Monkton, Md. | $1.7 Million

A 1990 contemporary-style glass house with five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms, on a four-acre forested lot that steps down to a river

Built with a steel-frame construction that has stood up to multiple hurricanes and at least one tornado, this house is 26 miles north of Baltimore in an unincorporated part of Baltimore County. The community has about 5,000 residents, a horse-country character and a reputation for high-performing schools. There aren’t many businesses in the area, but the Hunt Valley Towne Centre shopping mall is about eight miles southwest.

This house is set high above a river called Big Gunpowder Falls that invites tubing, kayaking and fishing. The 20-mile-long Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail runs close by. The property has no history of flooding — the website Flood Factor rated the risk in the next 30 years as 1 out of 10 — but it is in a FEMA zone that requires flood insurance to obtain a mortgage.

Size: 5,754 square feet

Price per square foot: $295

Indoors: Beginning in 2018, the current owners (one of whom is the listing agent) undertook a thorough renovation that included upgrading the electrical, heating and plumbing systems; installing new flooring, cabinetry and tiles; remodeling the kitchen and all the bathrooms; adding Lutron shades (although the siting and surrounding trees make privacy less of a priority than energy efficiency); painting interior trim a cohesive black; and implementing new landscaping and hardscaping.

The house is constructed symmetrically, with each of the two main floors possessing a large, glass-walled room at either end that offers bucolic views and is anchored by a stone chimney with a wood-burning fireplace. A silo (in appearance only; this house was never a farm) contains a spiral staircase (with a new custom metal railing) that connects the two main levels and is illuminated by a conical glass top.