An East Hampton Renovation Fit for a Ship’s Captain

To get their excellent retreat in the Hamptons, Frank Selvaggi and Invoice Shea did not just renovate just one household — they overhauled two. But that was not the authentic prepare.

In 2015, the couple acquired a modest cottage in Amagansett, N.Y., for about $1 million, on a avenue nestled amid sand dunes extending to the ocean. The house was smaller — significantly less than 600 sq. ft — but they figured they didn’t need to have quite a lot house. And even if they experienced required to develop, community creating laws built it practically not possible.

The composition, however, was in determined need to have of function, so they hired Kyle O’Donnell, the founder of the New York-based business Gramercy Design, to rebuild it inside of the authentic footprint.

“There was no insulation. There was barely a foundation. The rafters were undersized for the roof,” Mr. O’Donnell mentioned. “It was just a summer time cottage, held up by not much. Every thing had to be replaced.”

Mr. O’Donnell finished strategies for the rebuild, but just as design was about to begin, the couple, now both of those 62, started possessing 2nd views. Mr. Shea, a freelance inventive director, planned to check out the residence only periodically. But Mr. Selvaggi, a founding spouse at Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi, a Manhattan accounting and company administration company with celebrity clients like Anne Hathaway and Timothée Chalamet, began dreaming about living in the Hamptons just about entire-time in the summer season.

“I’m quite a lot parked out there for as lengthy as I potentially can be,” Mr. Selvaggi mentioned, including that his spouse is not fairly as eager on paying out infinite days on the sand. “He’s not as a great deal of a seaside male as I am.”

Nevertheless, he concerned they could possibly truly feel cramped in the little cottage with their pet dogs, Sherlock and Dodger. So it seemed like a stroke of luck when he struck up an opportune discussion with a neighbor at a road association conference.

“We have been just chatting, and I explained, ‘Oh, I really like the avenue so considerably. It would be wonderful if a thing more substantial arrived up,’” Mr. Selvaggi said. “He said, ‘It’s also undesirable you just can’t obtain the residence next to me. The proprietor is never ever there.’”

Intrigued, Mr. Selvaggi tracked down the home’s operator, acquired in touch and identified that the operator was receptive to promoting. Right after some again and forth, Mr. Selvaggi and Mr. Shea struck a deal to obtain the 1,150-square-foot home for about $1.9 million in November 2016.

Their 2nd dwelling, it turned out, essential just as significantly perform as the 1st, as it experienced been given only minimal updates in excess of the decades. But the idea of commencing two building initiatives at the same time was challenging, so as construction proceeded on the initial property, Mr. Selvaggi and Mr. Shea moved into the much larger a person with out changing a factor.

By early 2018, the initially house was comprehensive. Rather than shifting in, the pair sold it to Anthony Bonsignore, Mr. Selvaggi’s business enterprise husband or wife, for $1.7 million, which Mr. Selvaggi mentioned allowed the pair to split even.

Then they spent another summer season in their larger sized, unrenovated cottage following the constructing permit was delayed, and lastly commenced their second renovation in September 2019.

Much like the very first project, this a single associated in essence rebuilding the residence from scratch in the initial footprint. But by adding dormers on the 2nd floor, Mr. O’Donnell was ready to increase the home’s size to nearly 1,350 square feet, building area for 3 fairly sized bedrooms and two comprehensive bogs.

The layout contains a new ground-ground terrace at the rear of the property with a smaller pool and outside shower, a pair of terraces off the principal suite on the 2nd flooring, and a rooftop terrace overlooking the dunes.

The exterior of the property was beforehand brown-stained board-and-batten, but Mr. O’Donnell clad the new construction in cedar shingles and outlined the windows in Farrow & Ball’s Stone Blue, Mr. Selvaggi’s favorite shade.

Inside of, “the tactic was to make it as vibrant as achievable, and as enjoyment as possible,” Mr. O’Donnell mentioned, adding that he needed to make the rooms experience deeply at ease working with materials that could stand up to damp and sandy feet.

Most of the flooring is bleached, extensive-plank white oak. In the living home, he coated the ceiling with V-groove paneling and added a paneled depth to the walls, which he outlined in Stone Blue. “It’s sort of a nod to a ship captain’s house, or one thing you could possibly see in more mature properties out there,” Mr. O’Donnell mentioned.

In the kitchen area, which he relocated to develop room for a lot more home windows, he installed teak cupboards reminiscent of ones that might be observed on a boat and included a countertop, backsplash and window trim in White Fantasy marble.

Upstairs, the major bed room has doorways that open to terraces on two sides: one particular for sitting and unwind the other, geared up with an outdoor shower, for exercising. The work out terrace also connects to the key lavatory, which is finished in azure hexagonal tile and white marble.

Construction was concluded in June 2020, so Mr. Selvaggi and Mr. Shea did not miss a single summer time at the beach front. Which includes the furniture and inside finishes, Mr. Selvaggi believed that the task expense about $2 million.

Now, soon after living as a result of so quite a few years of building, they have no intention of transferring everywhere else. “It’s great out below,” claimed Mr. Selvaggi, who can wander to the beach in much less than a minute and loves catching up with neighbors about cocktails in the evening.

Possibly very best of all, their new house has just the correct total of room to comfortably accommodate the few, their puppies and attendees, without necessitating also considerably maintenance, he reported: “It’s the grea
t sizing for a seashore property.”

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