"In order to gain a more coarse event space, a partition wall was removed from the former parish apartment in the basement and a steel beam was pulled in. The result is a room that is about five meters wide and nine meters long, can accommodate about 50 people and can be used for a variety of purposes.
Sanitary rooms were renovated, resp. Even newly furnished, as well as storage room, hallway and archive. The installation of a small kitchen also ensured that small dishes could be served "without harming the local gastronomy" can be prepared for church events. However, during the construction work, defects were also found in the roof trusses and roofing, and these were also eliminated in the course of the tree inspection.
Without debt
All in all, remodeling and renovation work cost around 120.000 euros. 50.000 euro was contributed by the diocese of wurzburg, the remainder of just under 70,000 euro was provided by the albertshausen church foundation. "Completely without raising capital" as church administrator werner schieber proudly reports.
The church congregation has 470 members "but only about 15 percent of them are regular churchgoers" reports schieber. A total of around 40 church members also lent a hand during the renovation work. In 1500 hours of work by the believers, the floor was laid, all the painting work was done and all the curtains were sewn by the women themselves at home. However, a great deal of preparatory work had to be done before this could happen. Walls were torn down, doors and windows removed, roof trusses and tiles renewed, and floor coverings removed and replaced.
"It took more than just a few buckets of paint to restore the upstairs apartment, reports the church administrator, who himself lent a helping hand. Personally, together with pastor edwin ziegler, he has already thanked all those involved at a party for helpers held in january, because" a lot of work was done by the volunteers last year, without their help the project would not have been possible". This is also reflected in the fact that the diozesanbauverwaltung originally assumed much higher renovation costs.
Nevertheless, a lot of work had to be contracted out to local or regional craftsmen. The new multipurpose room is now ready and is already being used for children's church, communion and confirmation classes, altar server training, house group meetings, parish council and church administration meetings, senior citizens' afternoons, and smaller events organized by the church community.