First Floor

On weekdays, the new Padonia-York Building will offer office space and day care.But by week's end, the building's first floor will convert from day care to banquet hall.Principals in the new project, which is under construction on Padonia Road near York Road, say the combination of uses will meet a variety of community needs.As planned, the first floor of the three-story structure will house a day-care center for children ages 2 to 5, while the second and third floors will be used as offices.

The ink on their contract was barely dry and the moving van just out of sight, when Richard and Key-Key von Lange prepared to flip the first-floor interior layout of the six-year-old home they bought in Federal Hill three years ago. "We looked at the house and were sold," Richard von Lange recalled of the rowhouse he and his wife purchased for $395,000. "We wanted parking, we wanted a yard and we liked the location. " The only problem with the three-story, end-of-group home with a rooftop deck was the kitchen just inside the front door.

A Baltimore woman was treated for a mild case of smoke inhalation following a house fire in the 1200 block of W. Lexington St. in Baltimore City Thursday morning. According to Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright, units were called at 8:13 a.m. to a three-story end-of-group house on Lexington Street. He said they found fire in the first floor hallway and going up to the second floor Cartwright said the occupants escaped by climbing onto the roof and down a ladder and that the fire was put out in six minutes.

When 19-year-old Roderick Goodman woke up in a smoke-filled bedroom early Thursday, his first instinct was to get out of the brick rowhouse where he lived with his grandparents and several other relatives. He jumped two stories to the ground in front of the Northeast Baltimore home and landed unhurt. But as flames shot from the first floor of the home in the city's Frankford neighborhood, he heard his aunt cry: "Help me, help me get my baby. " She threw the two-month-old from a second-floor window, into Goodman's arms.

In South Baltimore's Otterbein neighborhood, quiet side streets sit cloaked in the turning leaves of tall trees. The autumn tranquillity, punctuated by an occasional dog barking or church bells chiming, belies the hustle and bustle of nearby downtown activity. It is on one such street, cozily ensconced in her three-story brick rowhouse, that Sharon Michaels counts her blessings every day. As a member of the Austin Group, Interior Designs and Custom Builders, Michaels said she's used to "buying homes, fixing them up and selling to other people."

A Baltimore firefighter was injured Sunday evening battling a blaze in a vacant, two-story rowhouse at 304 E. 24th St. in north Baltimore's Barclay neighborhood. According to the Baltimore Firefighters Union, the fire was reported around 8:08 p.m. and consumed most of the structure's second floor. The firefighter was injured after he fell through a hole in the first floor of the building into the basement, according to a city fire department spokesman and union representatives.

When Belle Fangmeyer's father agreed to come live with her and her husband, Dan, the couple came up with a unique housing solution.They found a two-story log cabin in Middleburg built in 1795 and which most recently had been used to house cows. They took it apart, moved it to their property in Carroll County, put it back together in 1987 and christened it "Tara."Today, the cabin overlooks a pond and sits within a stone's throw of the couple's Westminster brick home -- a restored 1827 Church of the Brethren meetinghouse, dubbed the Christian Royer House, after its original owner.

I got an e-mail from a couple who are looking to purchase a 100-year-old home in Roland Park. They are concerned about a "pronounced" drop of 3 to 6 inches over 10 feet in the floor of the second-floor master bedroom. They wrote that the drop began where the room extends from the main body of the house over a porch. They said the porch underneath and the ceiling appeared to have no drop. There was also a drop (in a perpendicular direction) in the hallway on the first floor. They were told that "old homes settle" but have never seen a home in this price range with drops like this.

The Maryland Department of the Environment will hold three public hearings on the proposed Employee Commute Options regulations:* July 27, 8:30 a.m. at Perryville High School Auditorium, 1696 Perryville Road, Perryville.* Aug. 4, 9 a.m. at the First Floor Auditorium, 300 West Preston St., Baltimore. (Hearing is accessible by mass transit.)* Aug. 5, 9:30 a.m. at Banneker Room, First Floor, Howard County Office Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City.

Executive Center II Location: North Ridge Road, near the juncture of U.S. 40 and U.S. 29 Developer: Executive Center Inc. Leasing agent: C.B. Richard Ellis Inc. Description: Three-story, 50,000-square-foot office complex. Retail services will comprise half of the first floor, with commercial offices on the balance of the first floor and the second and third floors. Construction began in November. Completion is planned for October.

