Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Elizabeth Peyton: Pretty as a Picture in Orient

SELLER: Elizabeth Peyton and Tony Just
LOCATION: Village Lane, Orient, NY
PRICE: $900,000
SIZE: 1,500 square feet (approx.), 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
DESCRIPTION: ...Warm and inviting living room with fireplace; formal dining room for entertaining; custom designed and built kitchen with teak counter tops and mahogany cabinets. Screened enclosed front port plus open side porch. Detached garage/studio; in ground heated lap pool. Mature gardens and lush plantings.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A New York based art world birdie buddy recently whispered in Your Mama's big ear that mid-career art star Elizabeth Peyton and her long time arty-farty boy beau Tony Just are selling their weekend getaway at the far eastern end of the North Fork of Long Island. Located in the quirky and quaint village of Orient, the couple have listed their 2 bedroom and 1 bathroom hideaway on Village Lane with an asking price of $900,000.

Your Mama can forgive the children for not knowing a thing about the North Fork since its glitzier and more celebrity obsessed sister fork, the Hamptons, gets most of the press and attention...a situation that most North Forkers seem to like just fine. A quick scan of an online map shows that Long Island splits at a town called Riverhead. To the south is the bizzy and hoity toity Hamptons and to the north stretches the more bucolic and somewhat less discovered North Fork, a region becoming known for its vineyards and varietals.

Just because her face isn't splashed across the pages of all the gossip glossies and just because some (and perhaps even most) of the children will not recognize her name does not mean that Miss Peyton isn't famous. She's art world famous, which in New York is not so different than being a television star in Hollywood. Miss Peyton rose to the tippy top of the art heap in the mid 1990s painting small jewel like portraits which mirrored snap shots of friends and famous people's pictures she ripped out of magazines. Nowadays, of course, she has no need to rip the pictures from the pages of magazines since she fraternizes with all manner of rich, well known and arty types.

Anyoo, property records show the art world couple purchased their Craftsman cottage in September of 2001 for $325,000. Listing information indicates the modest house measures in at (approx.) 1,500 square feet. Clearly the painterly pair put a fair amount of work into the place including adding a dee-lishus looking lap pool and a custom designed kitchen with teak counter tops and mahogany cabinets...a pretty picture of which Your Mama is sorry the real estate agent didn't include with the listing because we imagine it to be speck-tack-u-lar. Other rooms we'd like to see photos of include the living room with fireplace, the dining room, the detached garage/studio and the screened porch...because who does not L.O.V.E. a screened porch, partick in the era of West Nile Virus in mosquito infested Long Island?

We can imagine this Miss Peyton's property is the very picture of upscale simplicity that many people of means crave in a weekend getaway. However, it makes Your Mama constipated just to think of having to regularly marinate in the stink of weekend guests suffering from gastro-intestinal issues brought on by too much farm stand bought fresh fruit and local oysters served raw on the half shell. Adding a second bathroom might be costly, but worth every single cent and we encourage the new owners to call a contractor the moment they sign the closing papers.

Property records reveal that other big name types who own hideaway homes in Orient include prolific and monumental sculptor Richard Serra and art world architect Richard Gluckman, the man responsible for buildings such as the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the Museo Picasso Malaga in Spain.

Your Mama has no personal knowledge about why Miss Peyton and Mister Just would chose to sell their dee-voon little cottage, but we hear from several art world pals that it might have a little something to do with the female friend Miss Peyton has been spotted with around town lately. Uh oh! If there's any truth to the rumors and gossip sweeping the streets of the art gallery nabe of Chelsea, one has to wonder if the couple will also be selling the West Village townhouse that property records show they purchased in July of 2006 for the not very starving artist price of $3,800,000.

17 comments:

Alessandra said...

I am disappointed by the lack of interior shots. The pool is divine. As for the exterior shingling, is the slightly mottled patina the affect of being close to the ocean and salt air? Or did they do that on purpose?

StPaulSnowman said...

This looks interesting to me........take it away LGB.......I think this is your bailywick and I am sure that you know oodles about this property.......

Anonymous said...

That pool beats the yell out of 90% of Beverly hills

My Poor Liver Podcast said...

devine. Perfect size (after you add that 2nd bathroom) for the weekend get-away.

Although it's a little bit of a commute for from the Left Coast.

lil' gay boy said...

OK, you asked…

Not too far from the water, where Village Lane joins West Bay Avenue before it becomes King Street, they are at the other end, 2 blocks or so from the water, in an established part of town full of unique older homes. It's a charming cottage on what appears to be a generous lot, with plenty of room for expansion…I'll take it!

Orient Point, along with other towns like East Marion, are lovely, sleepy little enclaves at the end of the world at the tip of the North Fork. Truly a place out of time, where, suspended between two bodies of water, the constant murmur of the surf will lull you into a near coma.

From here you can get the ferry to CT, which passes by Plum Island, (also the setting for a novel by Nelson DeMille) the government's high security research facility off the tip of the fork. Since they investigate infectious diseases here, it's not uncommon for helicopters to patrol its perimeter, as the deer are known to swim out to the island and unfortunately must be shot if they try to head back towards Orient.

For years there were rumors that biological warfare research was conducted here; the locals, insular but friendly, are tight lipped on the subject.

StPaulSnowman said...

Thanks..........I knew you would come through with something that was a joy to read.

lil' gay boy said...

Snowman,

You are too kind.

;-)

Anonymous said...

aaahhhh... in the daze of my youth daaanadaanadaana - oh what GREAT memeories of the east end of LI. it is starting to get built up but stil far differnet than the south shore and RIDICULOUSLY priced RE.

Anonymous said...

Awesome Blog. Love your readers. Will be back.

Kenny said...

Nice pool, but I don't really like the exterior of the house too much. Also the house only has two bedrooms.

feel free to visit my blog at: http://homesoftherich.blogspot.com

tell your friends!

Anonymous said...

OK........I'll tell my friends what a great site Realestalker is and what a great job Mama does.

Anonymous said...

It will be nice it we could see more of the inside.

Anonymous said...

Hey Kenny,

It's so tacky to imitate this blog and then try to poach readers. seriously, that's not way to get readers.

Anonymous said...

i think your momma has an OHBZESSHION with the putrafactive activities and inclinations of the lower GI tract.

what with all the comments about gurls cleaning terlits and gassy overnight guests swilling too much fruit and oysters.

Anonymous said...

Portia honey, get over it!

Anonymous said...

Cute house.

Anonymous said...

I found my pills!