OK!  OK!!  OK!!!!  I HEAR YOU!!!!!

People keep asking - what's happening???  You need to update the blog - ok - I get it, I hear you and here you are!!!

I know you think I have been just sitting around eating bom boms, but I haven't and even if I was, Pete and his amazing crew has been hard at work up at the church!!!  ( God bless Pete and his amazing crew!)  I tell Pete what I want and it happens and even if I don't tel him what I want - sometimes he just reads my mind and makes it happen!!!  Amazing!

So - at last post we had a garage up.  The garage is still up, but alias, a garage door!!!

  And a driveway.  Pete said - do you want a narrow drive way???  The answer was "NO" - double and I got it and it's wonderful, that way backing out in that Iowa snow, I don't have worry so much, besides that, I'm not a very good backer upper!! 

So - you might have noticed that the end of the church looks a little bad - well the church originally had the wood siding, but before I purchased it they had put steel siding on the church.  Of course we had to take it off in some sections to add the garage, the side door, etc.  So we (really Pete) found some siding that matches really well and he will use the old siding to replace spots on the church building and then the new siding on the garage.  After one year of Iowa weather - you will never know the difference.

Now un-noticeable is that we have a new electric pole and wires running underground to the church.  Thank you Mr. Electric Company!!!

Then I showed you inside where we were going to have a door to the outside and lookie what has happened:

It's like magic - a door appears.  One of those great Pella ones with the little blinds inside - so I can have my privacy!!  Across the street - in another church (the little church) and parsonage - so pretty quiet already!  

But one of exciting things happening is that there are going to be more homes built and what the town has decided to do is to put up a 20-30 berm and close the streets - so that all the new houses will have to use their own roads!!  YEA!!!!  So - it will be like living on a dead end street!!  Love that.  So "old town" is separated from the new part of town!!  I like being in old town, hence - the church, among other reasons!!

So - let me explain the porch.  Looks small???  It did at first to me, but that is an eight foot door and we put a roof over part of it - which I will probably screen in down the road, depending on how much I use it. We were a little limited because of the windows - but it's a huge porch and I think I will love it!

Since my last post, I have added a little rescue Yorkie, Sammy to the Pease family.  His official name is Samson (you knew it had to be something Biblical), named after the King who was known for his long hair and he was brave and strong.  Sammy was a puppy mill dog, 6 years old and his hair was so long, they didn't even see him in the kennel and when the rescuers were about to leave he made a little noise and they went and saved him.  He and the Rev D are the best bros.  Now the only reason I bring this up is because I will be putting up a chain link fence, around the side of the church you are seeing now and then the back side separately - so the boys will have places to run.  There will be lots of fun happening inside that fence area!

Inside - here is what the door looks like!  It will be great for a grill outside or just sitting visiting with friends and neighbors!

More happenings inside:

The kitchen cabinets are going in.  Cherry distressed and then the island is a black distressed - I haven't seen them yet and can hardly wait.  The space on the right side is for the French door refrigerator and the sink is on the back wall.  You will see the kitchen come together over the next few weeks!!!

Then on the other side of the gallery hallway is the bookcase:

More will be added to this - but it's a good start.  Distressed cherry also.  Good storage!!!  Can't have enough of it!

So if you stand up my fireplace and look back toward the entrance, here is what you will see:

You might also notice that the original fir floors have been sanded down and when I go up next week, we will be looking at finishes.  To stain or not to stain will be the question.  Also I have choosen to use a matte finish - ok - so I like things a little different!  Here is another view of those floors:

That's the wheelchair ramp on the right side - iron railing will be coming soon!

So - it's all about painting walls and trim, sanding and finishing the floors and as of this morning, a new metal roof!  The Amish have been hired to put on the metal roof.  I'm all excited about it.  It's going to look like a new place!!!  Some of the priming has been started on the walls, now they have special paint that has a elastic type finish and it moves with the walls - great for plaster and my painter knew all about it - how neat is that???  Once the painting and floors are done - what a difference it will be!!!

So - I'm headed up there next week to see what is happening and I'm meeting with one of the furniture store interior designers and we are going to look for a couple new couches and maybe chairs and rugs.  That way I can get them ordered and they might be here by the time the place is done.

To say I can hardly wait would be an understatement!!!  I dread the idea of packing up the RoundHouse and unpacking, but I'm excited about the church and being close to my son!  I will certainly miss my friends, but I'm looking forward to quilt stores and yarn shops close by and meeting new people!!!

So - probably too wordy!!!!  Sorry about that!  Next photos when the roof is finished - won't be long!  I have even asked Pete to take a photo of the Amish at work on the roof.  I know they don't like their pictures taken, but it's a got to see!!!

