Calvert County development offers an answer for pandemic living

Later, when schools were ordered closed, the Coxes made preparations in their new, larger house to do distance learning with their students. Also at home, two of their four children, ages 2 to 12, will start the school year online, while the two youngest attend day care.

Jon teaches math to fifth-graders at St. Leonard Elementary in St. Leonard. Melissa teaches first-graders at Dowell Elementary in Lusby. Having additional space, she noted, “has really been a blessing, especially during the quarantine.”

Oakland Hall occupies part of 2,000 acres in Calvert County once owned by Louis L. Goldstein, the folksy, popular politician who was Maryland comptroller from 1959 until his death in 1998. Quality Built Homes plans to build about 270 one- and two-story single-family houses there, and buyers have 16 floor plans to choose from. Base prices currently range from $456,900 to $502,900 but are scheduled to increase soon.

As of mid-August, two lots remained for sale in one section, and another section, with 19 lots, is scheduled to come on the market in September. Sales at yet another section, with about 20 lots, are expected to begin next year.

The house built for the Coxes has 5,000 square feet, a significant increase from the 2,800-square feet in the one they moved from in Lusby. They wanted a home big enough to provide a bedroom for each child so they bumped it out by two feet on one side and converted office space on the main level into a fifth bedroom.

The reconfiguration also added two feet upstairs, and it “allowed us to turn our powder room on the main level into a full bath,” Melissa said.

Three-quarters of the basement has been finished, leaving the remaining space for storage. The Coxes are leaning toward one day turning the storage area into a sixth bedroom, which would be next to an existing full bathroom. Jon said it would make outstanding living quarters for in-laws.

A notable selling point, Jon said, was the absence of the usual set of stairs from the foyer to the second floor. “You don’t see any stairs. They’re kind of down and around the corner and tucked in the back near the kitchen. That was a big thing.”

With an eye to entertaining relatives and others, they decided that tweaking the kitchen design was important. They enlarged the standard six-to-seven-foot island to nine feet and upgraded to an outsize farmhouse sink.

“I like the antique look of the sink, the openness of it, how it flows,” Melissa said of the three-foot-wide, white ceramic sink.

Morning room: Jon said he is pleased with the house’s location, at “the last driveway before you get to the cul-de-sac.” It’s surrounded by a cluster of trees set aside as forest-retention area.

In back, the house has a deck and an enclosed 14-foot-long morning room. “There’s nothing but windows all the way around it,” Jon said of the morning room, which looks out on a creek and woods. “When you sit there in the morning and evening,” he said. “it almost feels like you’re in a forest.”

Melissa said she enjoys watching the “birds and the squirrels jumping through the trees. And I’m excited about seeing the snow in the trees.”

“But just one snowfall. Get it out of its system,” she added, laughing.

Their neighbors include teachers, police officers, Secret Service agents and employees of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, nearly 30 miles south in Lexington Park.

Jon, whose roots run deep in Calvert County, grew up in a tightknit family, surrounded by a forest preserve in nearby Huntingtown.

Melissa, who also grew up in the county, said she enjoys going to museums and big league sporting events in the District, but always feels a tug, drawing her home to Calvert County. “It still seems very small and rural. I like being close to the water.”

Nearby: Calvert Cliffs State Park, Flag Ponds Nature Park, Solomons Island and Breezy Point Beach and Campground are within a 30-minute drive. The closest regional mall, Westfield Annapolis, is less than an hour north. Big-box retailers like Target and Kohl’s have locations in St. Mary’s County.

In downtown Prince Frederick, covid-19 restrictions are gradually being lifted and businesses are reopening. The businesses include a winery, a brewing company and a variety of restaurants.

Schools: Barstow Elementary, Calvert Middle and Calvert High.

Transit: The Maryland Transit Administration operates commuter bus service from the Prince Frederick Park and Ride into the District.

105 Oakland Hall Rd., Prince Frederick, Md.

Two lots are currently for sale in Phase 4A at base prices ranging from $456,900 for the Montross floor plan to $502,900 for the Brentwood. Sales in Phase 4B, with 19 lots, are scheduled to begin in September. Sales in the fifth and final phase, expected to have 20 or 21 lots, are tentatively set to begin in 2021. Prices are scheduled to increase in late August.

Builder: Quality Built Homes

Features: The one- and two-story single-family houses sit on wooded lots as large as two acres. Ceilings are nine feet high on the main level, and the houses have six-foot-high windows in front. Houses come standard with two-car garages and unfinished basements. Living rooms and dining rooms have crown molding. Floors are hardwood in the foyer and vinyl in the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms. Buyers have a choice of four interior door styles and four paint colors with white trim. The kitchens have 42-inch raised-panel maple cabinets with slide-out and soft-slide drawers and soft-close doors. Kitchens also have four recessed lights. Family rooms have gas fireplaces. Wiring is provided for two ceiling fans and an interior fire-safety sprinkler system. The development is Energy Star-certified for energy efficiency.

Bedrooms / bathrooms: 3 to 5/ 3 to 5

Square-footage: 2,593 to 3,193

Homeowners association fee: $600 a year.

Contact: Barbara Higdon, community sales manager, at 410-610-6049, 410-535-6291, or Barbsellshomes1@gmail.com. Walk-in viewings or by appointment. Virtual tours are available.