Getting Ready to Gussy Out in Oysterville!

Prep Work in the Church

It’s Spring!  The calendar tells me so.  If it weren’t for that, I’d have thought that we’d skipped a season and leaped directly into summer.  It’s been sunny and warm – no make that hot! – all week here in Oysterville.  On Tuesday, it was 80° in the shade– almost too hot to work out in the garden.  But, even I, the very reluctant gardener, was out trying to clean up some of the ravages of winter.  (Actually, our winter was fairly mild.  Probably our garden ravages are of the benign neglect variety.)

And in keeping with all the other seasonal refurbishing in the neighborhood, the church is being outfitted with a fresh summer frock.  Yes!  At long last, the new wallpaper is about to be installed.  It will be the finishing touch to a huge restoration that began last fall with roof and gutter repairs, a new coat of exterior paint, and restored windows (which are still ‘in progress.’)  Oh, yes!  And a freshly painted picket fence and some repairs to the porch and its railing.

Scaffolding in the Sunday School Room

Now that the leaky parts have finally been identified and corrected, the wallpaper can be replaced without fear of damage when the rains come back.  The work has been overseen by the Oysterville Restoration Foundation Board of Directors – especially by Paul Staub who has been in charge of the window restoration and by Martie Kilmer who spearheaded the wallpaper project.  The restoration work – the most extensive since the church’s initial preservation project in 1980 – has been funded with assistance from the Kinsman Foundation.

I can scarcely wait until the interior work is completed!  What a treat for Oysterville and for the community at large – our 127-year-old church all gussied out like new!  And right in time for the wedding season and for the 42nd annual Summer Music Vespers series which begins on June 16th. I couldn’t be more excited if I were getting a new look, myself!

Leave a Reply