Sun archive: Dream Home

Much-altered Colonial still subject to change

In the winter of 2003, Kirk Bauer bought an old mill house in Howard County's historic Ellicott City. His intention was to rehab the property (as he had done with four other houses) and then sell it.

On house hunt, it paid to get lost

Like many of us, Susan Clayton wished for a home near enough to her job so that she could walk to work every day. A co-owner of the Clark Morley Salon in downtown Baltimore, she had been driving from her home several miles north of the Inner Harbor.

Dream Home

On house hunt, it paid to get lost

Like many of us, Susan Clayton wished for a home near enough to her job so that she could walk to work every day. A co-owner of the Clark Morley Salon in downtown Baltimore, she had been driving from her home several miles north of the Inner Harbor.

Add-ons keep adding up

Ask Raina and Brian Chambers the shape of their house in the old mill town of Oella, or even its style, and they look at each other and laugh.

Sixth home is a charm

In June 2006, Ed and Stacy Hill bought and moved into their sixth house in eight years of marriage. The reasons had nothing to do with restlessness, wanderlust or dissatisfaction. Ed Hill, a private contractor, simply loved to renovate houses and then move on.

Glass wall makes room with a view

Irene Hofmann, executive director of the Contemporary Museum in downtown Baltimore, lives worlds away from traffic lights and city bustle. Her home in the Greenspring Valley of northern Baltimore County is nestled among great old trees on almost 2 acres of property that backs up to a 100-acre horse farm. But, as at the museum she runs, the emphasis is on contemporary.

Living large after making a deal

Kim Stepherson always wanted a big, old, yellow house. She grew up in one - a grand Victorian in Catonsville. However, her husband, Dave, a 41-year-old portfolio manager working in Baltimore, didn't want the work of restoring an old house.

Lots of room, but cozy still

With 5,800 square feet of intricately carved plaster moldings, sweeping archways and parquet oak flooring, it's hard to digest the beauty of Tom Hall's home all at once.

Seeking, finding oldtime charm

North of Boston Street in the Baltimore neighborhood of Canton, two-story rowhouses line the streets like cereal boxes on a shelf. The alleys behind each neat row are whistle-clean testaments to pride of ownership. Marble front steps and painted window screens set against Formstone siding define the area with the flavor of a bygone Baltimore.

History with a river view

For some, the desire to return to one's roots is a strong pull. Wendy Adams acted on that urge in the fall of 2002.

Dream Home

Happily ensconced in Mount Vernon

When the lure of living in a historic city neighborhood combines with a love of Beaux Arts architecture, there are few Baltimore residences more appealing than Washington Place, situated at the foot of Mount Vernon's Washington Monument.

With room to grow

From a winding road in Howard County's small town of Fulton, it's not easy to spot the home of Dr. Francisco Ward and his wife, Nadia. That is just as they would have it.

Dream Home

First time is divine

Nancy Short considers herself a blessed person and calls her little brick Cape Cod in Catonsville - the first house she has ever owned - a divine gift.

Dream Home

Collector's setting

Holly Greve has proved that it's never too late to start over. In her case, it was acquiring the right setting for a precious collection of furnishings from another place in time.

Dream Home

A vision realized

Eduardo Cini uses his creative skills daily in his job as a professional hair stylist.

Dream Home

Artwork in progress

In 2001, Mike and Mary Landavere were renting an apartment in an old Victorian home in Catonsville when, after five years, they decided to search for a home of their own.

Dream Home

Updated classic

When Camilla and David Rawe bought their five-bedroom, two-story brick home in Garrett County's Grantsville in 1986, they had five of their six children and were in the market for a spacious house, convenient to David Rawe's veterinary practice, schools and parks.

Dream Home

Home is her life's work

When Lucy McKean calls her home a lifelong labor of love, she speaks quite literally.

Dream Home

Water is focus

Joyce and Karl Ardo wanted a house by the water and a room with a view.

Dream Home

In a Victorian way

From the ornately decorated entrance hall of her Catonsville home, Andy Braid offers a somewhat unusual welcome to first-time visitors: "If you don't like Victorian, you're in the wrong house."

Dream Home

A mix of old, new

Five years ago, a South Baltimore property on Jackson Street was a vacant lot next to a bar and littered with bottles and debris.

Dream Home

La Plata rambler

Carl and Barbara Baldus refer to their very wide, one-story brick house as a rambler. In the "Old Line" Colonial location of Charles County in Southern Maryland, the sprawling house sits at the top of a long driveway amid acres of rolling green and landscaped gardens that include a large pond.

Dream Home

Living in the past

Most people walking among 18th-century furniture in original surroundings are probably visiting a museum or on a house tour.

Dream Home

A prize in Cedarcroft

Fourteen years ago, Meredith Bower read in her northern Baltimore community's newsletter a for-sale-by-owner house ad. Her life, and that of her family, was about to change forever.