I see your planing to cruise the coast from Maine to FL. I can take nothing away from any Nordhavn or Krogen, but if you aren't going to do blue water cruising, there may be some of the others you'd like to consider. The Nordhavn is a sea vault, with proper bulkheads, windows and ports to harden it against the weather and waves of the ocean. The compromise is that the space inside may be a bit more confined for the size of boat, which is actually an advantage at sea. Krogen is also outstanding and a bit more friendly to live aboard if space and light is important to you. Beautiful looking boats, too. If you're plan is to stay outside the Intercoastal Waterway and travel the ocean, you might be better off with those brands.
A stand-up engine room becomes more important to me each day. My cruising agenda is very similar, although I intend to do the Great American Loop and Bahamas as well. If you've got the budget to afford the boats you mentioned, and would rather travel the Intercoastal Waterway and it's various bays, rivers, etc., I would also get aboard the Great Harbour N-47. They are the kings of ergonomics and mostly the reason I am considering one myself. They are considerably shallower in draft (the amount of boat that is under the water), so exploring in rivers and bays is the boats forte. A great deal of storage space below is also full height. They are built like tanks but are not the blue-water design of a Nordhavn, Krogen or Diesel Duck.
A few custom builds have stand-up or near stand-up engine rooms but require much more research and a really wise surveyor. Selene is another brand that may have the engine room you want in some models. Someone might suggest Diesel Duck, which is another very capable ocean vessel if you don't mind the cave-like interior. If your husband is handy, older boats like the DeFevers would be well worth considering, but with your budget, you could probably save yourself some trouble by staying with newer vessels that are well cared for.
Hope someone else can think of more stand-up designs to add, and it would help if you could share some of the things you'd like in the boat as well. Best of luck.