I found St. Paul's on the Find-a-Grave website, so you can see pictures

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2314710/saint-paul's-anglican-church-cemetery

Collecting Stained Glass

 On a drive back from the hardware store in Strathroy the other day, my husband and I passed St. Paul's Anglican church on Wisbeach (Warwick Township). We stopped and walked around it, admiring the pale gold of the brick, the serene surroundings, and the view of open fields. Their stained glass windows have figures on them, and there are also dedicated windows with family names painted on them, same as ours. They've got lovely patterned white/clear glass that I've never seen before. 

But they've also got severe damage and sagging. Someone has screwed plexiglass over them, same as ours, and the heat has destroyed them. We also noticed some bad structural issues with the church.

I came home and phoned the woman who runs the cemetery, which is still active, and I looked up the history of the place online. The congregation gave up holding services there exactly fifty years ago, and the poor building has been left unheated and empty ever since. They open it once a year for an annual BBQ, and there might be a rare wedding. (Personally, with the back wall bowing like that, I wouldn't want to spend much time inside!) I'd love to see the windows from the inside, though.

Wish I had the money to restore this church. Wish I could get my hands on those windows and flatten them out and heal them, as I'm doing to mine. What is it about old stained glass that makes me want to rescue every piece of it I see? Someone over a hundred years ago put a lot of effort into creating something beautiful, and it's a shame to lose it. But even if I volunteered my services to help them, there's no point restoring windows in a building that is slowly collapsing. Wish I were a millionaire! It's such a beautiful building to lose.

And then the wishful thought: I wonder if I could buy their windows... No idea where I'd put them. But it seems urgent and important to preserve them.

Absolutely crazy idea

 So...we need to make our stained glass windows more energy efficient. We need to replace two side doors because they leak. We need to insulate the basement and the sanctuary. We want to channel water away from our foundations. And I want a greenhouse where I can enjoy winter sun without the wind and spring light without the bugs. What if we found one solution that fixed all of those problems?

What if we built a two-storey solarium on each side of the church? Instead of the pergola idea we had, what if it was solid glass from roof to ground, basically forming a three- or four-foot-wide greenhouse on each side?

It would insulate not just all the windows but the sides of the building. The sun would hit it directly because the church faces due north so the sides face east and west. The sun would heat the brick, which would retain the heat and slowly release it back. Water from the steep roof would channel off the glass roof of the solarium, away from the foundations. It would essentially create an airlock for the side doors. In winter the heat from the sunroom could come in through the vented stained glass windows. In summer, you could open the doors of the greenhouse to form a breezeway, and you could have those automatic greenhouse ceiling vents that open to let heat out. You could sit in it during bug season, and keep your lemon trees in it. And I think the modern look would tie nicely with the older building, making it really unique.

Other than the million-dollar price tag, I can't think of a down side!

Checking out the neighbours

 Apparently someone bought this church around the corner from us a few years ago, but have run into some snags trying to renovate it. Apparently they are not allowed to trench for water or power lines, due to the uncertainty of where bodies might be buried, so I imagine they'll have to rely on a cistern and possibly solar panels. Rather happy I don't have to contend with that feature!

The oldest headstone I've seen so far is from the 1840s. I love the ancient tree.

Vented Windows

 My husband and I recently drove through the town of Forest, which is a lovely place with a neat variety of architecture and a great Foodland. Like a lot of typical towns in Ontario, it has an astonishing number of churches, and we noticed that two of them, St. James and Christ Church, both have storm windows over their stained glass. But these are like no others we've seen---they have little metal vents inserted in top and bottom to keep the heat from building up between the storm window and the stained glass.

I came home and emailed both churches and heard back from St. James. They provided the name and info for the company that created the storm windows for them. We're going to check them out and see if their quote is any cheaper than the quote we've already received. Our idea was to vent the stained glass windows into the interior, but if we can vent to the outside, it would save us a lot of work repositioning the stained glass. However, it would not address the thermal issue. Cold air would leak through the vents and the stained glass. Then I had the idea of doing interior storm windows as well (where there is more space), vented to the inside. So you'd have three layers of glass separated by air, which would improve the thermal quality. But double the cost.

Sigh. Still no solution. But I feel we're getting closer, and now we may have an experienced company to work with.

Walking around my neighbourhood

 Just some pretty shots from this morning's walk. There's something about a big wood pile that appeals to me -- a sense of self-reliance and orderliness and industry.

