thanks to everyone! i appreciate all of your insight. i am realistic and realize that projects always take more time and money than you think. for a long time the only way i was able to have a decent car is to buy one that needed work and fix it. (i used to be a mechanic before i went back to school
) it always worked out to my advantage in the end, but nevertheless, always more frustration and cost than i wanted. the reason i looked at this is not just because it is a church, but any home of 4500sq would be 100's of thousands to buy. i thought to make it liveable would not be extremely difficult and a bit at a time would pay off in the end. i can definately see the point you all make with the money pit comments though. quite logical.
New life for old churches | csmonitor.com