Hamptons Home & Garden 2014

REAL ESTATEIN THE NEWS C-1 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT May 21, 2014THE INDEPENDENT • Traveler WatchmanHamptons Home & Garden

Home & Garden

By tHe Independent newspaper

Hamptons

Independent/Missy Frey Real Estate Photography

InsIde:Designer staging • eastlanD Farms • marDers • saltwater Pools

REAL ESTATE IN THE NEWSMay 21, 2014 THE INDEPENDENT • Traveler WatchmanC-2 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTHamptons Home & Garden

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By Kitty Merrill

Her mother was a Hamptons real estate broker. And when Allegra Dioguardi was a little girl, her mom would take her along when she “fluffed” listings for show. So it’s no surprise staging for sale has been a lifelong passion for the local business owner.

But they didn’t call it staging back when Dioguardi started out. When she received her degree in Interior Design from Parsons School of Design, her very first job entailed merchandising model homes for sale. For 25 years, she travelled all over the country working for top national builders like Toll Bros. and Hovnanian, and one of the country’s largest, most prestigious model home firms, Builders Design in Maryland, honing her staging (aka merchandising) expertise along the way.

In fact, she recently sold her own home “to the first person who looked, for the full price,” she reported.

Dioguardi started her own business, Styled and Sold, in 2006 and returned to the Hamptons in 2008. Operating from a base in Westhampton Beach, she works with home sellers, investors, realtors, builders, and “anyone interested in enhancing their home or property,” staging owner-occupied homes as well as new construction and vacant homes.

Her philosophy is simple – and romantic. “I believe what sells homes is ‘love at first sight.’” Potential buyers need to be able to visualize themselves living in an abode -- “It’s all about someone walking in and saying ‘I could live here,’” the designer asserted. Dioguardi works to create a space that looks like a bed and breakfast or “high end spa.”

Key to merchandising an owner-

Staging For Sale: a liFelong PaSSion

occupied home is “editing,” she revealed. Most owner-occupied houses need some “depersonalizing without being sterilized.” Tchotchkes, memorabilia and family photographs have to be pruned to remove clutter and offer “more of a Zen feeling.”

In the Hamptons, “We’re also selling a lifestyle,” Dioguardi pointed out. The casual, beachy feel exemplifies a simpler life without “all that stuff we have,” and an effect that’s “beautiful and neutral.”

By contrast, when it comes to vacant, new construction, Dioguardi draws from an array of resources to furnish and decorate a house. She offers “visual clues” related to how the potential homeowner would live in the house, “so they can feel engaged with the space.”

Often, she said, buyers elect

to purchase staging merchandise. Sometimes it’s conveyed as an incentive and sometimes, Dioguardi hosts professionally-run tag or estate sales.

With the onset of the Internet age, staging has become invaluable, Dioguardi believes, because 90 percent of buyers view the home they’re going to purchase online. Listing photos are key and Dioguardi advocates for the use of a good, professional real estate photographer. “You have less than 10 seconds to make a great first impression when potential buyers are viewing your property online or in person,” she said.

While merchandising homes for sale is Dioguardi’s specialty, Styled and Sold

also offers classic design services and interior re-design, working with items an owner already owns.

Not content to keep her knowledge to herself, Dioguardi also hosts webinars and provides home staging training and mentoring to aspiring and seasoned home stagers. An intriguing factoid found on her Style and Stage website? CNN and careerbuilder.com both named home staging “The #1 job poised for growth in the coming years.”

Dioguardi describes her company as “small, personal, affordable and professional.” Speak with her about home staging for just minutes, and it’s clear she can add another adjective – passionate.

Independent/Mary Tham

es Louis Real Estate Photography


Independent/James J. Mackin

Say what you will, the East End is still country. Local farms flourish, and the summer season means farm stands offer up our local bounty. Shop local and support our farmers.




By Rick Murphy

Mike DeRosa takes things in stride.Twenty-two years running Eastland

Nursery and Farms will do that to a guy.His Water Mill farm and retail

outlet has seen it all, from hurricanes to superstorms, invasive deer, and late season frost.

You learn to cope, he said. “What can you do? You can’t fight Mother Nature.”

The key is preparation: when deer are a problem, employees bring in as much stock as they can and then lay block after block of the same plant in rows. “They eat some of it,” DeRosa acknowledged. “We never used to have deer, but we do now.”

Home gardeners, more and more, opt for deer resistant plants, so Eastland has increased its variety and stock over the years. That’s a key component of the farm’s success – give the people what they want.

The weather vane selection, for example, is enormous. “We’ve been doing it for years. We sell a ton of them. We ship them all over the country,” DeRosa said.

