"You bought an old church? Why?"
"What on earth possessed you guys to buy an old church"?
If I was given five bucks for every time I've heard this question or similar ones I would have our renovation completely paid for. There are plenty of (understandably) confused faces and questions regarding our home choice. I want to take a moment and lay out why we made the decision to purchase, live, and renovate a former place of worship into our future home.
I wish I had this romantic story about how my husband and I always dreamed about renovating an abandoned church building and raising our family there however that is NOTHING like how we ended up here. Here's what actually happened...
Once upon a time...
As Cole would say, "we are a family that dreams together" and we were doing just that one evening. Sitting in the living room flipping through our Iowa Realty phone apps when I came across an old country church building in Carlisle Iowa. I jokingly suggested to Cole that "we should buy this". He grabbed my phone to check out my "suggestion" and to my shock he got "that look" in his big blue eyes. If you are married to a visionary you know what look I'm talking about. With much enthusiasm he declared our future- "Oh my goodness babe, we should buy this". I remember exclaiming "no, I was kidding" and other helpful and encouraging statements such as "there's no way we can get a loan for that, we're self-employed", "no no no", and "calm down" in an attempt at burying the "great idea".
All of the sudden, there we were, driving down the road to see the vacant church building out on a gravel road. It seemed like a fun endevour however rather unrealistic. On multiple occasions we had tried to relocate out of our cookie-cutter town home in the city to no avail due to loan stipulation for our newly self-employed lifestyle. This just seemed like it would play out like our other attempts. When Cole went to talk to a banker about acquiring a loan I never believed anything would actually be offered to us.
Our initial exploration of the 6500 square foot church building was unusual however, as Cole laid out his foresight for a giant living room with those tall ceilings inside of that church auditorium, I have to admit the idea sounded more fascinating to me by the second.
After prayer, evaluation, more prayer, and more evaluating we found ourselves the chosen buyer in a multiple offer situation with four other potential buyers. It turns out that our abnormal self-employed financing was the only type of financing that qualified to purchase the building. Go figure!
"It's a little weird to live in an old church, isn't it?"
Sure it is. But that's what makes it fun! At the end of the day it is just a place to live. A home is just a tool, a temporary place on this side of eternity. Cole and I have always driven by those old fire stations or ancient brick warehouses and thought about how neat it would be to turn that space into a home that could fit your entire extended family or church family. Well ta-da. The space is amazing and once completed, my visionary husband says it will be beautiful and a perfect place for everyday family ministry as well as our passion for hospitality.
"How is this all going to work?"
Against popular trending American culture, our family doesn't
need a 7,000 square foot home (post loft) add on. This is how it will work...
There are two portions of this building:
The original 1930s half - which has been left fairly untouched
The 1970s addition - previously turned into a semi-home space with four very large bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a massive open concept living area (nasty original 1970s tile included!)
We have sealed the two sides off from one another as we are currently living in the 1970s portion while we overhaul the 1930s side of the building into our future home.
Plans for the 1970s portion once we movie will be shared upon completion. It's a bit to intense for most viewers. (0;
