IN THE PAST MONTH, since I signed a contract to buy a cottage in Springs (I’m still awaiting mortgage approval), I haven’t been trolling the Long Island multiple-listing websites as diligently as before. But tonight, out of curiosity, I searched North Fork old-house listings in the under 500K category, and what did I find? A lot of houses I recognized from several months back, still on the market.
Which means they’re probably highly negotiable.
Some of these houses have a lot to recommend them. Some I actually looked at with intent to buy. I photographed this one, a yellow Victorian on half an acre in Peconic, asking 459K, toward the end of a January day (click the link for pictures of the interior and of the house in summer).
There are a couple of chic but low-key shops on the adjoining lot. The Tasting Room, above, which sells local wine and food products, was already closed for the day, but I passed some pleasant time next door, looking around White Flower Farmhouse, left and below, an antiques/home furnishings store with an appropriately beach country aesthetic.
As I got into my car for the two-hour drive back to Brooklyn, I looked forward to getting home, putting my feet up, and opening a bottle of wine. Then I remembered where I was, so I stopped into Pindar Vineyards (it could just as easily have been Osprey’s Diminion, Lenz, Raphael, or Bedell, all within a mile of this house) and bought three.
casaCARA 