Conversion to home, move to nearby property save old Oakdale church

Allen Martin was just a few days into his retirement as a custom home builder when his longtime friend and business partner Denise Cash asked him to meet for lunch.

“I told my wife, ‘I am going to go to lunch with Denise in Oakdale,’ and she goes, ‘Don’t go, don’t go, you know you are going to get a project,’ ” Martin said.

Cash, a Century 21 Realtor, has sold many updated and new homes built by Martin, including a grouping of million-dollar contemporary houses east of Oakdale. But the project she had planned this time was quite different: Restore and convert a 120-plus-year-old church into a two-bedroom, three-bathroom house.

The asking price for the church was right – just $1. The city has owned it since 1990 and hasn’t had the funds to restore the former United Brethren Church, which was built in the 1890s.

The catch? It had to be moved from its location at East E Street and North Third Avenue. The city wants the land for a parking lot.

Martin knew the move would be expensive – it ultimately cost more than $50,000 – so he did a thorough inspection of the church before making any decisions.

Underneath the carpet, he found vertical-grain Douglas fir floors throughout. Behind the plaster is a solid redwood frame in remarkably good condition.

Martin, 62, climbed into the bell tower, squeezed into the attic and, “I crawled underneath it. It’s really weird, I saw a nail. … I saw the hammer marks and I went, ‘The person who drove that nail in is dead, his kids are dead, his grandkids are possibly dead or older than I am. Wow, you’ve got to save the church.’ ”

It was settled. Cash sent a proposal to Oakdale City Manager Bryan Whitemyer to buy the church for $1 and move it to a vacant lot Martin and his wife, Paula, bought four blocks away at the corner of North First Avenue and Walnut Street. She asked that the city to waive building permit and inspection fees amounting to about $5,000, given the cost of moving the building.

In February, the City Council accepted the proposal. The city had been trying for a year to find someone willing to save the church; it held an open house and advertised in newspapers and online. It wasn’t until Whitemyer’s last-ditch effort of posting the church sale on Craigslist that he got the call from Cash.

Since the sale, all Martin and Cash’s efforts have been focused on moving the building, a feat that required the coordination of the city, the moving company, PG&E, AT&T and Comcast.

“I wake up every morning about 4 o’clock thinking I forgot something,” Martin said Monday night.

By 8 a.m. Tuesday, a crowd had gathered to watch the church’s move. Some sat in camping chairs as if watching a parade; nearly everyone had smartphones out to record the event.

The owners of House of Beef across the street, who bought several of the church’s pews from Martin, lined them up along the sidewalk and under the overhang of the House of Tykes preschool. Children squeezed into the pews and clapped and cheered as the Fisher Brothers House Movers truck pulling the church on steel beams began to inch forward.

It stopped every few feet as Martin and workers cleared the brick foundation and other debris from under it.

About 30 minutes after the move began, the preschoolers’ cheers turned to squeals of excitement as the church made its first drop off the curb and was pulled entirely into the street, directly in front of them.

The truck made its way west on East E Street, then north on North First Avenue. PG&E workers removed the power lines in its path that were too low for the church to clear despite Martin previously removing the bell tower.

The driver made two right turns and dodged several tree branches and a low-hanging streetlight to get the church to its new, 8,000-square-foot plot.

Martin now will spend the next four months transforming the historic building into the most unusual home in Oakdale.

The remodel of the 1,500-square-foot church and an 850-square-foot addition were designed by Turlock architect Jim Madsen.

What was once a place of worship with its tall ceiling will become a great room with an open-concept kitchen, dining room and living room. It’s what Cash envisioned when she saw the church for the first time.

Where the altar once stood will be a 12-foot kitchen island.

In place of the church’s kitchen will be a powder room, as well as a bathroom and closet for one of two master suites, both of which will be built as additions.

A laundry room and pantry also will be added, as well as a garage and a deck coming off one of the bedrooms.

An upstairs landing that was used as the church’s office could remain as such, become a loft or be used as a bedroom. It can’t technically be listed as a third bedroom because it won’t have a closet.

“We are saving the church. That is our main motivation and to use as much material as we can that came from the church,” Martin said. “To restore it to as close (to original) as we can and have it still be a home.”

Many of the stained-glass windows need to be replaced, but Martin will retain the Gothic frame.

He plans to incorporate the wood from the wainscoting into the kitchen island and use its trim as crown molding for the cabinets.

He will use the brick from the foundation to build a walkway or a planter outside.

The steeple and church bell that were taken down for the move will be replaced, and Martin is even toying with the idea of using it as the doorbell.

“We will do the best we can to keep the flair and the flavor the same as the church,” Martin said.

He and Cash will choose materials for the interior together. “She knows what’s selling and what is going on, and I just try to keep her on budget,” Martin said.

The price of the home will depend on the overall cost of the renovation, but Cash estimates it will be in the $400,000 range.

Anyone interested in buying the home can contact Cash at 209-765-5528 or dcash@c21mm.com.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Conversion to home, move to nearby property save old Oakdale church."