First, brief update on Ryder: yes on print and yes on audio. We will provide links to you when they are available.
Second, at this particular time, we do not provide signed books.
I have a question for you: what is it like to live in Maryland? Also, why is it that with all that land no houses have masters on the first floor?
Carolyn W. posted these really interesting links in the comments and I am bumping them up so you don’t miss them.
“Just because your question made me curious. These may or may not be of any help, but the checking was fun.
The origin of the Master Bedroom https://www.trelora.com/blog/2018/07/master-bedroom-origin/
Baltimore Government; “Architectural History” Explores the architectural history of Baltimore County. First published in 2005. https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/planning/historic_preservation/maps_and_research_links/historyofarchitecture.html
Colorado Builder, “First Floor Master Bedrooms, a trend with staying power.” Suggest that the first floor master bedroom evolved due to increased life expectancy and needs of an aging society.
https://coloradobuildermag.com/design/universal-design/first-floor-master-bedrooms-a-trend-with-staying-power/ “
My son works at the NIH and has been exploring housing in Maryland. The Annapolis area is expensive and he was always outbid on housing. He is noe looking towards Frederick. More land and lots of building going on so his prospects look better. More square footage for the money. I would also recommend Virginia. We live in Blacksburg, Va. lovely mountains, college town. We have no problems with delivery orders.
Really really wonderful crab cake po’boy sandwiches. Annapolis floods due to being really low elevation. A friend lived in Delmarva peninsula years ago and had trouble finding bookstores. Hot and humid summers, cold and damp winters, high taxes, and lots of politics.
I’ve lived in Maryland my whole life and it’s a great place to live. Like many others have said, we get all 4 seasons, we’ve got mountains, beaches, state parks, etc.
I live in Frederick, Md. and we have very wide variety of restaurants (with delivery options). From Frederick we are within 1 hour of 3 international airports and 3 hours from the beaches in Maryland and Delaware.
I did a quick search on Zillow for homes for sale with first floor master bedrooms and there currently 14 available, however some of them are townhouses (row houses) and your friend would not like those.
I also used to live in Montgomery County and though it’s just as lovely as Frederick County is is more expensive, which is one of the reasons we moved to Frederick.
It depends where you want to live in Maryland. We live in Washington county. A little rural but still too close to DC. Also it you want specifics please feel free to email me.
Look in the western part of the be state. Its colder, but gets you of the insanity of the I 95 corridor
Maryland is pretty, but expensive.
Hooray for the single level home! Says the woman who has been having a disagreement with her husband about the style of home to retire too.
My advice is to maybe look for the area first then look into the homes there. Also she could look into the cost of building her own. It doesn’t have to be fancy plus if she is thinking about being older in the same home she could have things already in place like safety rails in the showers even a walk in shower versus climbing into a tub.
Just because your question made me curious. These may or may not be of any help, but the checking was fun.
The origin of the Master Bedroom https://www.trelora.com/blog/2018/07/master-bedroom-origin/
Baltimore Government; “Architectural History” Explores the architectural history of Baltimore County. First published in 2005. https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/planning/historic_preservation/maps_and_research_links/historyofarchitecture.html
Colorado Builder, “First Floor Master Bedrooms, a trend with staying power.” Suggest that the first floor master bedroom evolved due to increased life expectancy and needs of an aging society.
https://coloradobuildermag.com/design/universal-design/first-floor-master-bedrooms-a-trend-with-staying-power/
Great articles!
Great articles. Really enjoyed reading all of them. Thanks.
Maryland is great – you have your choice from shore to mountains. The taxes are slightly higher than Virginia, so there is that consideration. Many of the older houses will not have a master on the first, unless you go colonial old. Is there a specific area of Maryland you (or whomever) were thinking about? I lived in Rockville, but now live across the Potomac in Leesburg. I have friends on the Eastern Shore/Southern Maryland if you need any details. And my brother/SIL are vacaying in Chestertown next weekend. No HEB, but Wegman’s and WaWas abound!
I can answer this!
