The married couple bought the building in November 2023, and called Andrew Smolinski Builders right away to get the remodeling job started.

Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski called Andrew Smolinski and said, “I just bought a church, and I want you to make it my house.”

Smolinski said his reaction was, “This is a first. Interesting. Let’s do it.”

He and his team started on the project the day after that phone call. The main level of the home is finished, and the contractors are still doing some work on the stairway to the basement. They will also add a garage in the spring.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski now reside in the former Community of Christ church building, which will retain its steeple and brick exterior. The house is seen on Tuesday in Alpena.

“It’s going to definitely be a two-year project,” Smolinski said. “It’s been a fun project, though. Clint and Doug both have been great to work with.”

Many of the original features of the church building were preserved, including the high ceiling with exposed wooden beams.

Smolinski said a challenge of the project was that the walls were concrete, so it took longer to drill through them in various places. The builders added interior walls for bedrooms, bathrooms, and a reading room. They also opened up the ceiling in the entryway to find more beams, which were exposed and then varnished. They put in a guest bathroom where the church stairwell used to be.

“It was an interesting project,” Smolinski said. “Very fun to work on. You learn something new every day.”

“He’s been great to work with,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said of Smolinski. “We tried to honor the building as a church and keep the interior as close as possible while still making it a house.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski sit on a couch in their newly remodeled home, located in the former Community of Christ building on Clinton Street in Alpena.

The Taratuta-Kendziorskis moved into the home in August of 2024. They moved from a 40-acre property in Posen into their new Alpena home.

“When we found out the church was going on the market, I asked Doug about it, and got ‘No. We’re not moving,'” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said.

But, after he thought about it, Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski came around to the idea, so they put in an offer, and it was accepted. They now also own the city lots on either side of the church, which provide a little more space for them.

“We own all this property right here,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said. “That’s what got Doug to agree to move into town.”

“Once we saw it, we went home and I thought about it,” Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski said. “We are getting older, and I knew we probably eventually would move into town.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski stand in the newly remodeled kitchen at their home, which used to be the Community of Christ church in Alpena.

Both of them are 65 now, and living in town is more convenient for medical appointments, meetings, and not having to drive after dark.

“I thought we’d go to a one-level house eventually,” he added. “It’s just sooner than I had expected, in my head … I figured, well, let’s go for it.”

“Then (Clint) said to me, ‘You were supposed to talk me out of this,’ and I said, ‘No. You started it,'” Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski added with a laugh.

“We loved where we were living, back in the woods,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said. “I grew up in Alpena … Doug grew up in Posen.”

When they bought the building, everything inside it, including a piano that now stands in their dining area, was included.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski’s reading room is seen in the newly remodeled home that he and his husband, Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski, bought and had turned from a church into their residence.

“This piano is original to the church,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said.

“Everything that was here stayed,” Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski said.

There were able to donate many hymnals and Bibles to the Salvation Army and other area churches. There are two nearby Community of Christ congregations — one in Lachine and another in Onaway.

The couple is happy to be settled into their new home.

“All of it has turned out way better than my mind envisioned it,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley The exposed wooden ceiling beams continue throughout the main floor of the newly remodeled Taratuta-Kendziorski home, inside the former Community of Christ building. The master bedroom is seen above.

When he was younger, he would ride his 10-speed bicycle through the neighborhood.

“I used to ride by here and say, ‘I’m going to live there someday,'” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski recalled. “I never dreamed it would happen.”

Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski talked a little bit about the history of the church building.

“The downstairs was built in 1954,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said. “And then, about five years later, they built this area,” he said, referring to the main living space. “That’s why the floors are concrete, because that was the original roof for the downstairs.”

In the basement of their new home, there is a guest bedroom, living and dining areas, a full kitchen, as well as the original men’s and women’s bathrooms, an exercise room, and a storage room.

Over the years, there have been many pastors at the Community of Christ, including Dr. Lynn Field, Gary and Barb Villeneuve, Lee Hall, Ray Anderson, and more.

“It’s just amazing how many people have connections to this small building,” Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski said.

“I was the pastor there for the last about 15 years,” the Rev. Gary Villeneuve said on Wednesday.

“Gary is a high priest, and I’m an elder,” the Rev. Barb Villeneuve said.

The Villeneuves officiated Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski’s wedding on Aug. 19, 2022.

The Villeneuves said church membership had been decreasing, so the church was unable to continue operating.

“We had our last service after Clint bought the church,” Barb Villeneuve said, referring to November 2023.

“We attend Onaway congregation, and Amy Fullerton, our daughter, is the pastor there,” she noted.

They were pleased that Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski wanted to bring new life to the building as their home.

“We were real happy about that because it continued its history, and we’ve become quite fond of Clint and Doug,” Gary Villeneuve said.

“It’s a very, very sad thing, when you close a congregation,” Barb Villeneuve said. “It feels really, really bad. But Clint and Doug loved the church building, and what they’ve done with it is just out of this world. We’re just really thrilled with what they’ve done with it … They’re fabulous, and they’ll take good care of it, and so it makes us feel better that our church is still getting well taken care of and loved.”

Field talked about his experience with the church.

“My wife and I first started coming to the church here in 1977,” Field said, which is when they moved to Alpena. “At that time, the church name was the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sometime in the late 80s … the name was changed to Community of Christ.”

Field served as pastor for about 18 years, prior to the Villeneuves.

“Like a lot of churches, in Alpena and across the country, the numbers that were attending were declining, as the young people grew up and moved away,” Field said, adding that some of the older members have passed on. “So, it got to be difficult to maintain the building. There was a vote of the membership, and it was a very close vote, but the vote was to close the church … When Clint and Doug found out that we were going to sell the church building, they immediately had an interest in buying it, so it worked out very well for us.”

“Clint and Doug have been very generous, inviting us in to see how the changes are going,” Field said. “They have been very gracious and friendly about that, and we’ve all appreciated that … They have done such a wonderful job making it a great home and still have the features of it having been our church.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Clint Taratuta-Kendziorski points to a photo of the old Community of Christ building that hangs in their basement.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Trevor Wooll, with Andrew Smolinski Builders, works on the stairway at Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski's new home.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley A piano from the Community of Christ stands in the dining room of Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski's new home.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley One of the bathrooms is seen at the home of Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley The guest bathroom is seen at the home of Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley The basement of Clint and Doug Taratuta Kendziorski's home features a kitchen, which used to be the fellowship hall kitchen of the Community of Christ church.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley A guest room is seen in the basement of Clint and Doug Taratuta-Kendziorski's home.

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