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I Don’t Hate It

 




The news this morning is enraging and frightening. I’m writing today not because it doesn’t matter to me but because showing up here has become a promise I keep to myself.  - - jam

*****

I’m having a bit of a problem. The Baltimore Banner has featured another one of those Howard County homes again. You know, the kind that has all the bells and whistles and sits on a massive lot and costs more than a million dollars.

Correction: more than two million dollars.

That’s not the problem. The problem is me. I usually find these luxury real estate offerings ghastly. This one is faintly attractive. I don’t hate it.

This worries me.




Image from Baltimore Banner real estate article, attributed to Bright MLS

Here are all the deal breakers for me: 

House is too big 
Lot is too big
Location (for me) is terrible
Too expensive, obviously 
Walkability? Zero.

What I like:

  • The kitchen sink faces into the room
  • Architectural detail



The sunroom is pretty nice, too.





Overall it manages to hint at a feeling of homeyness rather than repelling me with an onslaught of conspicuous gaudiness. Well, except for the home chapel.




Easily large enough for prayer services and/or small weddings, the elegant high altar is…a bathtub? (Don’t forget to take a shower on the way in.)

Whoever designed this house must have been playing with some of the same architectural elements that were common in the homes I grew up in. That’s the only reason I can come up with for why it appeals to me at all.

Weird.

I hope someone is very happy there. Well, a bunch of someones. An entire team of happy someones to fill its impressive largeness and maintain its homey vastness.

How I would love to see that yard upgraded with a funfair and some bouncy castles. 




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