CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It's nearly noon on moving day for Margaret Taylor, and there's still plenty to be done. The furniture is mostly in place but the family will be arriving later -- all 55 people.

Taylor, director of the YWCA's Sojourner's Shelter, seems calm when she greets visitors at the shelter's new temporary home on the West Side, but she admits she's a bit frazzled.

"It is a crazy day," she said Tuesday.

The last three months have been kind of crazy, ever since Taylor and YW leaders decided the best way to do the first major renovations at the shelter's East End home since 1992 would be to move all the residents and staff to temporary quarters for up to three months.

A search this spring came up empty until a chance meeting in June between YW director Debby Weinstein and Larry Robertson, executive director of Kanawha HospiceCare.

"This all came about at a United Way meeting," Robertson said. "We're both members. Debby mentioned to me that Sojourner's needed a temporary home. I said I might have the answer for you."

The answer was what Robertson calls the annex building -- an 18,000-square-foot warehouse that sits behind HospiceCare's administrative offices on Patrick Street.

"We purchased this entire corner about 3 1/2 years ago from the Schoenbaum family," he said. "The annex building has been vacant for about a year and a half. Acordia had leased it for office space. It needed a little cleanup -- some carpeting and bathroom work. We got some funding from the DHHR."

Besides the Department of Health and Human Resources, YW leaders have been working with the state fire marshal and the Kanawha County Health Department to make sure the space meets all codes.

The living arrangements won't be luxurious. Instead of the beds they're leaving behind on the East End, residents will sleep on cots, courtesy of the Red Cross.

"It's a temporary situation, like a flood," Taylor said. "What would you lay on after a flood? A cot. But we do have linens. We have large plastic containers to bring seven days' worth of clothing."

One thing YW folks don't want residents to bring are the bedbugs that have plagued the East End home for several years. Ridding the shelter of bedbugs, in fact, is one of the reasons behind the temporary move.

"We have a preventive plan in place," Taylor said. "They are following it right now. We are doing everything in our power to make sure they don't transfer them here or to their permanent homes."

The annex building has about a dozen "bedrooms," so families will have privacy. But some single women may have to share a large barracks-style area. The East End facility has 21 bedrooms.

"It's a good location. It's on a bus route," Taylor said. And school buses will transport nearly 20 schoolchildren to and from Piedmont Elementary School.

On the downside, the building lacks laundry facilities, so residents will be taken by minivan to a laundry to clean their clothes. And there's no kitchen, so dinners will be brought in from off-site.

Manna Meal and Papa John's have already agreed to provide some hot meals, but more volunteers are needed, Taylor said. "Any group or church that want to provide a meal, they're welcome."

The first step in renovations is bedbug elimination, which could start Friday when exterminators seal off the entire building to fumigate it and its contents. Taylor said beds, desks and other furniture have been left behind to make sure they get treated.

Once the air clears, contractors will renovate the kitchen, install industrial-size hot water tanks, remove bedroom carpets, redesign offices, move laundry facilities, repair plumbing, electrical, HVAC and sprinkler systems, and improve security and safety features.

The repairs and improvements are expected to cost $330,000.

"I see it as several community agencies coming together to help these folks out," Robertson said. "It's a good community effort."

Reach Jim Balow at ba...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5102.