The Quest For Community
How Leif Espelund and Dani Nelson Found Their Passion as Bed and Breakfast Owners
Dani Nelson smiles next to husband Leif Espelund in the foyer of their bed and breakfast.
The pale yellow home sits proudly on the corner of Second Avenue and North Eight Street in Opelika, Alabama. The wrap around porch reminds guests and drivers of a different era, inviting them to sit and stay awhile. Inside the house classical music floats from room to room creating a relaxing feel. Rich colors of chestnut brown wood and velvet green couches make the home inviting.
Leif Espelund can be found on the lawn, traveling back and forth with the mower giving the grass the haircut it deserves. Dani Nelson stands in the kitchen whipping up breakfast for the guests before she continues her day with the chores of the house: changing the sheets, cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen and preparing for the next guests to arrive.
Espelund and Nelson take pride in owning the Heritage House Inn, a local bed and breakfast in Opelika that holds a special place in the community, standing since 1913.
Built by W.E. Davis and his wife, the home was originally for a single family until 1971. The next owners, Ruth Crook and her sister Virginia Magee, are credited with the name Heritage House. Holding onto the building for 17 years, the pair decided to put it back on the market and it was almost torn down to be replaced by a fast-food restaurant.
Photos of the home (Kayla Caldwell)
Barbara Patton and her son Richard came to the rescue and saved the property in 1993. Over the next year they got to work renovating and remodeling before opening the Heritage House Bed and Breakfast business for the first time.
Twenty-six years later, Espelund and Nelson found the house on the market. Not long after discovering the listing they found themselves the new owners of Heritage House and turning it into Heritage House Lodging and Events.
The couple haven’t always called Opelika home, but instead found themselves wanting a change of pace from their corporate lives in the Pacific Northwest. The search for a sense of community started their journey looking for a suitable bed and breakfast location and found themselves in the Heart of Dixie.
Nelson, 42, sits on the forest green sofa next to her husband. Her tan hat hangs over her light eyes. She grew up just a 48 minute drive away in Alexander City. “I don’t know if I was supposed to be from Alabama,” she said with a chuckle. Growing up, all Nelson wanted to do was leave, which prompted her to travel around the United States before settling in Seattle where she met Espelund.
After growing up in a train town in Oregon, Espelund, 40, finds the rattle of the Opelika train familiar. He sits next to his wife with his leg crossed over the other bouncing to the sound of the music. Calling the Northwest home for most of his life, he stayed for college and moved to Seattle to work in marketing.
The couple had different reasons for wanting to leave their 9 to 5 lives. “I was just tired of my career,” said Espelund. While he still enjoyed the people he shared an office with, the work itself became repetitive and boring. Always having the desire to work for himself, he took the risk and decided to quit his job.
Nelson worked as an event planner while living in Seattle, but found the large city lacked a sense of community. “Friends plenty, but that’s not everything,” she said. “In bigger cities, it’s harder to get involved,” said Espelund. “There’s just less room.”
Nelson’s event planning job left her unfilled. Burned out, the couple began their journey on a new career path. “We only have one life, so you might as well be doing something really enjoyable,” Nelson said.
With two weeks notices turned in and spreadsheets of houses made, the couple began their hunt. “We began looking in the Pacific Northwest, but timing wise we couldn’t find the right thing in our budget,” said Espelund. The desire for something close to family became strong and so did the tug back to the Southeast.
“Early on I was avoiding Alabama,” said Nelson. The search went all over the Southeast before the couple saw that Heritage House was for sale when they were visiting her family. “When the house came up, I thought it was a fake listing,” she said, but instead it felt like fate.
Deciding on the house, the couple moved in at the beginning of 2020. One of the most surprising things that the couple found when taking this leap was the support from the community they moved into. The Covid-19 pandemic took the world by surprise in early 2020, right as Espelund and Nelson were unpacking their boxes.
