Over the years, Donna and Norman Highstein have invited many guests to their Stevenson home.
They've thrown sit-down dinner parties for several dozen people and ushered in audiences for plays performed in the basement by a local theater group.
They've shown garden club members around back to study the extensive plantings and four ponds filled with Japanese imperial carp, and welcomed grandchildren visiting from out of town.
The home on Topping Road has been theirs for 18 years, and they still love it. The one-story house was built in 1976 and has three bedrooms. The floor plan was patterned after their first home in Villa Nova.
They lived in the Villa Nova house for five years and liked the layout so much they built a slightly larger home with the same design nearby on Raleigh Road. Fifteen years after that, they built the Stevenson house on a one-acre lot.
"It was designed for maximum entertainment potential," says Norman Highstein, a dentist who practices in Owings Mills.
"This house has had as many as 100 people in it, back in the good old days," says Mrs. Highstein, who recently retired as a bookkeeper in her husband's practice.
The connected living and dining room areas have a 15-foot-high ceiling supported by dark wooden beams. There's a table that can seat 16 people and a baby grand piano.
The white walls are covered with artwork, most of it created by family members. Mrs. Highstein works in bright watercolors to create abstract paintings. Her husband has dabbled in oil painting but says he gave it up because his wife is more talented.
She proudly points out sketches done by their son and crewel work stitched by their daughter when the children were young. The son, Charles Highstein, 41, is a physician in New Jersey. The daughter, Sara Seifter, 38, lives in Columbia. There are five grandchildren.
The outside wall of the living area is a series of sliding glass doors that look out on a 35-by-35-foot deck.
In warmer weather, the Highsteins spend a lot of time on the deck, where they listen to waterfalls in the ponds Dr. Highstein built and look out on the array of flowers and trees. He is a member of the Greater Baltimore Men's Garden Club and designed the garden himself.
"It's like an arboretum," Mrs. Highstein says.
A ceramic Buddha keeps watch over the large cement pond nearest the house. A red maple tree provides some shade in warmer months. In addition to the colorful carp, the ponds are filled with exotic waterlilies, Dr. Highstein says.
In front of the house, he has nurtured pink dogwood trees and dwarf Japanese evergreens so that they are visible from the kitchen windows. "The view to the outside is important," he says.
This time of year, he finds himself sitting in the den, stoking a fire. The paneled room is cozy, with a comfortable couch and easy chairs.
Mrs. Highstein likes the recently renovated kitchen, which has a skylight near the sink and plenty of cabinet space. Some cabinets open on two sides so dishes are easy to reach from different parts of the room.
"I live in the kitchen," she says.
The basement, which is 35 feet long, was meant for fun.
Once a year, the Highsteins are hosts for a play performed by their theater troupe, the Town Drama Group. They have performed plays for 35 years "for our own amazement," Dr. Highstein says.