Late one night 30 years ago, Bob Brenner entered the Clarksville home he had just bought. It was the first time he had set foot in the house after dark. What he saw astounded him.
"A full moon shown through the skylight," he remembered. "It was so bright I thought the lights were on. My shadow, and the shadows of things around me, was like nothing I'd ever seen before - long, like in sunlight."
From then on, a sign has hung at the entrance to his Howard County property showing the home's name: Moonshadows.
Brenner, a 70-year-old veterinarian and amateur actor, settled on his beloved Moonshadows in 1977 for $200,000. The modern home was designed by the prominent Baltimore architectural firm of Grieves Worrall Wright & O'Hatnick Inc. Among James Grieves' notable designs is the Marine Mammal Pavilion of the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
The one-level home with three pyramid roofs is tucked off a country road and rests on 6 1/2 meticulously landscaped acres.
The home's north front is all brick, while the back of the house, facing south and the warmth of the sun, is glass.
What lies between is a feast for the eyes.
At the end of a long driveway, an aggregate stone patio leads up to double doors that open onto an entrance hall of the same stone. The emphasis is on bringing the outdoors inside.
Beyond the hall, the center portion of the home is the great room, where a cathedral ceiling of white pine planking and dark oak soars 20 feet. Radiating from the room, like the spokes of a wheel, are a galley kitchen, breakfast nook and guest bedroom.
A royal palm tree in the center of the great room stretches halfway to the ceiling. A semi-circular white leather sofa is embellished with three large needlepoint pillows of tropical flowers in blue. The color is enhanced by blue glass figurines and a crystal bird on a glass coffee table.
Off the rear of the great room is a glass atrium filled with tropical plants, wicker furniture, parrots chatting away in metal cages and a built-in stone water fountain.
The indoor atrium was just one of the improvements Brenner and his wife of 20 years, Mary Jo, made to the 4,500-square-foot home.
The couple estimate they have spent approximately $700,000 on extensive renovations, including an east wing bedroom suite, a room built over the west-wing garages and extensive outdoor landscaping that included a 7,000-gallon pond with two waterfalls, and a 50,000-gallon swimming pool with a stone Jacuzzi.
"Come on out and see my boys," Brenner calls from the west wing's outdoor deck. Shaded by a pergola topped with wisteria, the deck is one of three on the back of the house.
Brenner's "boys" are several spotted, 2-foot-long koi fish swimming through the rippling water of his pond. Stone benches, tall greenery and a red-painted foot bridge create a storybook place to rest, chat or read. It is from this garden vantage that the entire glass south end of the house can be appreciated, as well as the landscaping.
The indoors are no less spectacular. The east wing boasts a marble bath, where a raised, marble Jacuzzi is entirely encased in glass block, allowing abundant light but total privacy. An office in the west wing is also totally encased in glass.
In the dining room, a round marble-topped table 6 feet in diameter rests on a base built into the home's concrete foundation. Here, among plants and fine china, the Brenners enjoy entertaining their friends.
The couple considers themselves loving caretakers of Moonshadows.
"This is a magical place," said Brenner. "Someday we'll pass it on to someone who feels the same way about it as we do."
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