So - the last photo is of my reclaimed frong entrance doors - they are going to be really cool!  Until next time!

Mom - your garage is bigger than my townhouse!!!!

I've been home for almost two weeks - so nice to be in one place for longer than a week at a time - but I'm heading back to the promise land next week.

This week has been filled with Ryan putting a bid on a townhouse, inspection and if all goes well, closing the end of August!  So - he had a little time to spare and he whipped out to the job site.  Now - first let me show you a photo to remind you what we started with!

My cute little church from the back.  Pretty plain, but wait!!!  It all started here.

A large slab of cement - yes that's going to be an attached garage.  One of the things on my want list when I was moving to Iowa was an attached garage - you know they have snow there.....I should say SNOW!!!!!!  So it's going to be a 2 car plus garage with an upper floor for storage, but I could finish it out for a renter or caretaker - but storage is what I need now.  The church has lots of usable space inside - but I need storage - hence.....

the call from Ryan, Mom - your garage is bigger than my condo.......!!!!!!   I laughed - but he's probably right.  The second photo shows the upstairs area (storage center).  I can hardly wait to see it!! 

 

Then while I'm up there - if you look close - you can see that there is another slab coming out between the 4th and 5th stain glass windows....that is where there will be a screened in patio.  Won't be long - I just have to order the door!  Hello - Mr. Pella man!!??

 

So - the guys are working and oh - look - the fireplace has some insulated boards around it - so you can get a better idea of what it will look like!

So - there you have it.  The little church will soon have new occupants, a large white dog and an little old round lady.  There's more to come - so stay tune!!

SUBS - love them or hate them - got to have them!!!

So - you are probably thinking that nothing is happening up north - but you would be wrong!!!  The subs for plumbing and electric are in and as of a little over a week ago - all inspections are passed and we are ready for sheet rock....but not so fast!

When I was up there, Ryan and I went through and took photos of the walls between rooms.

 

Now - my son things I crazy - but alias we have already established that, but this was a trick that Jon taught me about.  It's always smart to take photos of all the walls before the sheet rock goes up - then for future reference if you ever need to know what is in that wall - you have it!!!  I even got fancy and labeled each photo.  Believe it not I have used it several times at the RoundHouse - so thought it would be smart to do it again!

 

So with that done - it won't be long before the sheet rock goes up!!

 

BUT.....let's talk about doors.  Remember I have vestibule.  Set of outside glass doors and then another set of inside glass doors. 

I'm going to keep the outside doors, but I want to change out the inside doors.  I looked around and finally Pete my contractor sent me to the Pella man.  Of course Pella windows and door are made in Iowa and let's say that they are pretty proud of that factor.  I picked out the profile I wanted, a single door with a couple sidelights, vinyl covered - for the weather up there and all they wanted was $3000-4000 dollars!!!  Vinyl looked like crap so then we are looking at wood and price didn't really change much!!!  Happy I wasn't!!!

 

 

Enter - a gentleman who was interested in giving a bid on painting and floor refinishing and he told me about Mike the not famous salvage man.  We have West End Salvage - HGTV stars - in Des Moines and prices reflect their stardom.  But Mike is on a much small scale and he has the cutest little white fluffy white dog, Earl!  Off to meet Mike I went and looked around, saw several door I thought would work and then......Oh My Goodness.....baseboard and door trim - be still my heart!!!  I left and promised to send Pete back so he could see all.  Then when I came back to town in a couple weeks we both went down to see Mike and Earl.  3 doors, enough baseboard for the downstairs except one bedroom, some door trim and a couple hours - we were out of there, promising that we would keep in touch, because he is always finding more.  Two of the doors were my new front door - they are 9 foot tall and Pete is going to install them and give me another transom - I'm a happy girl!!!  Doors are beautiful - but I'm even more over the top on the baseboards!!!   YA-HOO!!!  Photos will follow when they get installed!!!

 

 

Successful trip!!!!

Got to love Stain Glass windows!!!

I remember when I first went by the church - before I ever even saw the inside - I saw those stain glass windows - I couldn't believe my eyes!!!

When Jon and I lived in Dallas, David and I took some stain glass classes.  I got a whole new appreciation for making stain glass, I think that is why I'm a quilter now.  It's much easier on the hands!!  But I have always loved stain glass and we have had some stain glass in almost every home we have lived in.  Right now I have it in a couple windows underneath the bridge to the front door.  The windows are in my master bathroom.  I thought they were pretty until I saw these!

There are 12 huge windows that go down the sides of the church and then more in the entry way and one in the bell tower.  I have spent a fortune getting them cleaned up and ready for another 100 plus years. 



