Mountain Vineyard Christian Fellowship’s building is done and it has that new church smell.

You know, the smell of fresh paint, of beauty bark around the landscaping — some 50 church volunteers planted thousands of plants around the building and the parking lot — and for Pastor Roy Conwell it’s almost hard to believe it belongs to his congregation.

For a church that started in a home, has operated out of storefronts and more recently held services at Cedar Heights Middle School, to finally have a building after more than two decades is nothing short of a miracle.

In 1996 the church bought the land it owns now on Kent Kangley Road. It is near 192nd Avenue Southeast in what is a pocket of unincorporated King County between Maple Valley and downtown Covington.

For five years after paying off the property, the church developed a master plan for it then began seeking permits, getting a condition use permit in 2006 while they began the design and engineering for phase one, which is a 10,175 square foot worship center that home to a chapel and classrooms.

The outside of the church is a grey-green color while the inside is a lighter shade of yellow green with the intent to complement the colors of the tall trees which surround the property on which it sits.

Conwell explained that the congregation and staff began moving into the building in late October, right on target, in fact.

It’s the little things that Conwell is proud of such as the durability of the youth ministry classrooms that were designed to feel like a school so it felt familiar to the children. Or the set up of the electronics room where all the backend for the church’s sound system is housed, or the acoustics of the sanctuary.

There are panels above the stage and pulpit which absorb sound so the musicians don’t drown out the congregation while there’s reflecting panels above the congregation so the members can hear themselves while they’re singing.

“When we turned the sound on and the worship started (the first Sunday), my wife Gail said it was like hearing the angels singing in heaven,” Conwell said. “It feels really comforting (in the sanctuary). When you stand up in here you feel like you’re worshipping with everybody.”

The first service was incredible, Conwell noted.

“It was just like we were dreaming,” he said. “Everybody was just like, ‘How could this possibly be ours?’ I still have to pinch myself. We’re so grateful, we’re so thankful.”

The building is still not fully furnished and not all the windows have blinds. There has been some talk of having a big Christmas service this year, but, perhaps it would be better to let everyone enjoy it for a while first.

“Just to get it up was so much of a focus,” Conwell said. “I talked to another Vineyard pastor, he said it took a year to build their new church, and it took them a year to recover emotionally.”

After the effort it took to fundraise, work with King County to get permits, and get the building done, Conwell said, the committee that oversaw it is tired.

So, for now, they will just enjoy all the little moments of pride and joy.

It was a special moment when his father, Ernie Conwell, showed up to see the place for the first time. The pastor said jokingly that his 82-year-old dad had “tried to die on us a couple months ago,” but it wasn’t yet his time.

Conwell said his father had hoped the church would be done in time for one of his nine children to be married there, then when that looked it may not happen, perhaps when one of his grandchildren got married.

That could still happen, though, as one of Conwell’s four children is not yet married.

“There’s lots of love, lots of joy, lots of thankfulness here,” Conwell said of the new building. “When my dad showed up here, there was a lot of joy.”

The kind of joy that exists at Mountain Vineyard will last long after the new church smell has worn off.