An Ode to My Church

Well, howdy there, folks! I wasn't going to post today, but here I am! LOL.




Let me tell you about a certain special place. When I first visited my current locale, I was unimpressed until I saw this:








Holy sh*t! I know, not appropriate language considering it's a church, but still! I fell in love with this building the INSTANT I saw it. We live right next door. And when I say right next door, I mean that I am staring at the stained glass windows as I'm washing the dishes. Oh! How freakin' fantabulous this historic landmark is! And yes, it is an official historic landmark!



I love this old church and I'm not sure why. I just do. You can imagine just how badly I wet my pants when I learned it's FOR SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






Oh yeah! This baby is on the market, and has been for some time. So, good old crafty me just happened to schedule a visit with the realtor when my mom & step-father were visiting us. Gee, what a coinicidence! Amazing, huh? ;)




Anyhoo, we were all enthralled by the inside. It is just breath-taking. For such an old building, it's in amazing shape. The work that it does need is a lot, but the resto is minimal. What it really needs is a decent bathroom, the kitchen needs work and the sanctuary needs to be refurbished. It can stay mainly original, which is this history nerd's dream!






I fantasize about this church daily. I want to restore it for history's sake. I want to turn one of the rooms in it into an office/study for me for inspiration. Tell me, does it get any better than that? Ahhh, sweet inspiration! This building lets my imagination run wild!



Here are the issues: there is no cert of occupancy, which means that no one will mortage this baby out. That's a problem. The current owner is also in a bad situation which is causing her to ask for the money up-front. That is also a problem. The latest hinderance is that she upped the price! What the hell?! This church has been on the market for over a year (I think it's actually been more like 2 years or so). There have been some lookie-lous and then crazy people like me. BUT, because there's no c of o, NO ONE can buy it. ARGH! I would do ANYTHING to own this building, but there's no real way to negotiate around these issues. Damn it! :(



Now, I know it's beyond ironic that I, a non-christian, openly GLBT gal wants to own a CHURCH. I'm twisted that way. ;) Seriously, it's more about the history than anything with this building. It was built in 1885 and is the highest point in the town. It's beautiful. It's historic. It's inspiring. And it's just plain cool. How many people do you know own churches? Yeah, I thought so. ;)



So, dear blog readers, if you care to donote to the "Lauren is insane and wants to buy a church" fund, you are MORE than welcome to! LOL.



I've been heavily considering calling the historical society and seeing if I could work something out with them. Certain "issues" have hindered me from calling them this week, but I may seriously do it. Even if I don't own it, but I am somehow a part of the historic restoration on this beauty, I'll be extremely happy. :)



So, here are some more pictures of my dream: :)






This is the kitchen. It's the first room when you walk in. It's chock full of REALLY cute appliances from the '50's! I don't know if they're functional or not. If they are, I'd love to keep 'em 'cause they have SO much character! :)











The kitchen opens out into this. This picture does it no justice. There is a beautiful original wood floor. There are a few original pews remaining too! It's a nice open space. I thought this would be a really cool room to have old pictures and a full history of the building and such. It's open enough for people to look at said pictures, artifacts, info, etc and it's on the first floor which is uber convenient.












These are just two of the gorgeous stained glass windows in the church. The greatest part is that there is very little work that needs to be done on the windows! They are in immaculate condition! :)









There are lots of doors, interesting and hidden rooms, and closets all over the place! It's really interesting, and in an odd way, it's a lot of fun! :)









This is from the main sanctuary looking up to the choir/mezzanine (strange choice of words, I know. It was the first thing that came to mind). What you don't see is the reverse image. Looking down from this balcony onto the main sanctuary is one of the most breath-taking images I have ever seen! It is simply stunning!








This is the back of the church. The fire escape is a newer addition (built after 1900). There is ZERO property to the church. The property line is basically the parimeter of the church itself, but it's still REALLY cool! :)





So there you have it. My sick, sweet secret obssession. Think of it what you will, but damn this is a cool church! :)