An East Hampton Renovation Fit for a Ship’s Captain

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

In 2015, the few acquired a modest cottage in Amagansett, N.Y., for about $1 million, on a avenue nestled amid sand dunes extending to the ocean. The dwelling was compact — significantly less than 600 sq. ft — but they figured they didn’t want extremely much house. And even if they experienced required to broaden, neighborhood making regulations created it practically difficult.

The construction, however, was in desperate need to have of function, so they hired Kyle O’Donnell, the founder of the New York-based mostly organization Gramercy Style and design, to rebuild it within just the original footprint.

“There was no insulation. There was barely a foundation. The rafters ended up undersized for the roof,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “It was just a summer time cottage, held up by not a lot. Every little thing experienced to be changed.”

Mr. O’Donnell concluded designs for the rebuild, but just as construction was about to get started, the pair, now the two 62, commenced acquiring next views. Mr. Shea, a freelance creative director, prepared to visit the home only periodically. But Mr. Selvaggi, a founding husband or wife at Altman, Greenfield & Selvaggi, a Manhattan accounting and organization administration firm with celebrity clientele like Anne Hathaway and Timothée Chalamet, started dreaming about residing in the Hamptons almost entire-time in the summer.

“I’m really significantly parked out there for as long as I possibly can be,” Mr. Selvaggi said, introducing that his husband isn’t fairly as keen on spending endless days on the sand. “He’s not as a lot of a seashore man as I am.”

Nevertheless, he worried they may possibly feel cramped in the minor cottage with their dogs, Sherlock and Dodger. So it seemed like a stroke of luck when he struck up an opportune conversation with a neighbor at a street affiliation conference.

“We were just chatting, and I said, ‘Oh, I like the avenue so substantially. It would be terrific if a little something larger sized came up,’” Mr. Selvaggi mentioned. “He mentioned, ‘It’s much too undesirable you cannot buy the home next to me. The proprietor is never there.’”

Intrigued, Mr. Selvaggi tracked down the home’s owner, bought in touch and learned that the proprietor was receptive to offering. Immediately after some again and forth, Mr. Selvaggi and Mr. Shea struck a deal to acquire the 1,150-square-foot home for about $1.9 million in November 2016.

Their next residence, it turned out, desired just as a great deal function as the first, as it experienced gained only slight updates above the a long time. But the concept of starting up two building initiatives concurrently was daunting, so as building proceeded on the very first property, Mr. Selvaggi and Mr. Shea moved into the more substantial one with out shifting a point.

By early 2018, the 1st dwelling was entire. Fairly than shifting in, the couple marketed it to Anthony Bonsignore, Mr. Selvaggi’s company husband or wife, for $1.7 million, which Mr. Selvaggi reported authorized the pair to break even.

Then they spent a different summer in their larger sized, unrenovated cottage after the setting up allow was delayed, and last but not least commenced their next renovation in September 2019.

A great deal like the initial job, this just one included mainly rebuilding the household from scratch inside the original footprint. But by including dormers on the second floor, Mr. O’Donnell was equipped to increase the home’s dimensions to almost 1,350 sq. ft, earning place for three reasonably sized bedrooms and two total loos.

The style features a new floor-floor terrace powering the home with a modest pool and out of doors shower, a pair of terraces off the key suite on the second flooring, and a rooftop terrace overlooking the dunes.

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

Inside, “the approach was to make it as vibrant as feasible, and as pleasurable as probable,” Mr. O’Donnell stated, adding that he required to make the rooms really feel deeply cozy applying resources that could face up to damp and sandy feet.

Most of the flooring is bleached, broad-plank white oak. In the residing home, he coated the ceiling with V-groove paneling and extra a paneled depth to the walls, which he outlined in Stone Blue. “It’s kind of a nod to a ship captain’s home, or a thing you might see in more mature homes out there,” Mr. O’Donnell mentioned.

In the kitchen area, which he relocated to produce area for much more windows, he mounted teak cupboards reminiscent of kinds that could possibly be identified on a boat and extra a countertop, backsplash and window trim in White Fantasy marble.

Upstairs, the principal bedroom has doorways that open to terraces on two sides: a single for sitting down and take it easy the other, outfitted with an out of doors shower, for physical exercise. The training terrace also connects to the major lavatory, which is finished in azure hexagonal tile and white marble.

Construction was finished in June 2020, so Mr. Selvaggi and Mr. Shea did not miss out on a one summer at the seashore. Such as the household furniture and inside finishes, Mr. Selvaggi believed that the project price about $2 million.

Now, following living by way of so many decades of building, they have no intention of going anyplace else. “It’s fantastic out in this article,” said Mr. Selvaggi, who can wander to the beach front in considerably less than a moment and loves catching up with neighbors above cocktails in the evening.

Perhaps best of all, their new property has just the correct amount of money of place to easily accommodate the pair, their dogs and guests, with no demanding too a great deal maintenance, he claimed: “It’s the ideal sizing for a beach front dwelling.”

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