THE VESTIBULE

As you walk down the old concrete path,  

which leads to the front of the Church,

you'll reach the big double doors with their faded & peeling white paint,

and a very Art Deco style door handle,

which you can open to allow yourself entry into the Vestibule.

The Vestibule is classed as a small ante-room or lobby between the entrance of the building & the interior of the building & our St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church has one.....

It's only a small room which measures 2 metres x 2 metres,

but is big enough to hold a bookcase with Prayer Books for the congregation.

It has a beautiful gold lead light window that opens inward at the top,

 allowing a gentle breeze to flow through.

The floor boards are Cypress Pine & I love them, but termites certainly don't care for them at all.

A natural termite repellant...Yippee!!!

It has a lovely white Milk Glass light shade.

And two doors to the interior of the Church that shut with a beautiful old hinge,

but they open to reveal ......

 a great view of the interior of the main hall of our Church.

Here it is on our settlement day as we're moving some of our belongings in.

Gee I was excited!

A NEW PICNIC AREA

Not long after we bought the Church, lots of work started happening across the road from us.

We had no idea what it could be....

then all of a sudden the workmen put up a sign.

 Baradine State Forest Picnic Area .... Yippee !!!

A great place for weary travellers & locals to sit & have lunch, dinner or a rest. 

It's a lovely quiet place, with two sheltered picnic tables.

 The perfect place to park for Grey Nomads, Caravans & Motorhomes too!

And best of all, this is the view across the road ... to our Church... St. Andrew's.

Although it's a bit of a cloudy day here, it really is just beautiful!

 Thank You State Forestry!!!

Outhouses

At the back of our Church, there are two Toilet Buildings.

We call them Outhouses here in Australia & I think they are very cute.....

Ladie's Toilet

The old Ladies Toilet has been converted into a shower & will eventually be the Potting Shed for my Kitchen Garden..... we'll get rid of the shower & put a sink in there so I can wash the vegetables from my garden.

Ladie's Toilet

Just so you know this is a toilet for Girls... she's in a dress.

I Love this little character, she's so cute !

Men's Toilet

The Men's Toilet has remained a toilet 

& although it's old, it's very functional.

He's definitely a Boy !

The Men's Toilet little character might be wearing overalls do you think?

Behind The Church

The Outhouses are directly behind the Church Building.

Rear of the Church showing Toilets

A sheet of corrugated iron has been put up to enclose the space between the Toilets & we use this area to store our BBQ. 

Space between toilets

A temporary clothes line has been installed so I can hang out some washing, this has come in very handy!

A few pots of easy to care for cactus that are happily hanging out behind the toilet.

My Herb Garden

I made this garden so that I could get a few herbs growing. 

So far I only have Comfrey & Garlic Chives in the garden because I'm not there often enough to look after & water it, although I've mulched well with Sugar Cane Mulch.

The edge is made of a tree trunk that was brought to us as firewood but I loved it too much to burn it... very rustic isn't it?

Bay Tree

I also have a Bay Tree in a pot.... it's powering along & I love it. 

More Things To See .........

Here are some of the things to see at St. Andrew's ....

The Bell Tower

This is the Bell Tower on the Northern side of the Church.

The Bell Tower

The Bell was taken down when the Church stopped functioning (possibly in 2002) 

& has been carefully looked after by some of the Parishioners ever since.

The Front Stained Glass Windows

The Stained Glass Windows at the front are yellow & they look stunning when the lights are on inside the Church.

The Foundation Stone

This Foundation Stone was laid by Mrs. H. Richardson on 19th July 1939.

White Cypress Tree

The White Cypress Tree on the southern side of our yard is so huge & we love him to bits!

GOLIATH ...Our Pet White Cypress Tree.

We love him so much that the first thing we did when we bought the Church was to give him a face & name him GOLIATH!!!   Isn't he beautiful ?

The Outside

To give a better view of all four sides of the Church, I thought I'd add a few more photos....

The Front of the Church  which faces West

Look how Blue the sky is in the above photo..... I've never seen sky so blue in all my life!

The Back of The Church which faces East 

You can see the Ladies & Men's Outhouses (Toilets) at the rear of the Church, one is still a functioning toilet & the other is now a functioning shower.

The Side of the Church which faces South

This Southern side of the Church is the shady side of the Church & will be beautiful during the long hot Summer.

The Side of the Church which faces North

This Northern Side of the Church is the warm side, just perfect in Winter days.

The Rear of the Church from the back corner.

The Church block comprises of approximately 1 acre..... plenty of room for my Kitchen Garden & my Chickens!

Window to the Vestibule at front of Church

I love this little entrance room to the Church, the Priest would have stood in here welcoming in the Parishioners....

The Front Doors to our Church

Now those Front Doors definitely do say WELCOME don't they?

Isn't it just beautiful !!!   I still can't believe it's ours!

The Journey Begins

The Front of Our Beautiful Church "St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church".

The Side of Our Beautiful Church "St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church".

After our children grew up & left home, we were left staring at each other, wondering ..."Is This all there is to Life?"....making some serious decisions about what we actually wanted to do was easy, carrying them through would be the hard part!

We decided to downsize from our beautiful & big 6 bedroom house, seeing it was just the two of us on our own now. We were itching to have somewhere where we could grow vegetables & have some chickens. The Simple Life was calling!!!

We figured an acre of land was a good enough size for us, so we started to look at houses within a two hour radius of the Central Coast. The Stroud/Dungog area was our first choice, as the historic buildings were just beautiful & we really wanted to find one that would suit us...however, after 6 months of searching, that was not to be. There simply was nothing that jumped out as us yelling "BUY ME"!!!

Troy checked the internet daily & ended up expanding his search criteria to include anything with one acre of land in NSW. Suddenly a Church popped up....hmmm!!!

That seemed amazing, as Troy has always looked at Churches & wanted one!!!

Maybe that was some Divine Intervention happening???

After looking at it online for over 3 months & thinking it was too far away from our children & family, we bit the bullet & decided to just 'go have a look at it".

Obviously "We Fell In Love" ...... 

this is what we saw when we looked inside

The Pulpit, with Vestry Rooms on either side.

The two main stained glass windows. 

Needless to say.... we bought it !!!

Now we just have to make it into OUR HOME .......