As someone who has lived in various states, Maryland is one of the most unique (in terms of weather) I think. It’s incredibly humid during the summer (seriously, the air feels so thick it’s hard to breathe), we have a lot of rain and thunderstorms, and the the winter is just as intense! It doesn’t always get to single digit weather but it drops below freezing in the winter almost all the time (unless we’re having an unusually warm winter like last year). Fall and spring are here too but they go by so fast. One week it’s cold, the next it’s sweltering. Vise versa. Hurricane season is in the fall (like November specifically) but it’s not always so bad. When it is, though…. be prepared. Hurricanes have destroyed parts of the state in the past. My first year here, we were buried by a blizzard in March and then trapped in our houses with no electricity for a week in November because of a hurricane. But overall, I do enjoy the weather here because I get to experience a wide range unlike other places I have lived! It’s also a little confusing because it’s a mixture of urban and rural. Additionally, some places here REALLY think of themselves as southern and other places REALLY think of themselves as northern. And the Baltimore accent took me a little while to get used to lol!
As for the master bedroom…that is a good question. I never considered it! But you’re right, almost all the houses I have lived in here in MD, the master bedroom has been on the top floor with the rest of the bedrooms. My current house has the master bedroom on the main floor but people here find it very strange!
I could go on and on (about beaches and don’t even get me started on the “flag crabs” that are literally EVERYWHERE) but I don’t want to bore you ????
Ive only lived in Nj and Nc since moving to the U.S. but in NC we live in military base housing. However all houses have always had the master upstairs.
I am also reading these posts because MD is one of our possible choices when hubby retires from Active Duty in about 2 years. Taking notes!
I am a real estate photographer and most of the newer homes now have master suites on the first floor. Living in Maryland is wonderful. You can go from the Ocean City to the mountains of the Appalachia. One of the major joys of summer is eating Blue Crabs either right out of the shell or as crab cakes. We are surrounded by history here. George Washington resigned his commission in Annapolis. We held off the battle hardened British at the Battle of North Point and we kept back the British fleet in the Battle of Fort McHenry. The home where the Star Spangled Banner was made is preserved and is a lovely little museum. We had one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War at Antietam where brother fought brother. The weather is nice and the people friendly. I love it here. I have lived here for at least 58 of my 61 years.
As strange as this sounds, try to be driving distance to a Wegman’s grocery store. If you like food, it will bring a lot of happiness to your life.
I grew up in Baltimore. I used to think I hated humidity like everyone else. But then I moved away and realized that no place that where people say they’ve hated humidity is like the humidity in Baltimore. Now I don’t care what people are complaining about, if I can’t feel the weight of the air, then it’s not really humid to me.
That’s what it’s like to live in Maryland. I liked it fine for what it’s worth.
Living in MD, you can basically choose your environmental feature depending on where you live- we’ve got mountains, farmland, and ocean.
Depending on the county, you can find 1st floor master. Harford Co. has some and I think Carrol Co. as well.
Also, allergy season can be horrendous :/
And humidity can be atrocious…
The location of the owner’s bedroom generally depends on the type of floor plan. Each of these designs has its own specific appearance. If you Google these terms you’ll quickly see how they are arranged.
• In the Colonial style (which is probably the most common in this area), all bedrooms are on the upper floor. Occasionally you’ll find an addition with a bedroom suite on the main floor.
• Ranch houses are all on one floor. Some also have basements. Ranches have a big footprint, so they are more common where land prices are lower. The Ranches in my community are folded into an L-shape to fit on the lot, but that leaves very little back yard.
• Split Foyer houses (aka Raised Ranch) are like Ranch houses with a basement, but you enter half-way between the two floors. This floor plan gives one-level living but there are always a lot of stairs. Split Foyers often have 3 bedrooms on the main level and another 1-2 on the lower (half-in-ground) level. Split Foyers were especially popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
• The Split Level has three levels: one with the kitchen/dining/living rooms, one up a half-flight of stairs to bedrooms, and one down a half-flight to a family room and often another bedroom. The half-stories are off to one side of the main living level. There are Split Levels with four or five floors, too, where the owner’s suite is on its own intermediate level; these are sometimes called Stacked Split Levels.
• The Back Split is rare here but does exist. A Back Split also has three levels, like the Split Level, but the half-flights stretch across the back of the house instead of the side.
• Cape Cod floor plans often have 1-2 bedrooms on the main floor, with 1-3 more upstairs under a peaked roof.
Because so many owner’s bedrooms are on an upper floor around here, there is a thriving market for stairlifts and retrofitted elevators. Some new houses and townhouses are built with an elevator, but it isn’t common.
