Kathrine Alderman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Tom Isphording and Suzi Guy were ecstatic to buy the historic McDonald-Guy house in 2014.
Originally from Naples, the couple decided that they had enough of the crowds when it took Isphording an hour and fifteen minutes to get home from work, which was only fifteen miles away. When he did finally get home he told his wife, Suzi Guy, to look up Monticello.
He had heard about the town when he was talking to a friend of his about retirement. The friend - who went to FSU - when asked where he would go, said he would probably settle down in Monticello. That conversation happened in 1992, and Isphording never forgot.
After seeing a video of the Avera-Clarke B&B that had a video tour around the town on horse and buggy, they decided they had to come and visit. So, they packed their bags and headed for the Avera-Clarke B&B, where they decided to stay.
Isphording recounts how he and Guy would walk the whole town every night, “North, East, South and West. We would walk all over the place” and every time they were on their way back, they would pass the McDonald-Guy house. Isphording says he looked at Guy and said, “Suzi, that's the house. If we could get that house I'd move here in a heartbeat.” Sadly, the house wasn't for sale. However, the owner of the Avera-Clarke B&B, Gretchen Avera, left a note on the door of the McDonald-Guy house, telling the previous owner that there was a couple from Naples looking to buy the house, and, as Guy says, “here we are.”
Before retiring and moving to Monticello Isphording was a carpenter who built houses. He also ran a few bars and was in the flooring industry. Guy was a registered nurse in the ICU for forty years as well as a midwife. She now works part-time with the Florida Cancer Specialists in Tallahassee. They both have three daughters—making six children altogether—and twelve grandchildren. The couple says their daughters were all friends in middle school and then, one day, Isphording's youngest daughter and Guy's eldest daughter decided that their parents needed to be together. Now Tom Isphording and Suzi Guy have been together for ten years and married for five—they were married on the porch of the Avera-Guy B&B by the mayor at the time.
After purchasing the house, the couple would come up for long weekends to do work on it and get it ready for them to move into. Most of the work they've done to the house has been cosmetic, such as clearing weeds and vines, painting and securing the structural integrity of the house. The only bigger modification they made was combining an outdoor access only storage room—that was attached to the house—with the massive walk-in closet for the master bedroom to create a hallway and extra bedroom. Other than that, all they did was update a few things to better fit their needs and they say that the most unique things about the house are its big front porch, its back deck that overlooks the bottom of the hill it's built on, and its solid copper roof which they say “you can see from outer space.”
Once they moved to the town they felt immediately welcomed. So much so that Isphording said it almost brought him to tears. They love this town and its community and are happy to be a part of it. They sometimes give tours and host parties in the house such as their annual kickoff Christmas party which they called the “Night of A Thousand Hors d'oeuvres”, as everyone attending brings hors d'oeuvres, and, when the house turns one-hundred, they will be hosting a big birthday party for the house.
The house itself was built in 1922—making it ninety-eight years old—and was originally a Sears Craftsman Kit Home. Isphording says that if you look underneath the house you can still see where they imprinted the wood with numbers that directed how to assemble it.
At some point in the history of the house, someone built a news-worthy camellia garden, which used to be a pecan orchard but is now home to the camellias, some of which are seventy to eighty years old. Isphording and Guy say that though they don't know who designed the garden, you can tell by the way it was planted that it must have been a landscape architect of some sort.
Though recognized by the Jefferson County Historical Association as a historical home, the house isn't registered in any kind of registry and because it isn't in the Historic District of the town, there are no rules or regulations for renovating or repairing it. However, Isphording, a member of the historic design review board, did his best not to mess with the original design of the house too much.
Though when they got it there was a lot to do before they could move in, they couldn't be happier to be living in Monticello at the McDonald-Guy house. They love this town, their community, and their house; so, though it was a lot of work, Isphording says it was truly “a labor of love.”
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