Would you live in a Church?

Sky King

I saw an old one for sale on daft with planning permission for conversion into a residential dwelling and I happened to be driving past it the other day and wandered in for a look.

It's a lovely site with great views of the surrounding countryside. The only thing is that it comes with a graveyard, and that in itself raises questions, because that is effectively your garden. How do you deal with that? Do you bulldoze the headstones for your flowerbeds and risk being haunted forever? Do you tend to and maintain them - making a feature out of them? Or segregate them from the rest of the garden to keep the pets and kids out. Would you have living relatives of deceased people visiting your garden for years to pay respects to its inhabitants!! There are graves there from the 1950's! Would you see the dead people as your friends and talk to them every day like tom hanks with the spalding basketball in Castaway?

Would you mind living alone in an old church where tens of thousands people have prayed, been christened, married and had their funerals for 250 years?

I personally think it would be a really cool and unique house, interested to hear what other people would think though.Anyone else i mentioned it to thinks its creepy and weird.

Was it repossessed?

I think you could make a really unique home out of the space available, with a floating 2nd floor and huge open plan areas. It could be spectacular.

The graveyard is something else though, and I don't think you can just bulldoze down the headstones!

eirebread

I would teleport back to Medieval times and become a Knight or even a Monk.

Yawns

Could I put a toilet on the altar?

Sky King

I don't think you can just bulldoze down the headstones!

It's weird though isn't it? Should there be provision for this in the sale? Like if I buy the church am I buying the headstones and the skeletons and **** as well??

MadYaker

I think there could be potential legal issues if some of the graves are as recent as the 1950s but I'm not certain. If the graves weren't there or if they were 100s of years old I wouldn't mind it to be honest.

endacl

It's just a big empty building, so in principle, no problem. People have lived in odder places.

Would be a bitch to heat though...

minidazzler

Any link?

the_syco

This; http://www.formerglory.ie/property-lisschurch.html ?

As for the graveyard, I doubt you'd be allowed to bulldoze it. The dead may not be able to haunt you, but the living descents of the dead would probably kill you.

=-=

Rent it out for gangbangs and orgy's?

Sky King

One of the graves had withered flowers on it!!

Most were fairly overgrown to be honest.

CianRyan

Wilson was a hand ball.

Sky King

No Syco that's not it, here

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8523/8578314508_73acc6f4bd_z.jpg

FreshKnickers

A graveyard in me front garden? No harm I suppose until the aul Zombie apocolypse kick in. Then my friends will be all "That's wiped the smug look off FreshKnickers' face."

smellslikeshoes

The graveyard is not your property when they sell off churchs afaik. So depending on how close it is it could be a real pain in the ass. You also can't keep people from going to the graveyard so your driveway would essentially be a right of way to the graveyard depending on how the site is laid out.

endacl

FreshKnickers wrote: »

A graveyard in me front garden? No harm I suppose until the aul Zombie apocolypse kick in. Then my friends will be all "That's wiped the smug look off FreshKnickers' face."

Fresh knickers would be the least of your worries!

mawk

But if you are the owner of the graveyard.. Probably most of them will be buried with wedding rings and other jewelry! Revenue stream!

Femme_Fatale

Yeh I love ecclesiastical buildings - being able to turn one into a house would be cool. There's a restaurant in Skibbereen in West Cork that's a converted church (imaginatively named The Church) and it looks awesome.

Witchie

Buy it and invite us all over for a party. Would be great craic.

I love old buildings like that and love when they are given a new lease of life.

RDM_83 again

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

The graveyard is not your property when they sell off churchs afaik. So depending on how close it is it could be a real pain in the ass. You also can't keep people from going to the graveyard so your driveway would essentially be a right of way to the graveyard depending on how the site is laid out.

Also if the site is old there could be burials right up to the walls of the church, so if you were doing any deep digging you could end up coming across human remains, which you'd have to get the cops in to sign off on, and I'm not sure who would pay for removal etc.

endacl

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Yeh I love ecclesiastical buildings - being able to turn one into a house would be cool. There's a restaurant in Skibbereen in West Cork that's a converted church (imaginatively named The Church) and it looks awesome.

