'It was a little challenging': Balancing a 10-year church reno and family life

The opportunity to renovate the old church at 77 North Road, Brighton, was one Jade Budsworth couldn’t pass up.

“What attracted me to buying the church was the idea of it being a blank canvas internally,” she said. “Like a warehouse, it was a blank canvas to play with.”

Armed with a family willing to pitch in and a vision, Ms Budsworth launched into a nearly decade-long renovation job, turning the blank canvas into a modern family home.

“The first feature that went into the house was a gothic arch in the doorways,” she said. “I have a background in interior design and my father is a plasterer (and) a carpenter. He brought that wall to life.”

With each new feature added to the property, Ms Budsworth said it came closer to her goal of a unique home for her family. “The church has changed with us as we grew our family,” she said. “What was going to be an ensuite became a nursery and what was supposed to be a spare bedroom became the teenager’s bedroom.”

It started out as fun for the kids, although Ms Budsworth admitted 10 years was a long time to spend renovating. “My eldest remembers it the most,” she said. 

“It was fun for her choosing colours and designing her bedroom…through the teenage years it was a little challenging.”

Living in an old church meant many of the old fixtures were included in build. The master bedroom is located on the old altar and the baptismal font was built into the floor of the nursery.

But Ms Budsworth’s favourite feature was the unusual criss-crossed frosted glass feature window, which made it through the renovation works largely unchanged. “I cleaned them all up and kept them as a feature,” she said. “It was never an option to take that out for me.”

“If you take that away it just becomes an odd looking house.”

Ms Budsworth’s home will go to auction on Saturday, April 29.