ceiling.Tyler built the balcony off the choir loft.The drywallers returned to install Sheetrock on the walls, and Tyler and You-Can-Call-Me-Al built the fireplace chase.Here’s how the great room looked after You-Can-Call-Me-Al bricked the fireplace and after Tyler applied the second, and correct, stain to the floor.Here’s the great room this morning. The back wall is not finished; we plan a bank of cabinets and shelving plus more seating.
Dear reader, we’re taking a break from the memoir-in-progress to assess the progress we’ve made during 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 and half 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 drove up to see the church, and today we prepare to enter the front door.
The front entryway of the church was added in the 1940s (for decades previous to that, parishioners entered through a doorway beneath the belfry). Glassed French doors were replaced at some point with the industrial red doors we found when we checked out the church a year ago.The front doors today.
Today’s headline is a partial quote from actress Elizabeth Taylor. Her full quote is, “I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.”
Tomorrow: The entryway is not yet finished, so we’re skipping to the sanctuary. Check it out here.
Our story so far: My husband and I purchased a 126-year-old Methodist church, demolished the interior and rebuilt it back into our dream home.
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Chapter 44
My sister, who followed my every move on Facebook with enthusiasm (like a good sister should), had been privy throughout the construction of the church to a string of secret pictures and previews. Frequently, she implored: “More pictures.” So I obliged. It was easy, thanks to Verizon and smart phones. When we talked, the church and our work was all I could prattle about.
But until October, she and her family hadn’t seen any of it in person. She and my brother-in-law were busy people, parents to three busy boys, and they lived seven or eight hours north of our little renovation project. Finally, a long weekend break—and the prospect of an operational bathroom and guest bed—offered the perfect opportunity for four of them—my oldest nephew was off to college—to pay us a little visit.
Sister came bearing more of Dad’s homegrown apples and an obscene amount of Halloween candy. And gushing. Lots of gushing. Music to my ears. Even the fifteen-year-old, who probably couldn’t care less about Auntie’s crazy church house, was complimentary. And my ten-year-old—a doll! He carved a Halloween jack-o-lantern to decorate my church sign.
But despite the string of pictures I’d shared with her, few of them were “before” shots. Nothing to brag about there. After seeing our work in all its semi-finished glory, she wanted to be reminded of how far we’d come, so I dragged her up to my office and took her down memory lane with a slide show on my computer. Printed photos? So last century. Check out these pixels of dust, paneling and old carpeting. This is what this place used to look like.
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Dear reader, I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you of how far we’ve come in a year. Tyler and I closed on the old church just shy of a year ago, and the changes have been immense. So for the next 10 days or so, I’m going to take a break from the memoir-in-progress and 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.”
Let’s begin with a look at the church as you drive up:
Before: This image was taken when the church was still for sale, in September 2017.This image was taken this morning as a light snow was falling.
Our story so far: A far-flung friend I made back in my corporate days paid us a visit at the old Methodist church we turned into our home, and she likened the trip to a mecca.
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This piece of wood almost certainly was installed with the bell, presumably some 126 year ago. It was removed by Reroofer last fall when he repaired the flat roof on the belfry.
This friend who came from far away once worked with me on creative projects that sometimes required sketches to get her point across. When she made her pilgrimage to the church, she agreed to attend a local lecture by an inspiring junking couple who shared ideas on how to turn topless teapots into planters and old yard implements into décor. I hauled an old piece of the belfry—a curved piece of wood that had been part of the wheel to ring it—to the talk to get their advice on how we might repurpose it. One of their suggestions was as a headboard. Privately, I rejected this idea as unnecessary, but my friend took this bit of advice to bed with her; while sleeping in the guest room—right next to the belfry—she apparently dreamed a vision. The next morning, she presented me with a drawing of how we could turn this leftover piece of wood into a showplace headboard for the upstairs guest room. She even had an idea for incorporating a little bell into the headboard in tribute to the big bell in our belfry.
Imagine the sweet dreams this headboard might inspire.
Inspired! The headboard we used up there was the one made for a king bed; it would need to be replaced. I filed her idea away for use later, when we had the time to work on such creative projects. It was not the first concept in the church that began as a sketch and flowered into something real and beautiful.
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Today’s headline is a quote from 19th century French artist Edgar Degas.
Tomorrow: Sister pays a visit as Chapter 44 opens. Read about it here.
Church Sweet Home 