There's a pub in Dublin called the church. It's a bit crap.

jill_valentine

Arcade Fire bought a church and converted it to a live-in recording studio. They promptly discovered that living in a church in Canada in winter is very, very, very cold, before a storm collapsed the roof in.

They don't live in a church anymore.

The headstones and stuff wouldn't bother me, but the thing is, as cool and slightly supervillain-y as it would be to live in a disused holy building, they're not really built for comfortable living.

Zen65

Sky King wrote: »

Would you live in a church?

In a church, yes.

In Offaly, no.


Z

S28382

It would be a fair unnerving feeling having a **** in a church knowing your doing it in the house of the lord.........sure he watches everything.

Mr. CooL ICE

Only if there's decent broadband available.

I would install an organ. I would then spend hours upon hours playing the main line of la gadda da vida over and over. Badly.

Gbear

Sky King wrote: »

It's a lovely site with great views of the surrounding countryside. The only thing is that it comes with a graveyard, and that in itself raises questions, because that is effectively your garden. How do you deal with that? Do you bulldoze the headstones for your flowerbeds and risk being haunted forever? Do you tend to and maintain them - making a feature out of them? Or segregate them from the rest of the garden to keep the pets and kids out. Would you have living relatives of deceased people visiting your garden for years to pay respects to its inhabitants!! There are graves there from the 1950's!

The obsession our society has with dead people is just stupid.

I'd offer families of the dead the opportunity to rebury them and those that don't have family, their family don't care, or whatever else, I'd dispose of through whatever process is required by law.

Land is too precious to be wasting it on dead people.

Other than that, some churches are lovely buildings, wasted on those that currently use them. Carting off as much of the Jesusy stuff as possbile, throwing up a few dividing walls and maybe a mezzanine where the altar usually sits could well make the church a beautiful place to live.
Some insulation mightn't go astray either.
I wonder can you get double-glazed stained glass windows?

Either way it'd be bloody expensive. Sort of a mad billionaire's vanity project perhaps.

Ruudi_Mentari

Local residents tend to hate those type of conversions, and feel they should be protected structures so would have to put up with that.

But there is a really old/small church on my road, which I slept in a few times which was cool in itself so i can only imagine if it wasn't so run down

jill_valentine

Gbear wrote: »

I wonder can you get double-glazed stained glass windows?

I know you're joking but -

Generally what they do is install a separate panel of double-glazing a few inches inside the window recess, leaving the original stained glass untouched. Same effect without risking the original leadwork.

#TheMoreYouKnow

Corkfeen

Sky King wrote: »

It's weird though isn't it? Should there be provision for this in the sale? Like if I buy the church am I buying the headstones and the skeletons and **** as well??

Most old churches tend to fall into the protected buildings category. Which means it requires a lot of paperwork and redtape to change anything about the exterior of the building.

DonkeyStyle \o/

I'd only buy it if I had a lot of money to renovate/decorate it in a novel way. If the inside is going to end up looking like a new apartment with stained glass windows, I don't see the point. You just know someone's going to do it though.

smellslikeshoes

Gbear wrote: »

The obsession our society has with dead people is just stupid.

I'd offer families of the dead the opportunity to rebury them and those that don't have family, their family don't care, or whatever else, I'd dispose of through whatever process is required by law.

Land is too precious to be wasting it on dead people.

Even if the graveyard land was part of the sale (which I think usually isn't) moving a graveyard would be an absolutely insane amount of work and would have to assume red tape. I doubt it would be worth it, if you're buying a church you just need to accept you will have a graveyard beside you.

ozmo

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Even if the graveyard land was part of the sale (which I think usually isn't) moving a graveyard would be an absolutely insane amount of work and would have to assume red tape. I doubt it would be worth it, if you're buying a church you just need to accept you will have a graveyard beside you.

They moved the headstones up against the wall in several churches in dublin - eg. the Church Pub in Mary street... that seems like a good option if available.

