Bayfront Cottage in Pine Neck for, say, 425K

I LOVE this old-fashioned 3BR cottage in an excellent location in Pine Neck, right on Noyac Bay. Two doors down, smack on the water, there’s a mean little shack, and they’re asking $3mil for it.

This one has a real summer-bungalow feel, though it’s winterized. Ask is 455K but James Keogh, the listing agent (james.keogh@elliman.com), thinks it can be had for 425K or thereabouts — “400 to start the conversation.”

If I could have pulled it off, I would have, but it was a bit beyond my reach. I tried to talk my sister into buying it, so I could at least hang out there, but she didn’t bite.

Here’s what I love about it:

• water views from nearly every window
• the kitchen: roomy, clean, country-ish, and in the right place — at the back of the house, leading to the rear lawn and future porch
• the funky ’40s trim, now painted blue, like the scalloped brackets under the window boxes
• the windows, unique and original, with unusual vertical mullions in the top sash
• it’s very near Foster-Memorial Long Beach Town Park, wonderful for swimming
• the hip, historic town of Sag Harbor is only 2 miles away

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Here’s what would make it more fabulous:

• landscaping
• shutters, to give the windows more presence
• removing the screening from the front entry porch, which faces the road (an exceedingly quiet road, but nonetheless)
• putting a screened porch at the rear of the house, facing the water – duh!
• slamming through the dropped ceilings inside the house and opening them to the roofline to create vaulted ceilings throughout