Have you noticed how the Church kitchen has become rather jaded? The dishwasher doesn’t always drain properly, the ovens don’t heat very well and not all the hob rings work. The fridge door doesn’t shut properly and the freezer is falling apart. The kitchen’s layout is also not conducive to working in for our events and on Sundays. The drawers are overloaded and jam, the cupboard doors are falling off, and the microwave can’t be used for popcorn. Need we say more?
So the time has come. After talking about it for years, we are finally moving ahead with a renovation project. The catalyst was a grant from the diocese towards replacing the dishwasher, which got switched to a more energy efficient fridge, and now to replacing the ovens. Once you look at one thing, it makes no sense to do something in isolation, and it was clear that all our appliances were at the end of their lives.We are also blessed to have an interior designer in our congregation who lives nearby and has taken the project on board.
The work will start on 6 January 2026. Anyone who would like to help clear the kitchen on 5 January, please let the office know.
We will be replacing all built-in appliances with modern, energy-efficient ones. The dishwasher will be an industrial machine that takes 2 minutes per cycle. It will be relocated to the far corner of the kitchen. Using the new dishwasher will require us to change the way we currently work and may require some training, but we are all excited to have a much more efficient machine.
The cupboards above the current hob will be removed and replaced with an efficient extractor unit, and the hob will be widened to accommodate five pans. The current ovens will be replaced with two new ones placed side by side under the larger hob.
All the cupboards and drawers will be serviced and fitted with new hinges, and some will be replaced.
The Fridge Freezer will be replaced by a floor to ceiling fridge, giving much more storage space and shelves for us and for our renters. Next to the new fridge there will be new storage with space for two microwaves.
The sink taps will also be replaced. The floor, tiling and worksurfaces will be retained, with the worksurface being cut to fit the new layout.
We expect the work to take three weeks, during which time the coffee machine will be located in the upper hall and the kitchen will be out of use. While the work is going on, we will check through everything we took out of the kitchen and replace or dispose of some items. Then everything remaining will go back in the kitchen, probably not in the same places as before, but all cupboards and drawers will be newly labelled.
We hope you are as excited as we are! This project is being financed from our building fund, but it will use up about a third of our funds. This will leave around CHF 100,000 for future projects. As the projected result for this year does not allow us to transfer new funds to the building fund, we would like to give you the opportunity to donate to the building fund for 2025 now. This donation will be tax deductible, so you will save on your taxes. Every little helps.
If you wish to make a donation, please transfer the funds to the Charitable Association account shown on our Giving page, and mark as a donation for the building project. Thank you.
If you would prefer your money to be used for a specific purpose, please let us know and we will see what we can do.
Author: Sue Higson