This week has been a big one. While we have a fantastic plumber who is working on getting our furnace going, or more specifically all the leaks fixed from pipes being burst over the years our lovely church has sent empty and cold, we tackled a different set of pipes on the main floor.
The massive pipe organ that was build specifically for the church back in the 1930's has always been up in a loft. The beautiful panels and pipes could only really be seen and appreciated if you were willing to climb either set of twin staircases that lead you there.
When I first fell in love with the church I dreamed of my husband being able to restore it, but sadly someone along the way had cut metal out for scrap and only after we bought it, we really learned it would always be silent.
But serendipitous things have a way of just happening at our lovely home. A day after we confirmed the organ would never play again, a lovely lady gave us a small and working pump organ that was build in 1874, right down the road in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It would never play with the big pipes, but we would have music.
With much muscle and sweat, the big pipes, the cabinets that housed all the broken parts and hid the horrible leaking bell tower were taken out of the loft and down to the back room of the church, until we decided what we would do with them.
We considered turning them into kitchen cupboards, but the cabinets were too high for that and too beautiful to be cut. We thought about turning them into a huge bar, my sister wanted to take them to her pub, The White Hart Coaching Inn, in Calne, England. But at the end of the day, we came up with a plan to actually turn them into a beautiful room that would conceal in plain sight my stained glass studio.
During the six years I had lived in Scotland I made hundreds of stained glass pieces, did restorations and really do love working with stained glass. Since all the stained glass had been removed from the church long before we bought it, I have over 20 big windows to make, so I know that studio will be busy doing our own windows as well as commissions.
Yesterday the place really took shape fast thanks to my incredible husband. He planned, re-planned, cut, firmed up, got creative and came up with a way to have the pipes up where they should be, in plain view and sitting on the lovely cabinet, in pride of place as soon as you come in the doors!
We plan on putting some speakers behind the pipes to play lovely organ music from big pipe organs all over the world, so we can enjoy some actual pipe organ music in the church once again!
Keep listening,
Priscilla :)