Second Floor

A Northwest Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to 33 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of his 17-year-old half-brother during a drunken brawl on their mother's front porch in July, according to Baltimore prosecutors. Eric Little, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a weapons violation in the death of Calvin Ray. According to charging documents, their mother, Sharon Brown, had broken up a fight by stepping between her sons. But as Brown spoke with Ray, Little went inside the house, grabbed a knife from the kitchen, returned to the porch and stabbed Ray in the upper chest, prosecutors said.

For Scott A. Willasch, restoration is better the second time around. In January 2006 a fire all but destroyed his dream home in the 1800 block of Eastern Ave. He remembers it like yesterday's weather. "I came home from work on Friday, Jan. 13th about 9 p.m. and saw 30-foot flames shooting out of the front of my house," he recalled. "My roommate's laptop exploded." Now, almost 19 months after the fire and 10 years since he purchased the property, he's ready to move back in. It's been a rocky road.

A fire swept through a Baltimore rowhouse early yesterday morning, killing one man and injuring a woman, according to Fire Department officials. Witnesses said that a mattress caught fire on the second floor of the building in the 2100 block of N. Calvert St. and that flames quickly spread to other rooms and floors. When fire crews arrived about 3 a.m., they found the second and third floors of the building engulfed in flames, said Kevin Cartwright, chief public information officer for the Baltimore City Fire Department.

They crawled into the burning rowhouse on their hands and knees, advancing beneath fire and smoke, moving straight into an overwhelming heat that pressed in from all sides. They swept into darkness, each sealed head-to-toe in nearly 70 pounds of protective gear, breathing compressed air delivered from the tanks on their backs to the masks on their faces. The Baltimore firefighters who charged through the front door of a blazing Cecil Avenue rowhouse yesterday entered with a fire hose hurling about 100 gallons of water per minute.

Like mourners at a funeral, friends and neighbors gathered at the Robert Long House Museum in Fells Point yesterday to share hugs and regrets after a morning fire tore through the second floor of the historic building.The one-alarm fire charred the second-floor offices of the house, built in 1765, and the oldest existing residence in Baltimore. The first-floor museum sustained water damage but, for the most part, was in good shape.The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fells Point, which purchased the house in the early 1970s, was in the midst of a project that would have linked the house with a new visitors center next door and a maritime museum.

Westlake Builders has opened a new townhouse model at Greenbriar at White Marsh.Gas heat, water and cooking are standard features in this Baltimore County development.The Avalon is a 1,960 square-foot end unit, starting at $99,000.A 10-by-12-foot den, 19-by-15-foot family room and utility room are all options on the lower level of the model.A powder room, a 19-by-16-foot living room and a 19-by-12-foot country kitchen complete the first floor.The second floor consists of a 19-by-14-foot master bedroom with a walk-in closet.

Ryan Homes has a model open at The Parklands in Owings Mills New Town.The townhouse community, which features public water and sewer and natural gas heat, is adjacent to Soldier's Delight State Park. A washer, dryer and refrigerator are included in all townhouses in the community.The model, the Fairfield, starts at $123,490 for 1,840 square feet. It is available with a front or rear kitchen on the first floor and two or three bedrooms on the second floor.The first-floor front kitchen floor plan features an 11-by-10-foot kitchen, powder room, 10-by-8-foot dining room and 20-by-11-foot living room.

A 45-year-old man was in critical condition yesterday after he was severely burned in a fire at his East Baltimore home, a Fire Department official said.The victim suffered third-degree burns on more than 40 percent of his body and was being treated at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, said Capt. John Griffith of the fire investigation bureau.The victim's wife, 52, and another man, 35, who lived in the house in the 2100 block of Ashland Ave. were treated for smoke inhalation and released, Griffith said.

An unidentified man died late Saturday in a fire that began on the second floor of a wood-frame house in Tyaskin, Wicomico County, the state fire marshal's office said.A passing motorist discovered the one-alarm fire about 11 p.m. in the 22000 block of Nanticoke Road. No one else was in the dwelling, according to the fire marshal's office, which estimated damage at $50,000.The identity and age of the victim, who was discovered on the second floor, was withheld pending an autopsy by the state medical examiner in Baltimore.

A 3-month-old boy was killed and an 11-year-old boy and a woman were injured last night in a one-alarm fire at their home in Govans in North Baltimore, a fire official said.Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, a Fire Department spokesman, said the blaze apparently began shortly after 10 p.m. in the infant's second-floor rear bedroom in a brick rowhouse in the 5600 block of Alhambra Ave.Torres said the fire caused extensive damage to the second floor before firefighters brought the blaze under control in less than 30 minutes.