I’m from MD, born and raised. I live in the city/ suburbs of Baltimore. I highly suggest if your friend does decide to move here to move far away from that area. The traffic is terrible, the people are angry, and the crime is rising. If not for my job and insurance I would move out of state in a heartbeat. Yes there are beautiful parts of MD but you have to go a little farther out to find them.
I can’t speak for Maryland specifically, but I live in Tennessee and most of the houses I’ve been in don’t have a master bedroom downstairs. I had one friend whose house has one and that was a newer expensive neighborhood that they moved into when both kids in the household were older.
Personally I can see why a lot of parents may want that especially with older children, but I talked about it with my mom once and she said she would never buy a house where the parent’s bedroom was on a different floor. That may have changed now that we’re older if we needed to move back in, but her reasons then were she wanted to know if one of us got sick in the middle of the night or were doing something we weren’t supposed to. She also worried about what would happen if there was an emergency like a fire or break in. She was a single parent by then, but even before my father died he was out of town for work regularly and she worried about trying to get 2 small children out of the house by herself and she didn’t want to have to start so far away.
This is a really common concern for families with small kids – moms want to be close to the kids. But that changes as we age. I live in east Tennessee, and virtually everything here is a split-foyer. After my husband died, I spent two years searching for a single story home with a garage, that didn’t cost twice as much as my existing home. Two years! I wanted something where I could stay as long as possible while remaining independent. Having stairs, even in a split-foyer situation, makes it difficult and even dangerous for people as they age. My MIL who is 78, got pulled down her stairs by her dog, and even though it was only seven steps, she broke her leg in two places. So then she couldn’t navigate the stairs at all on crutches and needed to go stay with another relative until she healed. First floor “owners’ suites” NEED to become a trend!
OK now I’ll put my soapbox away 😉
I have a friend in MD who wanted a downstairs master to accommodate her aging mastiff. It was definitely a challenge, but she found one in an older community just off of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Laurel, MD. The big drawback is that type of real estate near the beltway can be pricey (in the half-million range). We actually built a single-level in rural Central Virginia (near Charlottesville) to escape DC and allow for retirement and the inevitable decrepitude. Regardless, as former residents of MD during several military tours, we love the state for all the reasons everyone else has stated. It’s blue, surprisingly rural in areas, diverse, four-season, and a hop, skip, and jump from major metropolitan areas if you need the occasional spice in your life. Good luck to your friend in his/her house search!
I love living in Maryland! I live in Baltimore city and I think its the best of all worlds. Fairly small as cities go, but big enough for lots of interesting entertainment and restaurants. Cost of living is low for cities, but if you don’t want to be near DC, you can find even cheaper suburbs. Its 20 minutes to hiking trails, and nice city parks are closer. Winter weather is pretty mild (I’m from Wisconsin). Summer is hotter and more humid than is comfortable, but fall is amazing and lasts forever. Maryland Sheep & Wool festival is just down the road 😉
After your friend moves (and we’re beyond covid), go visit her over the first weekend in May so you can take in the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. Not as hefty as Rhinebeck, but still worth the trek. ????
My daughter just bought a house here in Georgia with the master bedroom on the ground floor. This is the first house I’ve ever seen that way. We suspect the owners wife may have used a wheel chair. All the light switches are low (think within a 2yr old’s reach). It does make sense for older people.
Used to live in Maryland and although every rabbit loves its own briar patch, I highly recommend at least looking there. Maryland is beautiful, lots of trees and parks, but horrible traffic in metro D.C.-Baltimore corridor. Washington has so many charms, including world class museums, and other attractions, much of which is free! Some of the homes built by Levitt in the early 1970’s, had models that included a master bedroom/bathroom downstairs. (More specifically, Bel Pre subdivision in Wheaton/Silver Spring, outside of Washington.) I was a teenager (many moons ago) in one. Master down is harder to find in many areas, unless one is looking in a retirement community. Look in western Maryland, if you like four seasons, and less congestion. Look in deep southern Maryland, if you like the water, and fairly flat landscape. It still has some tobacco farms and great seafood. The Eastern shore is great, too, but does suffer from occasional hurricanes.
I live in Maryland and there is tons to see and do. Beautiful mountains, lakes, beaches, and best of all Annapolis. Not the most economical place to live if retired. It’s true you will only find first floor master in newer construction.
