A normal living room has to compete with the television or perhaps a fireplace. Whitney's has something harder to ignore: the stained-glass windows left behind by the church's life. They are among the original features she has chosen to preserve, and they give the home an identity that new furniture could never provide. The building's history is still right there in the room.
Turning a former place of worship into somewhere to relax takes more than pushing in a sofa. A church was designed for people to gather, not for one person and a cat to settle down at the end of the day. Whitney's approach has been to keep the character of the space rather than pretend she bought an ordinary house. The old and new are meant to share the same room.
That's what makes this part of the renovation so compelling. The windows belong to a building from another century, but the life unfolding around them is happening now. As daylight passes through the colored glass, familiar surroundings can look different from one hour to the next. It is a reminder that some of a home's most beautiful features might already be there when you buy it.