The offlay one looks brilliant though - with the organ, the extra building and half the work done.

clairefontaine

No. Too expensive to heat.

Novella

That is so cool! I would love to live in it!

Franticfrank

It looks like there's a massive amount of work to go into it but the concept is great! Maastricht is an example of how old churches can be put to good use. There's a church there that was converted into a hotel and it's amazing. Then there's another that's a bookshop/cafe. You can drink a coffee on the altar.

o1s1n

Those Harry Clarke stained glass windows would be worth a fair chunk of change.

Citroen2cv

Also they would be protestant zombies, I think they would be very polite.

Wibbs

I'd be more into this castle type place myself.. The fact it's now going for a couple of hundred grand less than my boring semi D gaff was "valued" at the highest of the boom says much about that period of crazy ass madness.

martinedwards

very expensive to convert and a pig to heat, and the issues wth the graveyard & being listed would be a deal breaker for me.

but the idea of living in a church building has always appealed to me because of the decades of faithful prayer there.

and the stained glass & arched windows are great!

melekalikimaka

from my understanding you can build over a graveyard provided it hasnt been used in a certain time frame, like a new grave hasnt been placed. its something like 80yrs I think maybe a little longer...

JonSnuuu

CianRyan wrote: »

Wilson was a hand ball.

Wilson was a Volleyball!

You would have a lot of room downstairs,
where the pews used to be in,
and Havin' all that room,
seein' as how you would take out all the pews,
you could decide that you don't
have to take out your garbage,
for a long time.

Dolbert

One of our neighbours back home bought and renovated the old village COI church about 20 years ago, he got it for a song too. I always thought it was the coolest thing ever. I remember saying to my mother how creepy it'd be to have a graveyard in your back garden, and she promptly reminded me that our house used to be an old RIC barracks and for all we knew there were bodies buried all over the yard. To think that she wonders where I get it from.

Merch

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Even if the graveyard land was part of the sale (which I think usually isn't) moving a graveyard would be an absolutely insane amount of work and would have to assume red tape. I doubt it would be worth it, if you're buying a church you just need to accept you will have a graveyard beside you.

Be a handy security feature, plenty of people would be concerned about crossing a graveyard

Wibbs wrote: »

I'd be more into this castle type place myself.. The fact it's now going for a couple of hundred grand less than my boring semi D gaff was "valued" at the highest of the boom says much about that period of crazy ass madness.

that is nice, wonde rhow much it'd cost to heat though

melekalikimaka wrote: »

from my understanding you can build over a graveyard provided it hasnt been used in a certain time frame, like a new grave hasnt been placed. its something like 80yrs I think maybe a little longer...

Haven't you seen the film poltergeist?

Nemeses

You could do a lot with a church.

People complain about heating it... Anyone heard of insulation? Derp!

Also with this church I can begin my new religion..... I think I have found a base.

Shame its in offaly..

CianRyan

JonSnuuu wrote: »

Wilson was a Volleyball!

You know nothing, JonSnuuu.

dang.

FouxDaFaFa

I'd love to live somewhere with a bit of history and character to it. I like graveyards, I think they're interesting.

That particular church though, looks like it would be a lot of hassle to renovate and maintain.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Not a hope. I'd probably burst into a ball of flames upon walking in the door lol

kylith

I would absolutely live in an ex-church. AFAIK when they de-consecrate everything they have to disinter any remains and either remove them to a charnel house or re-inter them elsewhere because you can't have the bones of the faithful resting in unconsecrated ground.

Even if they didn't take the corpses I wouldn't mind. I'd just have to remember to not dig an overly deep pond. The dead don't bother me.

DEFTLEFTHAND

CianRyan wrote: »

Wilson was a hand ball.

Volleyball? And he was a Wilson make not Spalding. The clue is in his name. :pac:

Mr. CooL ICE

Franticfrank wrote: »

Maastricht is an example of how old churches can be put to good use. There's a church there that was converted into a hotel and it's amazing.

Weirdest place to have sex. Ever.