Thanks—super helpful response!

The Druid Hill Y is probably your best bet for something year-round with broad choices of physical activity.

Beyond that, I would investigate the city rec centers and see if any of them offer exercise programs. I get the feeling that they do, but the city website is unhelpful in figuring out which site offers what.

As far as swimming goes, I know there's an outdoor pool in Druid Hill Park, and I believe there's another in Sandtown-Winchester, though they're both closed in the winter. Friends in southwest Baltimore say you can take swim lessons at the Vivien Thomas Medical Arts Academy in Franklin Square, but I don't know if their pool is open to the public beyond that.

People flipping houses are not installing 40k kitchens. That's either high end custom work or clueless retail clients overpaying.

60k for a rehab that involves a kitchen, 2 bathrooms floors, electrical, new HVAC and ducting and all the usual plumbing etc but nothing structural. Rehabs where you have a brick shell and need to frame are 120k+ easily. Underpinning adds another 20k+ to the budget. The fire may have been contained to a particular area of the house or they may have received nonprofit funding. These are all trade prices and assuming you have the connections to not get ripped off by a retail GC.

for sure, I didn't even notice they were trying to turn across me until it was too late. I have an inclination to tell people when they're wrong, but I'm not trying to get shot so I usually just avoid problems.

Driving cars brings out the worst in people.

You need good Cuban bread to start. No one in the city makes good bread so don’t even try the sandwich without it!

Little Havana has good ropa vieja…

Honestly, if you compare the price of what you're getting (not looking at the location for a second) to the prices for places in DC, Boston, Philly, NYC, or other 1st and 2nd-tier cities around the country? $200K all in is not really too bad at all. The same physical setup would easily be a million plus in NYC (maybe closer to 2), as a frame of reference, and that's BK or Queens or the Bronx.

Baltimore punches above its weight in many ways, in terms of what you get access to. You're in the NE sprawl, one of the most vibrant economic hubs on the planet. You're a cheap MARC ride to DC, and on the Amtrak NE corridor. You're on 95. Baltimore metro region is not small in the scheme of things, plenty of local opportunities.

Is a $200K investment in a small home in a pretty significant metro area a better option than in some other places, from an economic perspective? Absolutely, in some circumstances, IMHO. Just know what your schools are like if you have kids, and add private school to the bill if you don't want to tolerate what may be a really challenging learning environment in the public system.

Facility fee is a separate ‘benefit’ in your insurance in addition to the Specialist Visit benefit for seeing the doc. It is sometimes referred to as a ‘clinic visit’ for Hopkins. It could be an additional copay or coinsurance. Call the doctors office and ask them for the cpt codes for both the dr and the facility, then call your insurance company and ask how they cover it.

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The process? Lots of paperwork, planning, estimates, permits. The cost? A fuckton.

This is just where insurance muddles things and creates confusion.

It's explained on Mercy's website in the FAQ for facilities fees.

https://mdmercy.com/patients-and-visitors/billing-and-insurance/hospital-charge-and-facility-fee-information

>A hospital facility fee is separate from and charged in addition to the fee billed by your doctor for the professional services provided during the visit. In a non-hospital setting, these fees are billed together.

Are they that good? Never felt like paying $25 for a sandwich.

My gut (no pun intended) says you're definitely getting close to $150K said and done, and it's a 6-9 month project. This is if you don't do any work yourself, and have a general contractor.

My frame of reference is having my row home (looks similar in size, something like 1100 square feet) about half-gutted and redone maybe 7ish years ago, and this included replacing most of the kitchen including appliances, floor, and cabinets, moving my main bathroom (so a total re-do), and then adding a half bath/powder room.

I didn't do my flooring and a couple rooms, which I kind of regret in retrospect. I didn't have to do a furnace and water heater (although I have replaced my water heater, and that's not cheap).

Prices have gone up a ton since then, with building materials and such pretty heavily impacted from what I understand.

I did this too. Oddly enough, people in my partner’s neighborhood got notifications it was following them home. I only found out because they were playing the sound trying to figure out where it was!

how to remove AirTag speaker

That addressed was posted doesn't seem like one of those areas

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Looks like there’s maybe two other homes that might be inhabited on the block, the houses across the street literally have trees growing out of them. Safety is another variable, not just with living there, but with the rehab itself. You’d have to keep it from getting broken into and have a way to prevent your supplies from getting stolen. Some contractors won’t even do work in an area like this.

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All the hipster Hampden dick riders on this sub act like anyplace cool kids went in their 20s is horrible. I went there after kickball and flag football at Riverside plenty of times, had a bunch of Cuban sandwiches to go with my Modelos, they were never bad.

Awesome photo. Photoshop those hideous new builds out though 😉

I've never seen such aggressive drivers as in DMV. I've lived all over the US and DC and Maryland especially the drivers are soooo aggressive.