Marylander here! I live in the suburbs outside D. C. and I love living here for many of the reasons already commented… all four seasons, beautiful land with beach and mountains, great food, and all the amenities of the capitol just a few miles away. Here are some of my takeaways about the day to day:
-State flag pride is strong
-Old Bay is classic MD flavor, but there is JO, too
-You need A. C and heat in your home
-Pollen is terrible
-Traffic is hellish around the beltway. I live 7 mi from my in laws, but if I’m driving in the worst of rush hour it can take up to an hour to get there.
-I’m very privileged to spend a lot of my summer on the Eastern shore. From my personal experience with people from different parts of MD, closer to D. C. votes blue and closer to the shore votes red. I don’t think the state as a whole is as blue as it looks on paper
-Everyone I know buying real estate with an acre+ right now is going north up 270 from Germantown and into Frederick. From what I hear, great place to live but missing some night life
-I’ve never had problems with delivery where I live, but nothing is open after 10pm. Late night options get better the closer to D. C. you go
How would you like to live in an area where within a few minutes drive you can reach a major metropolitan area (or two with DC), the beach, the mountains, areas surrounded by farms, large wooded areas, and some of the best food options in the nation? The downside? We’re gonna tax you for all of it. 🙂
I’ve lived here my whole life and while the taxes do suck it’s not so bad.
Whether you intend to move here or write a novel with Maryland as the background please understand that I wholeheartedly welcome you.
As to having a master bedroom on the first floor… I would think if you’ve got money, land, and intend to build a large home on it you might consider having the master on the bottom floor. But if space is limited you’re gonna build up… and it’s nice considering your bedroom the penthouse suite.
I currently live in Baltimore County Maryland. Maryland is a nice place to live. It’s not the cheapest, but it’s nice. We have a lot of hills. When we have driven to Florida it’s always remarkable to me how very flat it all is. We experience all four seasons very definitely. We get snow periodically in winter, but usually a heck of a lot less than what my coworkers who live in PA get. We obviously have a variety of house styles in every area of Maryland, but more often than not it is two stories, usually with a basement. Many of the houses in my particular area (I live just outside Baltimore City) were built in the early 50s. You get three bedrooms, one bathroom, all upstairs and the downstairs is living, dining, kitchen. Built well and with nice trims on the doors, but nothing fancy. Closets are tiny, apparently no one owned clothes in the 50s. And one parking space because no one envisioned a life where people had multiple cars. Ahaha. To me it feels like in Maryland there is no space between different jurisdictions/towns/cities. In some states, like Florida or Pennsylvania, you can drive between one town and the next and there is a definite zone between them with not much there. Maryland feels more like one giant community in some aspects as the line between localities is just a line on a map, when you are driving it’s just one continuous community with no space between. If you go to western Maryland, it’s likely more spread out with more farm area. The general I-95 corridor that goes between Washington DC and Baltimore is developed pretty much completely with houses and businesses in every direction. I’m not sure if that answers your question or not, but MD is nice. As with every state, there are nice neighbors and jerk neighbors but more nice than jerks. For the house question, I don’t know, but I’m guessing the idea of having a master bedroom downstairs is a newer theory. Possibly many of the houses in Maryland were built in the 80s or before. Some of the newly built houses may have that feature added, but most places I see new development going in it is usually townhomes so they can cram more houses/get more money into the small plot of land they have.
Not entirely sure if that answers your question but hopefully that helps.
Thanks for being so awesome and all that you do. Thank you for the never ending entertainment you provide. You all rock!
When my parents aged, we put chair lifts in for them to go up the stairs. Worked quite well. My grandmother had one too. Personally, I’d never want a bedroom on the main floor. I like to be away from the bustle of kitchen, family room, living room and their tvs and computers.
We live in Northern Virginia, in the Fairfax county portion of Alexandria. We built our house 10 years ago with a custom home builder at the tail end of the subprime mortgage crisis. Even though we were fortunate to sneak in to the market before real estate pricing swung back very high in the DC metro area again, we still built a two story (with basement), with bedrooms (including the master) up on the second floor because land is just so expensive and space is at such a premium. As native Midwesterners, our instinct would have been to build a home with a master on the main floor, but we sacrificed that in order to have a decent amount of main living area space for entertaining. Regardless, it turned out great and we love the area, Washington politics aside.
I will just insert, that though I’ve lived in CA, NY, DE and PA, I think MD has the super wonderful best skies and light ever ;). Written from Maryland…
I love living here! I’ve lived around the country, and this is one of my favorites. The summers aren’t as bad as the south, the winters aren’t as bad as the Midwest.
