Couples

Jamila Ward and Lionel Jennings had been house hunting on and off for two years when their agent pointed the couple in a new direction: a formerly condemned property in a revitalized area of Baltimore. Some city neighborhoods, just years ago marked by abandoned or deteriorating single-family homes, are becoming places of renewal, with nonprofit agencies buying up properties and renovating them for sale to first-time homebuyers. Ward and Jennings, her fiance, qualified for one of these properties in the Johnston Square neighborhood on the city's east side.

When Gunther and Linda Than moved into their one-bedroom unit in Canton's Anchorage Tower condominiums, they really downsized. The Thans moved from their larger unit in the Anchorage to one of the smallest at less than 1,000 square feet of living space, which includes the outdoor balcony. The entire front of the condo (living room, dining area, master bedroom and balcony), like every unit in the Anchorage Tower, has a water view, as well as a view of the city skyline and beyond. "Every unit here has a great view [so]

An endangered lemur species native only to the island of Madagascar has grown its global population by one with the birth last month of Maximilian - the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore 's newest Coquerel's sifaka. The species (pronounced CAHK-ker-rells she-FAHK) produce babies that resemble "tiny gremlins" before their white hair begins to grow in, the zoo said. Images of "Max," as he's known, show his hair has come in - he was born March 30, though his birth was announced Wednesday - and he can now be seen on some days with his parents inside the zoo's sifaka exhibit at the Chimpanzee Forest, zoo officials said.

Wedding date: Feb. 23, 2013 Her story: Kimberly Carlins, 32, grew up in Ocean Pines. She is a government contractor for URS Corp. in Germantown. Her father, Leo, is a repairman for Sears, and her mother, Renee, is a secretary for a nonprofit organization. His story: Sigmund Young, 32, grew up in Bethesda. He is an engineer at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington Yard in the District of Columbia. His father, Charles, is a physician, and his mother, Sue, is her husband's office manager.

Outside what was once a backyard garage, mugs, sponge holders and broad bowls are lined up on tables to dry. A peek inside the structure reveals dozens of butter dishes, teapots, toothbrush holders, bowls of every size, vases, trays and more, all in various stages of production, resting on racks of shelving. And by the windows, with sunlight illuminating their potter's wheels, Nevan Wise is turning brick-sized blobs of clay into pitchers, and her husband, Doug Wise, is shaping clay lumps into kitchen utensil jars.

When hearth and home - together with a growing family and an onsite family business - are at the center of day-to-day living, a small and dated one-story farmhouse in Ellicott City begins to burst at the seams. To keep their extended family under one roof while preserving the one-bathroom house built in 1954, the Harbin and Taylor families found the only solution was to build additions. "My mom and uncle were raised on the original farm down the road," Kim Harbin Taylor said. "That house was on 18 acres, and they farmed an additional 44, raising sweet corn and tomatoes.

The 33-year-old son of a Howard County man on trial for allegedly killing his wife and burying her beneath a backyard shed two decades ago testified through tears on Thursday about waking up on the morning of her disappearance and wandering around the home looking for her. Robert Jarrett III was 10 years old at the time, and it was a morning ritual for his mother, Christine, to wake him and his younger brother. On Jan. 4, 1991, he got up on his own and saw no sign of her. He checked her bed and the garage, and then called his aunt.

Dr. Benjamin Carson's remarks have been taken grossly out of context by critics who refuse to acknowledge that homosexuals, who cannot procreate, have no bona fide interest in the same government protected marriage rights and responsibilities that heterosexual couples are subject to ("Hopkins chides Carson for gay-marriage remarks," April 6). Unlike the growing number of bigots at Hopkins and elsewhere who denounce all non-supporters of same-sex marriage, Dr. Carson was in no way the least bit critical of homosexuality.

Wedding date: Feb. 9, 2013 Her story: Dana Perzynski, 28, grew up in Columbia. She is an associate planner with Ayers Saint Gross, an architectural and planning firm in Baltimore. Her mother, Karen Kurzawa, is a commercial interior representative; her father, Paul Perzynski, died in 1996. His story: Graham Johnson, 30, grew up in Davidsonville. He is a vice president and commercial relationship manager at SunTrust Banks. His father, Todd Johnson, is managing director of investor relations for National Real Estate Advisors; his mother, Gail Johnson, died in 2008.