LaGRANGE – It’s always interesting to meet someone who is passionate about what they do, and Martha Evans is certainly one of those people. Evans, with her husband Alec Evans, are the co-owners of BA Evans Home House at 2106 Hamilton Road. BA Evans Home House is an 10,000-square foot warehouse and gift shop that is filled with a multitude of items like antiques, mantles, handmade furniture, bowls, garden supplies, old quilts, old tools, lamps, pictures in frames, rope beds, old fruits and wooden crates. There are also tons of home decor items like homemade wreaths, place mats, pillows, table runnings, and other items. This year marks the 70th year that the BA Evans Home House has been in business, since 1946. The business is named after Alec’s father, Butler Alexander (BA). “When my husband and I came home from college in 1971, Alec’s dad had a heart attack and we stayed to help him until he got better. We planned to go back to Georgia but we never went back and the business got turned over to us in,” said Evans. Martha and Alec have been business owners since 1975. Alec Evans’ family owned the original property and the store started on Mooty Bridge Road in a old storage building. Martha Evans started her own antique store in 1972, as the shop began as a 30- by-50 square foot store, then a room next door was added, and eventually the store launched into a 10,000-square foot warehouse. When talking about her love for unique items and antiques, her face beams with pure animation. “I love early handmade pieces of Southern furniture, pre-1850s. I love things you can re-purpose and re-use. I’m always looking for something fun. I made a table out of trees I cut down. Love old windows. Industrial-looking things are nice too. It’s fun to share your ideas with people and mix things up. I enjoy having authentic things…old and new. Things that are new but made to look old stand out to me,” said Evans. Evans also works for a manufacturing importer in Atlanta and attends national market events where she finds countless distinctive items and antiques that she’s always looking to bring back to her home store for customers. As she puts it, “I’m always on a quest to find what’s new, fun, and different.” “I like helping people find what they’re looking for,” said Evans. “If they can’t find a product at my store, then I’m more then willing to call another store and find out if they have what that customer is looking for.” Evans said that one customer called her “Macy’s Santa” and that’s because of her willingness to direct a customer to a store that might have a product that her store doesn’t. “What I enjoy most about my job is working with the customers and finding things that work for them,” said Evans. Speaking to her endearment of antique products, “If you love antiques, it’s kind of like a disease.”