I live slightly north of Baltimore on I-95. I can be in downtown Baltimore in 30 min, Philly in an hour and fifteen, and DC in an hour and fifteen (depending on traffic). But, all that said, my area is a little more rural. Traffic isn’t bad. Slightly slower pace, but with plenty around if I want to do anything or something special! A quick overnight trip to NYC? Easy! I just drive to New Jersey and take the train. Only takes about 2.5 hours to get there! And the beach! On a few hours away to the Atlantic (I don’t recommend beaches in the Chesapeake Bay lol).
I love how green it is here in the summer. I missed that when I was living in Kansas. I adore trees! I also love all the clear rivers and streams around in the summer. My friends and I grab some drinks and sit in the river for a few hours (or tube, but sometimes we are cheap or lazy!) When I was in Louisiana, the water was always so dirty!
Housing prices are a bit high, but considering how close the metro areas are, my area isn’t bad in comparison.
I am lucky enough to have a first floor master in my townhouse. Someone commented above that you’re probably need to look for a newer build, and I would agree with that. The older houses in this area are very “vertical” and the bedrooms are all upstairs.
The house in which I grew up in Ohio was built in the 1890’s. It had a full bath upstairs, where the bedrooms were, and not so much as a washroom downstairs. If you had dirty hands, you had to wash them in the kitchen sink. My parents had five children. The house had 3 bedrooms. At some point, someone put hot water radiators in and got rid of the pot-bellied stove that heated the house from the center of the lower floor. My parents did the only thing they could to save sanity in that house and installed a half-bath downstairs, then moved their bedroom down there. Three houses in a row, built as mirror images of each other, smallest on one side, largest on the other, ours was in the middle. On both sides of us, people did exactly what my parents did. A little remodeling goes a long way to make a house livable. My grandparents next door had the largest house with their 7 children, and their bedroom was off the middle room downstairs, which is where my parents put theirs. It doesn’t take much to put a bathroom within reach, and closets can be built in or purchased as stand-alone items. We had a stand-alone closet in what had been the biggest bedroom upstairs, the other two rooms got built-ins between them because they were built as one room and divided as children got born. The middle room upstairs was just a lonely room with bookshelves and stuff all around. No one wanted to sleep where everybody had to walk through to get out of their bedrooms, so it was a wasted room. As children, we played with all our toys up there where company never saw our messes.
Find the house you like where you like it sitting on property you like enough to own, and remodel a little, and you have whatever you want in your home. As long as it’s not illegal to have a bedroom downstairs, there are very few issues with putting in a bathroom and some closets. No house is ever going to be perfect the day you buy it. Come close, get a name of someone who can change what you can’t live with, and buy the house of your dreams and make it your own.
I’ve lived in Maryland for the last 4o years and other than in a one-level home, the houses I’ve seen NEVER have a bedroom on the first floor. Many areas of Maryland get very hot in the summer and upstairs bedrooms are intolerably uncomfortable without air conditioning. Think it’s a plot by the HVAC guys who recommend getting a second AC unit for the second floor.
Hi Ilona. I have lived in MD for 11 years which is the longest amount of time I’ve lived anywhere. I live in a semi rural area in St. Mary’s county in a very small town called California. It is not a blue part of the state however. It took some years for me to like it here but now I love it. My husband loves it here too. We had our home built and yes there are few homes with a master on the first floor unless you have it built. Another option would be to own a ranch home or a home with only one floor, and there are some adorable ones here.
We get all 4 seasons and there’s plenty of coastline so you can live on the water or walking distance to water.
Before COVID there was absolutely no places that delivered food. We have a ton of local restaurants and a lot of chains as well. Now Almost everyone delivers because that’s what they have to do to stay in business. I also appreciate how our state handled the pandemic. It is mandatory to wear a mask in indoor public places. The St. Mary’s hospital was one of the first hospitals in the state to offer drive through COVID testing which I have done and it was hassle free in my opinion. I also appreciated how our local business handled the pandemic. Everyone wears masks that I’ve seen and the local businesses take a lot of precautions.
I can only speak to this area of Maryland that I live in. It will be different in places like Annapolis and Baltimore and even areas on the eastern shore and western Maryland.
Hope this helps!
