Repairing and renovating our newly purchased church
We closed on 5408 Tryon Road on August 14, 2025. Thank God! Since that time, we’ve been working as quickly as possible to schedule contractors for the various renovation and repair projects. One of the first tasks was to put a temporary sign to let passersby know who’s moving in. A permanent sign is currently in the works!
Future Home of Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church
Diverting water away from the building
The building’s crawlspace (under the older half) has damage from moisture and wood-destroying insects. All of that will be addressed, but our first order of business was to prevent further damage by diverting stormwater away from the building. The existing gutters and downspouts were too small and hadn’t been regularly maintained. We installed larger gutters and downspouts to accommodate storm runoff, and also added pipes where needed to send water away from the foundation.
New gutters and downspouts
The building’s exterior already looks a little neater. The gutters also include gutter guards to keep debris from accumulating as it had previously. Thank you to Hartland Home Exteriors for the great workmanship. We’re looking forward to pressure washing the siding soon.
Coming up next: crawl space repairs and encapsulation. Our contractor has submitted a permit application and should be starting work within the next couple of weeks.
Choosing colors
The renovation committee has been looking at paint and stain samples in order to set a color palette for the nave. We’ve been advised on the colors and paint types from a few sources, including an iconographer and a 2018 article in the Orthodox Arts Journal about adding beauty to Orthodox churches. The overall plan is to mimic the colors of the earth, with green below the chair rail, tan above, and blue on the ceiling. The altar will have tan walls on the sides and blue at the back.
Sample colors for the nave
Once we added some paint samples to the walls, we were able to look at them at different times of day. It turned out that our original green selection looked black at night. We’ve narrowed color choices down to the green on the bottom and the tan on the far right in the photo. We’re still working on finding just the right blue.
The nave will have hardwood floors, and so we’re also looking at stain colors for the floors and wood on the iconostasis.
Goodbye pews and carpet
We knew we wouldn’t need the pews that came with the church, but we also felt that it would be a shame to throw them away. In God’s perfect economy, we were able to give the pews and carpet to a new church starting up in Faison, NC.
Moving out the pews
These men were just as excited to take the pews as we were to see them go to a good home. They also took the carpet, which looks like it still has a lot of life left and matches the pews perfectly.
Ready to roll with the pews
Once the pews were gone, we got a new sense of the open space with its completely changed acoustics.
Nave preparations
Although there’s still a lot of work ahead of us, those of us who were there on Friday felt a real sense of excitement at seeing the transformation unfold.
Lots more to come!
The initial momentum for this project has been incredible, and there’s lots more in store. Our interior renovation contractor should begin work within the next couple of weeks. We’ve scheduled an all-parish workday on September 20th to work on the grounds, clean up inside, and tackle many small jobs. We hope to host our anniversary celebration at the new church on Sunday, November 2, and move in permanently before Nativity. Please keep the project and everyone involved in your daily prayers. You may also wish to consider supporting the project with a one-time or recurring gift. Click here to donate.