Our House - My Family's Biggest UFO (UnFinished Object)

My husband and I have been working on an unfinished project now for awhile and I would like to share it with you.  I have been looking at all the pictures again and think it would be fun to see where we started and where we are now.  Some time ago we left our life in the city and bought an abandoned prairie church sitting on two acres.  We knew if we kept living in the city and driving out to work on it on weekends we would never complete it or move in so we moved out to the country with no power, water or heat and set to work.  Here is a what the outside looked like when we moved in.

We are still not done - I said it was a UFO, right?  But here is a photo of where we are now on the outside.  This summer will hopefully see us finishing up the outside by putting up vinyl siding, eavestrough, finishing the front porch DH started last summer and then it is on to landscaping at last!

He built a balcony on the other side of the house so I can sit out there and look at the mountains and a big deck (20 X 24) at the back of the house and now he is working on the front porch.  As you can see from the pictures, he took the steeple down, repaired and replaced the shingles on the roof and added three dormers with windows.  He replaced all the stained glass windows (except two on the other side of the house) with energy efficient ones, took out the door at the front and put a new one on the side which is now the front.  He has done even more inside though!

Get ready for a shock!  These next two photos are taken standing in the center of the old church, one taken in each direction.  This is what we moved into because I could see the potential and dh - the ultimate DIY-er in my humble opinion - bought into my dream.  Gotta love him!

I know the photos are awful quality but you get the idea, right?  So, this great guy I married (did I mention how much I love him?!) built me the house of my dreams inside this building.  From approximately 2600 square feet of living space he made a huge bathroom and kitchen, a laundry room big enough for two deepfreezes as well, four bedrooms, a library, and a huge open concept living area with living room area complete with toasty woodstove, dining area, home office, music area, and kitchen.  He even turned the original vestibule into a lovely walkin pantry with a french door.  So, take another look at those two pictures above and now look below to see some of what he did with it...

The first room we finished was the washroom.  At the time we moved in there was not any water at all!  There was an outhouse at the back of the yard!  One of the first things we had done was drilling a well and putting in a septic system.  The wainscotting in the bathroom is made from some of the original wall boards that we recycled and painted white. 

Another big project was the kitchen.  We ended up buying the cabinet doors but because the cost of readymade cabinets is just atrocious, dh built the cabinets and hung them himself, including the large island with the sink.  The cost of the island readymade was more than the whole kitchen cost doing it himself.  Just to the left of the frig you can see a glimpse of my pantry door. 

These are a few shots of the living room area.  A lot of pictures to look at I know but I really am proud of the job dh did of it all so bare with me!  lol  You can see the woodstove we put in - just a cheapie to supplement the new furnace but it sure makes it cozy.  There is nothing nicer than the heat from a woodstove!  The floors are the original church floors, refinished.  Considering they are over a hundred years old now they are holding up well.  You can see the new windows dh put in and the ceilings in the living room are 16 feet.  He added a second floor but on either side of the living room with a separate set of stairs to each so we could enjoy the high ceilings in this one area.

This is the dining area - between the living room area and the kitchen.  I have just noticed there seems to be a cat or part of one in every picture!  lol - I guess that is to be expected when you have seven of them.

This is one set of stairs.  This leads up to the two kid`s bedrooms.  I decided to stencil the stairs one day and luckily my husband liked it! Here you can see one of the original stained glass windows.  We left one in each stairwell.  When you are coming towards the house from that side at night and the lights from inside are shining out through these windows they just seem to shout Welcome!

This is a view of my little library from the top of the other set of stairs - can you tell I have a thing for french doors?  Outside the french doors is a balcony dh built for me so we can sit out there and see the mountains in the distance.  It isn`t much of a mountain view but on a clear day they are pretty no matter how far off they are.

This is a view of the library from the other set of stairs.  You can see down into the living room from that railing.  I usually have a couple of quilts over the railing but you get a better view of the room this way I guess.  Coming off the library here are my sewing room and the master bedroom but I did not take pictures of them.

Just another view of the living room.  This is taken from the top of the stencilled stairs, from the same spot as I took the one across to the library.  Anyway, I guess that this is it - all the photos I have taken.  It amazes me what a great job dh did on all this - quite a lot of work for evenings and weekends!  I am not sure if we will ever really be completely done but we get a bit closer all the time.  I guess I am done bragging on him for now - thanks for looking!  It was nice to have you visit my house!