I read what I posted to my husband and he was appalled I didn’t mention blue crabs and oysters, and insisted I immediately remedy that. So yeah, blue crabs and oysters. There is crab fest and beer fest in the summer and oyster fest in the fall at our St. Mary’s fairgrounds. We also have alpaca fest in the fall (beautiful yarns) but that is about an hour away from where we live but totally worth the drive. I get tons of yarn from local alpaca farms at that festival. There is also a beautiful high end yarn store 15 minutes from my house which I love.
I live in Baltimore. I dream of living in a rancher. It’s super-rare to see first floor bedrooms! Instead, elevators. Also, lots of senior living communities. We have a wonderful independent bookseller, The Ivy, about to re-open in their new location. For some reason, we do not have skunks. Our foxes are gorgeous!
I lived in Maryland for two years just outside of DC and did not like it. I grew up (and now live) in Alaska so part of it was just so. many. people. Related to that is the impersonal nature of moving about the community… most places in Alaska, you have the “small town” feel of knowing (almost) everyone, running into people at the store, etc. Another part of that was just a very different culture. People were much more formal in the professional world, and where I lived in Silver Springs it was my first time living somewhere where it wasn’t safe to walk outside at night. I was harassed when I walked down the street. And it was very jarring then visiting Smithsonians and monuments in DC. Very different communities from block to block within DC and suburbs of DC like Prince George county cities in Maryland.
I don’t know about Maryland but up here in B.C., Canada. Having a master bedroom on the first floor is just weird.
Living is Maryland is great but only if you like getting ALL the seasons! I have lived in MD for almost 20 years. The rural areas are especially peaceful and scenic. The trees in the fall are breathtaking! The only downside is the Trump signs is certain areas…
I also have lived in St.Mary’s county and second everything that Steph said!
Maryland sounds great. Now that my mother has past, I am thinking of moving somewhere that suits me better. I miss snow. I am thinking of Colorado Springs. I would have some desert and their wonderful zoo. The mountains. I think it might be Colorado for me.
I’ve lived in Maryland for close to 25 years now. Prior to that, about 3 years in Raleigh, NC, and my first 23-ish years in Michigan.
Scenically, Maryland is like MI, PA, NC in that it has a lot of trees and lots of hills and flat areas.
Weather wise, it is much milder than Michigan (of course, I was from the snow belt of MI, so everywhere is milder). Northern MD is more likely to see ice instead of snow. Have had a few snow events, but even Raleigh has had some snow events. (Or what they call events. Michiganders would call that a dusting.) More humid than MI (and definitely more humid than AZ), but less than FL and Houston, from what I’ve heard. Area got hit with that one derecho a few years ago, although my house didn’t get hit. One minor earthquake (the one that damaged the Washington monument). The occasional tornado. All in all, doesn’t have a lot of natural disasters.
Cost of living is probably higher than most parts of TX. When my brother moved here from GA and was building a house, he was surprised at how expensive it is, but he blamed it on the code requirements. He was also very surprised that I bought my small house for $290k when the same amount of money in GA would buy a much bigger house. So be prepared for a much higher cost of living.
I don’t think I’ve particularly heard mention of health care being better, per se, but the school districts in some areas are nationally ranked. Public schools, no less. That was one of the reasons why my brother wanted to move here as opposed to staying in GA.
Hope all that helps.
It depends on where in Md. there is Baltimore. Yuck. The People’s Republics of Montgomery County and Prince Georges County (DC burbs, expensive and essentially 13 overlapping HOAs), southern md (beginning of Tobacco Road), western Md (Pennsytucky and WV) and the Eastern Shore. They all might as well be different countries. I’ve lived in the Baltimore burbs, the DC burbs, went to HS on the Eastern Shore and went to college in Southern Md. give me a county / town and I can give you the dirt.
I’m in Delaware and could lob a ball over the Maryland line from my front yard. I think everyone has already covered it. Many of the houses out here are simply too old to have that design style. I had to look at 31 houses to find one I liked and could afford with a “real” master bedroom (room for a king size bed, large private bath, walk in closet, and the ability to get the bed up the stairwell). I didn’t even care what floor of the house it was on. The colonials are plentiful out here and lovely, but they are rarely going to have a modern floor plan. They have small bedrooms, small closets (assuming there are closets even – armoires and wardrobes used to be pieces of furniture, not “rooms”), small bathrooms and small kitchens. Everything will be broken into multiple rooms. My aunt lives in a house from the 1700s. My uncle has one in Old New Castle from the early 1800s. They are gorgeous to look at, but my aunt and my uncle have spent the past 30 years on various reconstruction projects (and coping with the historical committee in my uncle’s case). Your friend might need a good real estate agent. The more modern builds are out here, but they can be pesky to find. “Open floor plan” is used to describe everything because the words “open floor plan” out here are like a dragon saying “Spanish gold doubloon”. It’s usually not an actual open floor plan LOL. Avoid anything that has a historical committee is my other piece of unasked for advice. Unless your friend is passionate about saving historical architecture, they do not want that hassle.