In addition to offering every imaginable kind of planting, Eastland’s

Eastland nursEry and Farms In Full swIngthree-acre site is dotted with urns, benches, Buddhas, and whimsical lawn ornaments. There are scores of garden accessories, many made of granite. “They are great accent pieces,” De Rosa noted, nodding at one long granite bench that must weigh a ton. “You move it once and where you leave it is where it stays,” he said with a laugh.

When a severe storm is coming “we lay the big stuff down” to minimize damage. No mater how you slice it, though, dealing with a very fickle Mother Nature is a daunting task. “The labor is extensive,” DeRosa admitted.

‘Tis the season at East land. Beginning in early May the parade of shoppers intensifies as the summer progresses. “Mother's Day through June is crazy,” DeRosa said.

Eastland used to grow most of its own stock, but brings in new shipments on a daily basis nowadays. People and habits change. In the old days gardeners tended to plant their gardens and nurture them. “Nowadays people don’t want to wait for things to mature, they want it now.”

That pretty much sums up the Hamptons.

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Eastland nursEry and Farms In Full swIng

You name it, Eastland has it, from granite lawn furnishings to whimsical accents that bring backyards to life.

Eastland boasts one of the best selections of weather vanes on Long Island.

A wide selection of ornamental trees is available.

Eastland Nursery & Farms in Watermill has evolved and grown over the years into a full service nursery.

Inde

pend

ent/J

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J. M

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n


By Emily Toy

On a scorching hot summer day, there really is nothing quite like cooling off in a nice pool of . . . bromoform? No? How about tribomomethane?

These are some of the chemicals touching your elegant epidermis when you’re swimming in a chlorine-filled pool. And although they are technically safe, there are other alternatives.

A trend taking the pool industry by storm, including here on the East End, is the use of salt water to maintain one’s own personal oasis. Nearly 80 percent of all new pools built today are using saltwater generators to sanitize the water. Along with the creation of hybrid pool pumps, saltwater sanitation is one of the biggest breakthroughs in recent pool industry history.

Dozens of pool companies stretching from Montauk to Manorville, as well as on the North Fork, are working with saltwater generators to sanitize pool water, making it less harsh to eyes and skin.

According to Patrick’s Pools (631-903-7665), one of Long Island’s leaders in saltwater pool systems based out of East Quogue, “Pool water is salinated to 3200 parts per million, which is about a tenth of the salt level that exists in the

Independent / Tortorella Pools

ocean. 3200 ppm is on the border of human taste limits. A small generator that is mounted at your pool equipment uses the salt in your pool water to produce ‘natural’ chlorine, which has no cyanauric acid like the chlorine tablets that we’ve all been used to.”

The end result is what many believe to be healthier water that has zero chlorine smell, taste, or irritation to the skin or eyes.

Operating in both Southampton and East Hampton towns, owner Ed Laureano of Pooltastic Pool Works (631-287-3500) in Hampton Bays notes installing a saltwater generator system produces a current of electricity to turn what’s essentially table salt into a purer form of chlorine.

Research shows the cost to set up a saltwater pool is between $600 and $5000, depending on the pool’s size. Generally, less time is used for maintaining a saltwater pool. Instead of adding chlorine tablets, salt will be added when needed, ultimately producing its own, natural chlorine. In a typical summer, most pool companies estimate pool owners would spend half as much for the season on a saltwater system than they would keeping up with

a chlorinated pool. “Salt is relatively cheap,” said David

Miller, owner of Miller Pools (631-329-3366) in East Hampton. A few of Miller’s clients have saltwater pools and he says, “It does work. In my opinion, I think it’s better for the homeowner who handles his own pool.”

Channeling the complete ocean experience, there are newer trends within the aesthetics of saltwater pools that are adding more sea-like qualities to personal basins.

Sea Crystal Pools in Islandia (631-234-7023) is a pool company that’s licensed to build and renovate pools in both East Hampton and Southampton towns.

According to co-owner Jim Vitelli, infinity pools are a trend seen frequently with saltwater pools. Beach entry-style

pools, when there are no steps but instead a slight decline when entering the pool, is another popular look. Including sundecks, or beach landings, where there’s a long run of area where the water level is only up to six inches so swimmers can just wet themselves, is another feature gaining momentum.

As far as lighting is concerned, LED lights are a popular and more eco-friendly way to illuminate your lagoon.

Here are some more local pool companies ready to make all your saltwater dreams come true:

• Tortorella Pools, Southampton (631-283-7373).

• Casual Water Pool and Spa Professionals, Bridgehampton (631-537-5700).

• East Hampton Pool Company, East Hampton (631-276-1800).

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Independent/James J. Mackin

Marders, at 120 Snake Hollow Road in Bridgehampton is so much more than a nursery – the campus is alive with imaginative ways to enhance the outdoor living experience. It’s a one-stop shop for everything you need to transform a yard into a lavish environment.


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Hamptons Home & Garden 2014