How much would it cost to build a new building?
I got some answers on this today (Wed, Jul 8th). We had an architect come over and talk it through with Matushka and Katie and me. Jeannette Woodard built the Monastery Church so she was well-informed. She said we should do our calculations using $150 per square foot.
Our current church footprint is 1900’ish square feet. Let’s say we want to double it? (do we?) Let’s say we want it to be 4000 square feet, that means $600,000.
Throw that in with the property and we’re at $760K. Plus all the stuff I certainly forgot about.

Lots of ways to look at that. Compared to what others pay to put up churches and halls, it’s a good deal.

On the other hand, it’s also so far beyond our current means that proposing it seems utterly ludicrous to me. So if it needs to make financial sense to you, you should run from this idea screaming! 🙂

The only reason I even consider it is because I’ve been told by many others who’ve done this already, that this is how churches are built: the parish takes a leap in good faith, and it all somehow comes together. But don’t ask me how. It might take 3 years or 10. Worse case scenario: we’re totally wrong, we ditch the idea after a few years, sell it again, and probably lose several thousand in the process.

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