“We knew what we wanted to do. Covid just made it slower,” said Nelson. Despite being new to the city, the community rallied around the couple in the midst of the pandemic. Local couples came and stayed for the weekend to get out of their homes and to show support. The love for the historic house prevailed during the uncertain times.
Mackenzie Poole, 27, is going on her fourth year as the director of leadership and events for the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. Poole met Nelson and Espelund when they first moved to town in 2020.
“They’re positive, hardworking people,” she said.
One of the aspects that stands out to Poole the most is the couple’s desire to give back to their community. “They do a good job of being community minded and promoting downtown Opelika,” she said. Nelson became active in the community from the start, wanting to find that connection.
Espelund and Nelson share a love for the way that Opelika is helping make sure the town’s history is preserved. With their own business in a house over 100 years old, the importance of preserving historic sites like their own became something they are passionate about. They also help with local events one being the Opelika Songwriter’s Festival.
Of the guests who have walked through the front doors, some that stick out the most to Nelson was the production crew for an HBO documentary. The documentary, “Generation Hustle,” was filming the episode “The Alabama Exit” and needed a place to rest their heads when a local suggested the Inn. The crew were the first guests to stay in the house.
“It was really cool [to see] interviews happening in a national documentary,” said Nelson, “Because of Covid many of them hadn’t been outside of their house, so they got to come here and have it be enclosed and have their own preferences [on] how things were handled.”
Having a local suggest the newly opened bed and breakfast as a place to stay really stuck out to the couple and continued to show they had found the community they had been searching for.
Rebecca Ulmer stayed in the house in 2022 and enjoyed not only her stay but the couple as hosts. “Leif could not have been a more gracious host in the beautiful, restored home in downtown Opelika. Dani always prepared the most delicious breakfasts and was very accommodating with special dietary needs,” she said.
Even without any background in hospitality, Espelund and Nelson were able to let some of their passions shine through the business. Espelund spent time in his youth doing house rehabs so the work he’s been doing is not all new. “An old house is like a living person. As it ages it needs more care,” he said.
“I’m generally a maker,” said Nelson. Getting to use her skills of decoration on the house was an exciting challenge to her. The fact she can change the decor whenever she desires is a plus. She also finds herself always chatting with the guests and loves to hear their stories. “Everyone has a story. Everyone has a thing about them,” she said.
The bed and breakfast features five rooms that can be rented, all including a private bath and a king bed. Guests also have the option to rent the whole house if they desire. Each room holds a different theme than the previous.
The Seaside room is the smallest of the five but shares just as much charm. Its inspiration comes from the Oregon coast that holds a special place for Espelund. Seashells sit in a basket as if just picked from the sand. A replica sailboat stands tall on the fireplace mantel and a rich red couch and soft blue comforter gives the room a sense of being near the waves.
Sharing a balcony with the Seaside room is Clubhouse room. The room celebrates the sport culture found in Alabama. Light pours in the windows surrounding the space and highlighting the details. Two deer mounts hang above the tv, surveying the room. A wooden duck sits on the side table by the sand couch. A small framed golf display hangs on the wall, containing pictures, yellowed with age, of the sport.
As for the future, small changes are in mind for the business. Making the grounds more interesting and inviting for the guests is the first major project. The couple also hopes to get to a point where they can hire a few employees.
A larger goal is the quest to try and break the stigma of bed and breakfasts with “more of a modern interpretation,” Nelson said, explaining why they will refer to the house as a boutique inn instead of bed and breakfast.
The couple knows that often people can be scared away from a bed and breakfast for many different reasons, like “sleeping next to someone’s grandma,” said Nelson. The hope of the pair is to appeal to all audiences, young and old, so that they might realize the joy of bed and breakfasts.
“For now, it’s making sure people know that we want and enjoy all sorts of folks coming and staying with us,” said Nelson. The couple invites “folks” of all ages and backgrounds to come and stay with them where they can promise a memorable time.
For more information on the historic home, visit https://www.heritagehouse1913.com/