As a southerner I've been through Opelika many times and have friends that are from there. Your love of it is understandable. It is a wonderful town, beautiful old homes and if I had to relocate it would be at the top of my list.

" trunk room" I am assuming ( we all know how that works ) that the farmers who lived here were not rich. Would they still have had a trunk room? A new basement was put under at some point. Probably in the 1950's. The newspapers we found under the old sink base were 1950 and that's what makes me think the porch to kitchen was Dec., 1950 or thereabouts. I really have no idea but it's a nice basement. I've wondered where the old basement doors might have been. I can't tell anything from the existing basement. There would have been steps somewhere?? No evidence of cement steps. I don't see anywhere that would make sense for an outside entrance BUT the house is not at all like original. There's been a breezeway and double garage added. The septic is under the breezeway and will have to be replaced this year. There is not one scrap of complete original woodwork left. I have to think it wasn't very fancy. Taking out a built in cabinet (not old) and taking off two layers of paneling and a few layers of genuine old wallpaper showed the patched windows/doors. I have found three 4 panel doors in the machine shed and one 1950's kitchen door with glass in the top. It's just a regular nothing special plain door. It's back in the kitchen doorway now. The layers of paint matched and the hinges matched so it had to have lived there once. There are no doorways that match the size of the 4 panels I found. The outside is sided in aluminum siding. Not new. As I said, there is not one shred of character left in this old house. I can't remember exactly where the road in front used to be. The interstate went through in 1975 cutting through at a diagonal. That's when the farm was sold and this acreage survived. It was "this close" to being bulldozed. None of the maps I own show the house in relation to the road as it was. I know I traveled that road on occasion but I was young and things like that didn't impress me. I'm trying to find surviving relatives but I likely won't. The people before me lived here 30 years; from around 1978 to probably 2002. I am sure they were responsible for one of the two layers of paneling. I think it was they who refaced the kitchen cupboards. I know where their son is and I am going to try to contact him to return some photos I found during this last facelift. He was a child so I don't know what he will remember. I am hoping he has a photo album. The people before them are long dead and I have no idea if/where any relatives would be. I've asked around about the history or other living people who would know but get no where. Everyone is dead or moved away. I think the first family that I know about/knew were not very neighborly??? I think the husband was a "dirty old man". Maybe that's why no one knows what the inside of the house was like? I think they would have been the ones to do the kitchen. I knew them in the '60's so it's likely they lived here in 1950. The cement apron beside the barn is etched 1950. There must have been some money during that time. The barn foundation is still visible. Also two other small foundation outlines. I think a milkhouse for one. I don't know what the other would be. I'd like to find pictures of everything. Probably not possible. There are still usable outbuildings and those have always been kept up. I was only curious, I will stay here until I die no matter what. I assumed (again) that familes of that era had lots of kids and I didn't think a house of two bedrooms was sufficient.

I saw the photos of this masterpiece the first time around but was thrilled to sit through a more extensive tour - even if I had to remove my boots. Ha! newdawn, when we bought our house, the heating/lights/water bill here was more than our old house's mortgage! igloochick, you will have to put in intercoms for DS and any future ice cubes... My kids were young when we moved into our house and they would loose me. My house isn't nearly as big as your will be. We painted our house for $17,000. You have one lifetime project ahead of you.

Thanks all - these responses are so helpful! I love the idea of referencing older houses. I’ve driven around the historic homes in my neighborhood here, and it’s true that there aren’t many foundation plants besides the occasional boxwood - likely put in more recently than 1907! The pecans are actually part of an orchard. I always thought it was odd that we had these 2 perfectly placed pecans, similar to how builders put in a starter tree on either side of the sidewalks in new tract homes! Turns out that the trees were here well before the house! I suspect they were planted in the mid-1800s. Good info about the bulbs under pecans. I though about agapanthus as well, but I think that would require a lot of digging and....ugh! Clay soil and rocks are breaking my back! Love the 2 renderings! I wish I could bump my tree out farther to the right, but the electric lines run right over that corner, plus that’s our drainage area for the backyard. Eventually we may do a dry creek situation over there. Not authentic to the house, but sometimes preventing standing water wins out. ;)