 

We have added thermopane windows to the outside - for energy savings.  Also you can't see on this one but there are what they call "vents" on the bottom of the windows.  These open up for ventiliation.  I have decided to have 5 of the windows open and there will be a screen on the outside so we won't have any unwanted guests.  Then there are building requirements that you must have an egress from every bedroom in case of fire. So two windows, one in each bedroom, open as an escape.  We were so lucky because the vents were large enough for the building codes!!!

Windows are almost done,  In the bell tower we will have a light shining on the window so that I can turn it on at night and you will be able to see it lit outside and you will be able to see it from inside also. 

 

 

So  that brings you up to date at this point.  Subs are in right now including HVAC (Geo Thermal heating cooling), plumbing is being roughed in, electrical is being stubbed in and septic and water has already been brought in. The garage foundation was poured last week along with part of the patio and the guys will start up on the garage mid week.  Won't be long and we will be sheetrocking (that's the royal "we" because we all know I'm not going to do it!  But stay tune - it's happening in Cumming, Iowa!  Grass is green and the little church looks so beautiful surrounded by all that color!!!

 

 

 



It will be a fireplace - won't it?????

So - what I have wanted in the RoundHouse is a fireplace - but there just isn't room for it - so the
church is getting a fireplace.  We pushed the fireplace location all over the place and finally ended up with it right in front of the podium.  It will be doublesided.  See what I mean??

 

So - here's the idea.  It's really going to be 60 inches across and maybe about 13 inches high, gas of course.  It will be covered in tile or stone - that decision hasn't been made yet.  Then it is vented out the right side wood piece that goes into the wall - the other side is just to match the look.  In the originaly design the top pieces were shown as dark wood and the body of the fireplace was shown in a beige.  But.....as I was talking with the cabinet gal - she said - Twyla - did you realize that it's a cross?????   No....but it is - so at this point I don't know how we will address those wood pieces going to the wall - so you will have to stay tune for that.  Here is another photo as you come in from the gallery hall.

And finally a photo from my studio.

It's hard to tell in this photo but there are a couple steps to the left of the fireplace and on the right side there is a ramp.  Wheelchair and wagon accessible.  They will both be covered with fir to match the floor and some iron railing.  The fireplace will be in any day - but we have decided to wait to install until a few more things are done!

Let the Design Work Begin!

So - the church was purchased, a new contractor selected - next the job of designing the floor layout!  I knew what I wanted, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something - so I decided to hire an architect to help with the design work and she brought several really good ideas to the table and was well worth it!  So - let's see where we started!

 It starts with an empty church.  Ryan was given the task of selling the pews and after I talked with Father John of St. John's Apostlic Church, he was happy to put something in the bulletin about the pews and former members were very excited to have a piece of their history.  The church was originally built in the 1880's and there were many stories of generations of family born and married in the church.  The church served the community until 2011.  So - pews were sold and altars that remained were sold also - we have a blank slate. 

 

So - talk about a blank space - it's there.  About 2500 square feet - the limitations are the stain glass windows and the podeum.  I wanted two bedrooms and a huge loft, so - we'll start in the loft.  Here is a photo taken from the podeum looking back toward the entrance of the church and up above is the choir loft.

The loft was maybe 12 feet, but had levels, see below.  So the easiest way to handle this was to remove the loft completely and then built back in the loft space I wanted.  I decided that the loft was

going to be my studio space.  About 1300 square foot of studio space, the biggest one I have ever had, but it's me and a dog, so what the heck!!!  Enter the new studio.........................

Now it's sort of a funny photo - but let me explain.  The church lights are hanging down - but they will be moved, I'm keeping them and I will explain that later.  Then you have stain glass windows that peck through the floor - I happen to think it's sort of cool - but some might think it strange.  The ceilings in the church are 26 feet high and the loft has 15 foot ceilings, so downstairs is 11 foot.  The hole in the flooring is the elevator.  Yes - it has an elevator.  I was just going to stub one in for installation later - but Carole said - you need the elevator so you should just put it in now.  Then she added that I needed a bathroom upstairs also - so a bathroom has been added to the back of the elevator area.  The painted in window on the back wall goes out to the bell tower.  There is no bell out there but I do have machine that sounds just like bells ring - technology!!!!

 

Here is a photo taken from the podeum looking back at the loft space.  There will be a iron railing running across the studio space, but you probably won't see it much because it will be covered with quilts on display.

 

So - downstairs, as you enter through the front door you will come into a gallery hallway.

It's a wide hallway used for display and about half way down there is a door on both sides of the hallway, the one on the left goes to the masterbed room and bath and the one on the right goes to the guestroom and bath and two storage closets.  It's hard to really understand all this at this point but it will be come clearer when the sheetrock goes up.