The large, sage-colored house on a quiet corner in Annapolis' Murray Hill neighborhood began in 1930 as a cozy cottage. Many years later, JoLynn and Robert Sheehan decided that an addition would give their growing family a main-level great room for gathering and a little more privacy upstairs. "We actually added the addition for the kids when they got bigger," JoLynn Sheehan said, noting that she and her husband wanted to provide a spacious area for their daughters to hang out at home with friends.

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.

A Northwest Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to 33 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of his 17-year-old half-brother during a drunken brawl on their mother's front porch in July, according to Baltimore prosecutors. Eric Little, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a weapons violation in the death of Calvin Ray. According to charging documents, their mother, Sharon Brown, had broken up a fight by stepping between her sons. But as Brown spoke with Ray, Little went inside the house, grabbed a knife from the kitchen, returned to the porch and stabbed Ray in the upper chest, prosecutors said.

The front of the red-brick house facing Baltimore's Union Square Park has a familiar look. The exterior of the home, with white marble steps and 9-foot-tall windows, appeared in the 1997 movie Washington Square, an adaptation of the Henry James short novel. James wrote his story in 1880. The house, in the Union Square Historic District where the park and its environs were stand-ins for the New York neighborhood of the movie, dates to 1870. Inside, the Italianate-style home's first-floor ceilings are 13 feet high and adorned by large, decorative moldings.

One day in 1999, Barry and Sharon Weiss decided they wanted to spend less of their time in their cars and more of their time in their home. They lived 22 miles from where their children were attending schools in Baltimore, and Sharon Weiss was making daily trips between the schools and the Reisterstown house they were outgrowing. Barry Weiss was driving 600 miles a week to and from work in Washington. "It was just too much of a commute," he said. On a day when he was at home to discuss with an architect the prospects of putting an addition on their home, his wife spotted a Roland Park house for sale that was within walking distance of their daughter's school, Bryn Mawr.

The Fells Point setting is historic, but the four-level townhouse is sleek urban contemporary, down to the floating steel staircase and Brazilian hardwood floors. Highlighting the expansive space are floor-to-ceiling windows and terraces that provide bird's-eye views of Baltimore. The home, one of six Merchant's Row townhouses, was customized for lawyer Jennifer Bragg and her husband, physician Jonathan Jarrow. They bought it new just over two years ago. "What drew us to buy it was unparalleled space," said Bragg.

A fire swept through a Baltimore rowhouse early yesterday morning, killing one man and injuring a woman, according to Fire Department officials. Witnesses said that a mattress caught fire on the second floor of the building in the 2100 block of N. Calvert St. and that flames quickly spread to other rooms and floors. When fire crews arrived about 3 a.m., they found the second and third floors of the building engulfed in flames, said Kevin Cartwright, chief public information officer for the Baltimore City Fire Department.

For Scott A. Willasch, restoration is better the second time around. In January 2006 a fire all but destroyed his dream home in the 1800 block of Eastern Ave. He remembers it like yesterday's weather. "I came home from work on Friday, Jan. 13th about 9 p.m. and saw 30-foot flames shooting out of the front of my house," he recalled. "My roommate's laptop exploded." Now, almost 19 months after the fire and 10 years since he purchased the property, he's ready to move back in. It's been a rocky road.

They crawled into the burning rowhouse on their hands and knees, advancing beneath fire and smoke, moving straight into an overwhelming heat that pressed in from all sides. They swept into darkness, each sealed head-to-toe in nearly 70 pounds of protective gear, breathing compressed air delivered from the tanks on their backs to the masks on their faces. The Baltimore firefighters who charged through the front door of a blazing Cecil Avenue rowhouse yesterday entered with a fire hose hurling about 100 gallons of water per minute.

Those big cherry-flavored wax lips that my friends and I used to buy when I was a boy - well, how could I resist this poem by Cynthia Rylant of Oregon? - Ted Kooser "Wax Lips" Todd's Hardware was dust and a monkey - a real one, on the second floor - and Mrs. Todd there behind the glass cases. We stepped over buckets of nails and lawnmowers to get to the candy counter in the back, and pointed at the red wax lips, and Mary Janes, and straws full of purple sugar. Said goodbye to Mrs. Todd, she white-faced and silent, and walked the streets of Beaver, our teeth sunk hard in the wax, and big red lips worth kissing.