A Baltimore woman was treated for a mild case of smoke inhalation following a house fire in the 1200 block of W. Lexington St. in Baltimore City Thursday morning. According to Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright, units were called at 8:13 a.m. to a three-story end-of-group house on Lexington Street. He said they found fire in the first floor hallway and going up to the second floor Cartwright said the occupants escaped by climbing onto the roof and down a ladder and that the fire was put out in six minutes.

A Baltimore firefighter was injured Sunday evening battling a blaze in a vacant, two-story rowhouse at 304 E. 24th St. in north Baltimore's Barclay neighborhood. According to the Baltimore Firefighters Union, the fire was reported around 8:08 p.m. and consumed most of the structure's second floor. The firefighter was injured after he fell through a hole in the first floor of the building into the basement, according to a city fire department spokesman and union representatives.

The story of Fred and Jan Hallahan's dream home is one of a near miss. The couple, seeking to downsize from their Ruxton home and looking for total first-floor living, visited a custom-designed house in Lutherville that offered a first-floor master suite. The home, designed by architect Donald Ratcliffe in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, featured a sleek, low-slung exterior profile. It was constructed in 1985 as the private residence of a local builder. "It was love at first sight," said Jan Hallahan, the 65-year-old former owner of Trillium women's fashions in Green Spring Station.

History is often a word that people associate with textbooks and professors speaking in monotones. But with the Naval Academy Museum's complete renovation and redesign, the history of the Navy has become something real and vibrant to academy visitors and midshipmen. The museum reopened two weeks ago after undergoing an $11.6 million head-to-toe makeover. "We completely gutted this building," said Scott Harmon, the museum director. The only things left standing at one point, he said, were "the outside walls and the concrete floors."

Two years ago, Jeff Little decided he had enough of the sheep and goats and big barns on his farm in Churchville, Harford County. "I agreed with him," said his wife, Kim Little. "I told him to find me an old stone house in Darlington." And so Jeff Little did an Internet search and found Kaziah's Diary. The three-story stone colonial was certainly in scenic Darlington and certainly old, dating to 1810. However, it was also obscured from the road by thick overgrowth and was, quite decidedly, in need of a total top-to-bottom restoration.

The Annapolis Board of Appeals has upheld a Department of Planning and Zoning decision to allow a homeless shelter to be built on Hudson Street, despite contention from a local businessman who said the shelter does not conform to the city zoning code at the proposed building site. Michael Roblyer, who has a law firm on Willow Street near the proposed shelter site, filed an appeal in February that the Light House Homeless Prevention Support Center, which is scheduled to start construction this summer at 10 Hudson St., could not be built in a BCE, or business corridor enhancement, zone because of the way certain terms are defined in the city code.

When 19-year-old Roderick Goodman woke up in a smoke-filled bedroom early Thursday, his first instinct was to get out of the brick rowhouse where he lived with his grandparents and several other relatives. He jumped two stories to the ground in front of the Northeast Baltimore home and landed unhurt. But as flames shot from the first floor of the home in the city's Frankford neighborhood, he heard his aunt cry: "Help me, help me get my baby. " She threw the two-month-old from a second-floor window, into Goodman's arms.

A one-alarm fire Wednesday night caused property damage estimated at $40,000 to the Mount Washington Food Market in the 1600 block of Kelly Ave.Capt. Calvin Johnson, city Fire Department spokesman, said the fire started in an electrical outlet behind an ice cream cooler on the first floor of the two-story brick building.The fire was confined to the first floor.No one was injured in the fire, which was reported at 10:22 p.m.

When the opportunity to create a custom three-level town house on the harbor front in Canton presented itself about six years ago, Paige T. Davis Sr. grabbed it. Davis set about altering everything from the floor plan to the floor itself. "I had them redo the floor plan. I like open space," said the retired executive, who also had the oak flooring on the second, or main, level laid in a herringbone pattern. Throughout the house, Davis indulged his preference for sleek built-in furniture and cabinetry.

Scouring Federal Hill, Don Smith and Bob Marciak hoped they would find a spacious rowhouse, a little different in style, that would accommodate their wish for a backyard as a soothing refuge from the bustling city. They looked at about 50 houses, Smith recalled, before opening the door to a renovated century-old residence where a gas fireplace exuded a welcome feeling, where the wide living room had a wall of built-in cabinets and shelves, and where a graceful staircase and decorative columns drew the eye toward the rest of the house.