William Morris goes under the hammer

I have started the other half of the stained glass window, Margaret Morris's husband William. He doesn't appear to have any cracks or breaks, but some of the soldering has come loose and he's buckled pretty badly. Chiseled the glazer's putty out to free him from the wooden frame. Now I'm picking the cement out from under the lead cames. I'll have to wait for sunnier weather, though, before I can heat the window and gently flatten it back into shape.

The miracle is still holding

A long time ago, we had a leaky water heater that miraculously healed itself after we were told it would have to be replaced. I peek in every day, and the floor is still dry. We had a minor flood at the beginning of winter in the utility room despite having wrapped the foundations, and we had Paul Davis Co. come check it. They told us to let them know the next time it floods so they could come determine where the water was coming from. Well, we've had a thaw for a week now, the snow is gone...and there hasn't been any more flooding. So... I guess the foundation has healed itself too.

Surrounded by miracles! Filled with gratitude.

Designing the balcony

Hubby and I have discussed at great length what to do with the balcony above the sanctuary. I want to use it as an office and craft room, but it also needs to double as a spare bedroom in case of guests. There is one lone electrical outlet, so if I'm trying to power a laptop and space heater and light and sewing machine...well, we may need to run another line. Not sure how to do that, really.

The floor is currently linoleum. I think I'll want to carpet it, as I spend a lot of time sitting on the floor. I am admittedly terrified of the low railing looking over the sanctuary, so we're going to put bookshelves along the base of it and probably glass in the opening above it, with a sliding section. That way I can close it off like a fish bowl to heat it in winter (with said space heater), but I can still open it to let heat rise from the sanctuary and escape out my window in summer.

Other than the bookshelves, there will be a double bed with storage under it for yarn and fabric, a desk and chair for writing, and likely some sort of counter and cupboards at one end to hold stained glass tools, paint supplies, etc. I am torn as to what to do with my table loom. It's too big to store anywhere neatly, and I don't use it often. I've already gotten rid of my big floor loom and the 7-foot tapestry loom, and I hesitate to get rid of this one. I can at least do dish towels on it.

My husband has tried to explain to me that I need to set up the room as a retreat and work space for myself, and that my belongings will need to be trimmed to fit. My approach until now has been to try to design the room to hold all my belongings. But I think he's right---I need space and air and light, more than I need stuff.

Down in the sanctuary, enjoying the sunshine:

Looking down from the balcony into the sanctuary. It's so bright you can't really see the stained glass. You can see the window on the left where we've removed the glass and inserted pink insulation while we work on the window. Beside it are stairs going down toward the washroom, and the box next to that is actually the headspace for the lower stairs that turn and go down to the rec room. There's a patch of linoleum where the altar and dias used to be. The door on the right leads into the vestry.

The corner of the balcony where a double bed will stand. The bookshelves will run the length of the wood railing/half-wall. Table loom currently on the floor, awaiting a home. The horse collar was my Grandpa's and will have a place of pride. The space above the half wall will be glassed in. Grandchildren will not be allowed up here until it's in place, unless they wear safety harnesses tied to the stair bannister. Hubby jokes that it would be cheaper to just chain my ankle to the wall than to install the glass. I think he's joking...

A view of the stairs down, and the round window I call the Eye of Horus.

Another view over the rail to the floor FAR below. I do not like heights. But I like the balcony.

One of the decorative wood pieces holding the suspension bar/cable thingies on the sanctuary roof. I really should learn the proper names of these things.

The first of three short flights of stairs going up to the balcony from the vestibule.

When I told my husband that I could keep the loom in the rec room, he said no, all my stuff is to go up to the balcony. I pointed out that sometimes I'll want to come down to do crafts in the kitchen, etc. After all, I won't be up in the balcony ALL the time. To which he replied, "That depends on what kind of lock I put on it."

Spring Thaw!

When I left for home two weeks ago, the snow was three feet deep. We came back yesterday, and the snow is almost entirely gone. And no leaking evident in the utility room! Which is impossible. The miracle holds!

We got one of those laser thermometers to test various spots around the church. The windows and walls in the lower level are at about 13 degrees celsius, in spite of the fact that the thermostat is set at 19.5. Basically we're heating the inside of a big fridge. Up in the sanctuary, the air measures at 10 degrees but the windows are 2 and the walls are 4. So yeah, lots of heat leaking out and cold leaking in. We really need to get the new windows in, and some insulation put up! We timed it, and the furnace generally runs for 13 minutes and then is off for only 2 minutes 20 seconds before coming on again. Is it any wonder we're going through propane like a kid through ice cream?

Batting a bunch of ideas back and forth about heating the place, ranging from solar to radiators to Bitcoin-mining computers and wood stoves. Hubby came up with about ten ideas. I told him that we could just put electrodes on his brain and power the whole building.