By Carol
It’s hard to believe that we purchased our meetinghouse eighteen years ago. Since then we have accomplished quite a few major projects and many more minor ones. We chose this house because it was ideally located, had good spaces for worship and First Day School, and was newly painted throughout the interior. Still, the moment we moved in we were faced with major renovations.
First, we had the wall removed between the living room and the smaller room behind it to enlarge the space for worship. Second, we called in a plumber to fix the leaking gas lines under the house for safety. Third, we installed double-pane windows to dampen traffic noise from the busy street. The house has 17 windows, of which 7 are double and one is triple sized, which made it very expensive, so we had it done in three stages over several years beginning with the worship room. Outside we planted a maple tree in the front yard, built raised beds for gardening in the side yard, and experimented with plantings along the Prescott Street fence.
Right away we were concerned about accessibility and began by installing ramps leading into the house through the kitchen door. It was several years later that we completed the bigger project of turning the tiny full bath off the hallway into an accessible half-bath with a wide entry door, chair height toilet with grab bars, and a wall sink that can be reached from a wheelchair.
Over the years we’ve installed a better dishwasher, new water heater, new air conditioning system for the front of the house, and security doors on the front and side. We had the chimney repointed to stop the leaks and hired an electrician to connect the outlets on the west side of the house and made several attempts ourselves to install motion-detector lights in the parking area.
In 2012 we replaced the roof and in 2022 we had the outside of the house repainted. That entailed replacing a lot of rotten boards, along the eaves and around the back of the house. Ownership requires good stewardship and we are pleased that we are able to keep the house in good shape no matter what challenges arrive and, not surprisingly, they keep coming.