In hindsight these projects were laughable, but at the time I felt that I had no choice but to utilize these designs, primarily for budgetary considerations. I heard from many sources about the nightmarish cost of site-building in the Hamptons- starting at $250 per square foot and beyond, so modular construction, which was coming in at approximately $80 per square foot seemed to be a no-brainer to me. Accordingly, I tried to do creative things with the inherently boxy structure of conventional modulars. By the way, not even ONCE did the notion of modern modular houses enter the fray. It is essentially invisible to the lay person looking to build a house.
Anyway, what you are about to look at is the semi-final concept that came fairly close to being built. I suppose it is not particularly awful for a cedar-shingled two-story "post-modern," which is essentially what 99.999% of new construction in the Hamptons is these days. I had engineering drawings, elevations and site plans drawn up with this house. Please don't laugh (okay, laugh!):
For a modular house, I think we (Ron the builder and myself) came up with a decent plan. Not terrific, not horrendous... just decent. And deep inside I kind of fancied the notion of keeping the status quo relative to my fellow Hamptonites. This is apparently what people want, and if/when the time comes, I should have no problem selling it. Besides, during this tumultuous design time I was deep in the throes of going to settlement on the land, so it was not a good time to do a lot of soul searching.
THE LAND
Unfortunately I don't have jpegs of any of the original surveys of the land. But it is a very simple plan. It is basically a perfectly flat, cleared rectangle that is about 124 x 100. It is a west-facing lot, so all of the designs up to this point attempted to exploit the southern exposure, i.e., the right side of the house. It has remained vacant for the entire 50 years that the subdivision has been developed. This is because it has essentially served as the backyard of the house behind it from the very beginning. It was only after the owner died that the estate had the lot subdivided. As such, my lot, which had been used as the neighborhood baseball diamond for sometime, has some nice hedgerows along the street and one neighbor.
The subdivision is an area directly across the cove from Sag Harbor Village. It is essentially a tiny little gall bladder-shaped peninsula that is approximately 1000 ft. in diameter. It is like a little island that is connected to North Haven (another island) and the mainland by a narrow beach strip known as Long Beach. Its location makes it a bit off of the beaten path but still very close to the village and all of the wonderful bay beaches. The neighborhood itself was originally developed as a summer home community in the early 1950s, mostly comprised of tiny 2-bedroom one bath ranch bungalows and cottages on small lots (at 0.29 acres, my lot is one of the largest). Many of these original cottages still exist today. However, most have been replaced by more substantial houses of recent vintage, especially the multimillion dollar homes along the waterfront. As a result, there are houses of all shapes, sizes and styles- ranches, capes, salt box colonials, post moderns, and even a couple of very modern designs. In a way, the extreme diversity of architectural styles is one of the many charms that drove my decision to buy there. It's almost a Utopian notion that all different kinds of houses and people can exist in harmony on this tiny little spit of land. Give me your good, bad, ugly and modern! It's all good.
SETTLEMENT ON THE LAND
Going to settlement on the land at the end of July 2004 came off rather uneventfully, even though this was now literally five months after my initial offer on the land. At least I came to settlement satisfied with the notion that the lot had already appreciated considerably during those months (a much smaller lot on the next street was listed for $100K more than my larger, cleared lot). What was a bit unsettling was that I was about to purchase land that may not be buildable; there were no applications or permits executed at all. But it wasn't like I could be too choosy with land, so I had to essentially take a leap of faith. I was also assured by everyone, including a geothermal scientist, that the lot would be buildable. Well, heaven forbid they should discover a Native American burial ground or nuclear waste or something!
Closing costs are always more than one thinks is reasonable. I have never heard of a person who said, "Wow, those closing costs are cheap!" But it is particularly painful in Southampton town, where they collect the Peconic Bay Preservation Fund fee, which is based on the sales price. This fund is used to purchase township lands for conversion to open space. All told, between title search, loan fees, lawyers, insurance, taxes, etc. (I was even coerced to tip the settlement clerk $75!), I spent about $15,000.
APPLICATIONS
Basically there are three permits that need to be obtained in Southampton Town before any construction can commence. Unfortunately these have to be obtained in sequence, not in parallel:
1. Health Department. This is an assessment of the septic design, the footprint of the proposed dwelling and the setbacks. $275 and 3-4 months. Approval received in late September 2004.
2. Highway Department. This is required for any new dwelling that is to be built along a county-owned road. It's definitely bureacracy at its best. No fee, 4 weeks. Approval received in December 2004.
3. Building Permit. This is the really crucial one that requires permits 1 and 2 above to be included in the application. I am just about to submit this, but it will take at least a month to review and approve, that is, assuming there aren't any issues discovered. $1700. I am literally a day away from submitting this.
THE PHONE CALL I WASN'T EXPECTING
It was late September 2004. The health department application was in. The engineering drawings, elevations, floorplans, surveys, etc. for the house (as shown in the above image) were all complete. I was feeling upbeat about the house project despite this lingering nagging feeling that I was merely settling for this house project. I started visiting Home Depot, Ikea and various other places to get ideas about fixtures. It was a good time.
All of the sudden I got a call from Ron the builder. He said that he had good news and bad news. I told him to tell me the good news first. The good news was that the health department permit was issued. Hooray! The bad news was that he got into a shouting match over the phone with the modular company that was about to build my house and that we would have to find another modular builder to build these plans. I was taken aback, but I had mixed feelings about this. I could have perceived this as yet another annoying stumbling block on the road to building this house, or I could seize this opportunity to go back to square one with something truly wonderful. Ron was mortified at what had just happened and he was trying to console me over the phone. But for some reason I felt a large weight lift off of me. I told Ron that it was okay and that I would think about this over the weekend.
This was the point where modernism entered my life... or was I always a closet modernist who needed to be coaxed out of the modern closet??
NEXT... PROJECT GREENBELT
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