Twin Cottages Near Bay 449K

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF…TWO!

I’m not saying these identical twin cuties — unwinterized 1BR cottages in the Maidstone Park area of Springs (East Hampton), N.Y. — are a steal or anything. The asking price for both, newly reduced, is 449K.

But there’s something tantalizing about them and their possibilities.

They’re on one-third of an acre, a five-minute walk from magnificent Maidstone Beach, a long, never-crowded white sand beach on Gardiner’s Bay that reminds me of the Greek Islands, and great kayaking/paddleboarding spots like the one below.

There isn’t much to them. They’re barely 400 square feet apiece. They sit on cinderblocks and have no fireplaces. But they’re well-maintained and tastefully appointed, with decent baths and kitchens. A pair of friends could share the property, or it could be a modest family compound.

Patios and landscaping would go a long way. They’ve been on the market for quite a while (I first saw them last winter, when the asking price was over half a million). You know what that means: negotiable!

For more info and interior photos, go here.

Walking and Stalking

THERE’S NOTHING ILLEGAL about taking pictures of other people’s houses, is there, and publishing them on a blog? What about courtyards, if you have to peek over the fence to get the shot? Well, let’s hope not, because today, on a brisk stroll around the neighborhood, I saw this charming, simple courtyard, above, and had a vision for my own front yard.

Here’s how my front yard, below, looked today, following the removal of a giant red oak. Yeah, pretty barren.

So I found this corner property in the Maidstone Park area, below, awfully inspiring. It’s a bit uber-cottagey for me, but I love the concept and the unpretentious execution: a moon gate, an arbor, boxwoods, a shed with French doors, and a sunny brick dining patio. There’s no driveway, just a parking pad covered with pea gravel in front of the moon gate, big enough for one SUV.

It’s going into the mental hopper as I continue my extended decision-making process regarding a place to park the car(s) and whether/what kind of gate and fence to have at the entry (to exclude deer, or simply to provide a sense of enclosure?)

My ultimate solution will be quite different from this one (I have no need for a dining table in front of the house when I have almost half an acre in back), but the symmetry of this scheme really appeals to my orderly side.

It’s a magazine cover if I ever saw one.

Sweet Shutters

East Hampton, N.Y.

I LOVE SHUTTERS — louvered, paneled, pickets, cut-outs — though I’ve never really lived in a house that has them. My present cottage in Springs, N.Y., is not gonna be the one. Shutters don’t make sense with 1980s Anderson casement windows (but those windows sure are tight, so I’m not complaining).

East Hampton again - love the boxwoods, too

Meanwhile, I look at shutters everywhere I go. They can really make a house, adding color and definition to an otherwise blah facade. If they’re operable, so much the better.

Philadelphia is a great shutter city. Brooklyn and Manhattan row houses, for some reason, rarely have shutters, which makes the few houses that do stand out all the more.

For more pictures of shutters in Brooklyn, Philly, and the Hudson Valley…