This photo is where the hallway opens into the great room.  At this point the kitchen will be on the right side and there will be bookcases on the left side.  Even though it's an open space, I needed bedroom space and I had to worry about the placement of the stainglass windows, so there are two stain glass windows in each bedroom, then in the great room there are two stain glass windows on each side and a fireplace in the middle, but you will see this later.  So that is where we are.  Right now HVAC, plumbing, septic and electric are going in, all the trades.  This next trip will bring photos of the fireplace and maybe the side patio.   You may of noticed that there is some blue carpeting on the floor.  It covers up fir wood flooring, original to the church and is in wonderful shape, so Pete and the crew has removed the wood in the bathrooms and lowered the floor for tile, but we will refinish the wood flooring throughout the rest of the church.   Sit tight and I'll get back to you!

 




You're Moving WHERE?????

So - a little history.  I'm at "that" age.  Widowed for almost 7 years.

 I have a mother(who we call the elf from here on) living here in Eureka Springs who is 91 years old and in the fall of 2014 she decided it was time to move into an assisted care center.  She told me on a Monday morning and by Sunday she was moved in.  It was really past time for her to move, so I made it as fast and painless as I could for her, I on the other hand had plenty to do.

Still in 2014 I was involved with my stepson and helping him through the cancer process - yes - he survived, but it was a 2 1/2 year long battle. 

So in December of 2014 - I had made up my mind - I was moving back to IOWA!  Yes Iowa - I know that when people retire they move to warm places - but my son was in Iowa, so that is where I'm headed to. A good friend Ann told me to move while I could still decided where I wanted to live and where I could make new friends.  So I started looking at the real estate information - Iowa is growing so fast.  But here's the thing.  It's all two story, split level or split foyer homes and they are for the most part cookie cutter types - you know what I mean.  Beautiful - but.....

I'm coming from Eureka Springs and The RoundHouse - can't get much more unique than that so I decided that I needed a reward for just thinking about moving back to Des Moines and that I wanted to create another beautiful place to live the rest of my life.

Oh - the condo life would be great - but I have a dog - Denver - so I needed a nice yard and trees and I said that word - UNIQUE - maybe a one of a kind home!

When Jon and I were first married I dreamed of a barn turned into a home.  The RoundHouse was as close as we came to that.  Now - years past - I needed something on one floor - easy to maintain.  I had no idea what it was going to be - but I had a childhood friend up there and he started driving around to no avail!  I did everything on the internet and was turning up nothing.  Until......

Fall of 2015 I found a church for sale in Waukee - went and saw it - it was perfect - but it was zoned commerical.  Now typically churches are zoned residential.  So I went to talk to the city of Waukee and they said no way would they entertain the idea of changing zoning.  I tried to work with them twice for the next 6 months - but nothing was going to happen - so we were back to the drawing board.

Then in July 2015 while on the internet I was just googling stuff and another church showed up in Cumming, Iowa - I didn't even know where Cumming Iowa was - but it's 4 miles south of West Des Moines - perfect location.  The church had just recently been sold in March of 2015 - but I thought what the heck - call - I did and after several months of evaluation and going before the City of Cumming to get it changed from commercial zoning to residential (which they were more than happy to do) two days before Thanksgiving I bought a church!!! 

Now - believe it or not - it is exactly the same size as the Waukee church - but the location is better and the lot is beautiful!  It's about 37 feet by 67 feet plus the choir loft!  The City of Cumming is only about 350 people - friendly, quaint town, surrounded by million dollar homes and growing maybe too fast!  Look it even has a wheel chair ramp!

 

Now go through the double doors and let's see inside!

Straight ahead is the podium.  If you turn right after going through the doors you will see the stairs for the choir loft.

 One huge open space - yes - filled with pews, altars and lots of misc.  When I first drove into town to see the property - I looked around and saw all the stain glass windows and called my friend and said - why didn't you tell me about the stain glass windows and how beautiful this place is????  He said - I did - I told you it had a nice yard......Ok - so maybe we don't speak the same language.  But stain glass windows throughout and in beautiful shape.  Need to get a close up of them, they are all different colors!

 So these are the stairs that lead to the choir loft.  They are narrow and dangerous - not even close to code - but they can be replaced!

 

So - that was Nov 2015 - the purchase before Thanksgiving.  The day of my purchase I went and visited my friend in the hospital and found out that the the man who was going to be my contractor decided it was too much for him.  So - before even signing the purchase papers - I was a few steps behind.  Then on the Monday after Thanksgiving I was informed that my friend had passed away - I was in shock. But I owned a church!

 

Ryan, my son - thought I was nuts but said he knew I could turn it into something wonderful!  We'll see I can prove him right!

 

The church doesn't have water or septic - so that has be added.  A thousand pews and altars need to be sold - there is plenty to do and.....so it is!

 

I'm creating my next home - for the Rev D (Denver's new name) and me!