FARMINGTON – The old North Church on High Street is getting ready for an extreme makeover.

With its tin ceilings and walls, stenciled double-hung windows, intricate moldings and shiny chandelier starting to look a bit run down after 100-plus years, it’s in need of some cosmetic help.

But before any of that can happen, the undulating floors and gaps in the walls created by a crumbling foundation need to go – not to mention the mold.

Now, thanks to the federal government and the good people of Farmington, the Historical Society’s dream is about to come true.

The town learned last week that it had moved onto Phase II in the selection process for a $100,000 federal community development block grant to go toward the society’s restoration project. Such grants have to be administered through municipalities, Town Manager Richard Davis said.

“What it means is that the money is reserved for the town – $100,000 has been set aside – and we just have to go through some routine procedural things in order to access the money,” he said. Among the procedural steps is a town vote to accept it, which is on the March town meeting warrant, a public hearing, and an environmental review, he said.

After that, Historical Society Vice President Taffy Davis said Thursday, the group will work with an architect to ready the bid packet and put the project out to bid. The society plans to replace the church’s granite and rubble foundation and the floor, damaged by water in the past 10 years, and also refurbish the heating and electrical systems, and plumbing in phase one.

It’s going to cost somewhere around $200,000 – double the amount of the grant. And because the town not only had to provide a 25 percent match but also prove to the government the project was doable, another $100,000 had to be raised by the middle of last month.

The historical society came up with half, and townspeople – through individual donations – donated another $50,000.

Students and teachers at Mallett School made and sold a “Then and Now” calendar and raised more than $1,000 for the project, Taffy Davis said.

If all goes as planned, the renovations will begin this summer or fall, and work should be finished by spring or summer in 2008, Davis said. The downstairs, renovated section will be turned into a museum, she said.

“I’m thrilled,” Richard Davis said. “I think it’s wonderful. The church is a real historic asset for the town and it deserves to be preserved. It’s part of a larger picture of cultural and heritage tourism that will be attractive to Farmington. It fits in with the whole creative economy notion, I think, very well,” he said.