I lived in Maryland when I was young – we moved in 1979. The house I lived in had a downstairs master. The basement was unfinished, and the upstairs at the time we lived in it housed two bedrooms but not properly done – it was a smaller area with dormer windows and no hallway. Stairs entered into one bedroom and you had to go through that one to get to the other one. It was probably more finished attic than proper bedrooms – those were downstairs (two). Most of the houses in my small town were that way, I believe. It was built in the late 50s.
I’m afraid I’m decades out of date to tell you what living in Maryland was like; but I can tell you the best steamed crabs can be found there; the autumn colors are beautiful, the snows are generally not terrible, and for me, every time I return there something in my soul is fed.
From relatives that still live there – land is EXPENSIVE, at least in the metro areas, and people can be, well, people. Some not so nice.
There are suburban sections that have 1st floor masters, but most of the housing won’t have masters on the first floor. We do have the ocean and the mountains.
I grew up in MD until I went away for college and my parents still live there. You get 4 seasons, snow, and occasionally ice. Just because of things that have happened in my life and because I’ve lived in AR and KS since, I can tell you it’s got amazing doctors and tons to choose from. No shortage of specialists. The beach is close. My parents owned a condo in Ocean City that was only sold this month. We went in the off season but even in season, the water is never warm. The sand is coarse too, but I grew up going and miss it all the same. It’s close to a lot of other states and historic sites. Traffic is heavy on the beltway and to DC. There’s no toll highways, except the bay bridge has a toll. The crab cakes are the best and access to fresh seafood is always great. I hope you find what you’re looking for.
When I’m house hunting, I visit the neighborhood Fire Station and ask the fire fighters “What kind of calls do you run in this neighborhood?” If they make a few medical calls for a diabetic but it’s otherwise quiet, then I’m researching the sex offender registry as part of my due diligence. If firefighters are running gunshot wounds, stabbings, and drug overdoses its a hard pass on the place.
I wish your friend an uneventful move and a healthy happy home.
(Speaking from the DC-adjacent area of Maryland): Maryland’s nice! You get the same sort of mild weather that you get being off the Chesapeake where you get four solid seasons, so you get some of the heat highs and snow but without the sustained heat/snow that makes the northeast and the south miserable.
The metro area is expensive but peters out a bit further from the cities (still higher real-estate wise than Texas- you’re looking at a smaller lot for the same price), but you also get the upside of an extremely diverse population shops etc. without it being overly urban (I moved from Birmingham to Rockville and now live within walking distance of two tea cafes with a third one five minutes down the road and no fewer than three hot pot places in a ten-minute drive). I’m also close enough to the city to enjoy the Smithsonian when there’s not an apocalypse.
You also get nice nature. You have mountains, you have the bay, you have great wineries, etc. If you enjoy the mountains you’re also close to West Virginia which I highly recommend for camping. There are also weird liquor laws depending on your county: Montgomory County doesn’t let 90% of grocery stores sell liquor and now I no longer have easy access to $5 Aldi’s wine.
Something to consider about living in MD: Income and property taxes are kind of high. No separate “school” tax, at least in Baltimore County.
I was born and raised in a blue-collar suburb of Baltimore. Returned there after my military service. Found the state government to be slightly more intrusive in daily living than other places I had been stationed.
On the plus side, health care, as you mentioned, is top rate. Wide variety of things to see and do close by.
Huh. I don’t see my second post. I can’t remember everything I said, but I remember pointing out the cost of living in MD is probably a lot higher than most places in TX. My brother said building a house here was a lot more expensive than building in GA. He just moved to TX (outside Austin) and built a house, so I asked him to compare MD to TX. He said TX is less than MD but higher than GA.
He also said to point out that MD has a state income tax. (Counties and Baltimore City do, too.)
My comments seem to be getting eaten.
In short… cost of living higher. Building house more expensive than TX, depending on location. And MD has state income tax (as do counties and Baltimore City).