Real LI

They don’t make homes like they used to anymore. That’s why Craig Asher snapped photos and measured railings, roof shingles and other details on Victorian homes in Northport Village, even when some of the homeowners weren’t looking.

It’s been a labor -- not always of love -- as Asher tries almost single handedly to remake his cinderblock home into a turn-of-the-19th-century "Folk Victorian." Giving the three-bedroom house a new, old-time face and a modern inside has taken about a decade -- and counting -- of carpentry and other work. He’s been working on the house bit by bit, buying materials when he had the money, putting a bit of the house up and then waiting for months sometimes until he saved enough for the next stage.

The Old Westbury house that once belonged to famed architect Thomas Hastings just went on the market for $12.5 million.

The red brick house, known as "Bagatelle," was built in 1913. There are 10 bedrooms, seven baths and three half-baths, as well as 11 fireplaces. There is a pool, a tennis court and three brick cottages on the 4.3-acre property.

The taxes are $65,200 a year.

The house is across the street from the last remaining piece of the Phipps estate, which was put up for sale last week. The manor house was owned by Cynthia Phipps, a horse breeder who died in October from injuries she suffered in a kitchen fire inside her Manhattan apartment. The rest of the Phipps estate -- about 158 acres -- were sold in 2004 to the Kean Development Co. of Cold Spring Harbor, which paid close the $35 million asking price. Some 22 homes, on four-acre lots, have been approved for the site, says Fred Carillo, deputy mayor of Old Westbury and chairman of the planning board.

Thomas Hastings was a partner Carrere & Hastings, which designed the New York Public Library, as well as many other monumental buildings and homes in New York and around the country. On Long Island, Frank Goodyear, William Rockefeller, E.H. Harriman, Alfred du Pont and others commissioned the firm to design their houses. Hastings also designed two of the Pratt houses on the North Shore

Hastings designed Bagatelle for he and his wife, Helen Ripley Benedict, known as a horse woman. "The idea was that we were living on Long Island, where the principal interest of the residents is horses and everything that has to do with horses," Hastings is quoted as saying in the 1997 book "Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects., 1860-1940" (W.W. Norton and Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, $85).

"Once in a decade a home of this magnitude comes on the market," says Aileen Murstein, who is listing the property with Francine Soltz, Robin Bender and Robin Kapner, of the East Hills office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. "It's a treasure."

According to public records, the house now belongs to the Abraham and Soraya Ostad, who have owned the house 28 years. Abraham Ostad is a urologist in Brooklyn and a real estate investor.

The listing is with Aileen Murstein, with Francine Soltz and Robin Bender, of the East Hills office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Coldwell Banker announced today that it is buying the Long Island offices of Century 21 Benjamin. Newsday reports, "The sale comes just two weeks after Edward Gitlin, co-owner of Benjamin Long Island Realty told a Newsday reporter that business was down 20 percent compared with two years ago ... He noted that buyers weren't easily buying. Instead they were 'fishing around' and that the banks were more cautious about lending." Read more here.

Emmett Laffey, principal and chief executive officer of Century 21 Laffey, announced in a recent video e-mail that his firm now represents the Preserve at Woodbury. The Multiple Listing Service of Long Island listing for the 32-unit luxury townhouse-style condo development had been with Coldwell Banker. But when the listing expired, husband-and-wife Greenvale office agents Barry Paley and Deborah Paley and their manager Maria Babaev made a presentation to become the exclusive agents. "It was a very sought-after project, and competition was fierce," Laffey says in the video. They won the project. Across the street from the Crest Hollow Country Club, the Preserve now has 15 condos still for sale for " a combined value of more than $20 million," says Laffey.

In the midst of the credit crisis, Huntington real estate broker Maria Teresa Quirk did the unthinkable: The Coldwell Banker agent called all of her former clients from the last four years "to make sure they aren't caught in adjustable-rate mortgages resetting to unaffordable payments." Only one person, a Huntington man, was having trouble. Read Newsday's Tami Luhby's full report here.

Newsday Photo / Thomas A. Ferrara

Designer Kathryn Letson owns this 1876 former post office in Bellport. The four-bedroom, four-bath Italiante-style house was built for Richard Gerard, a Bellport postmaster, and his wife, Nancy. Around 1915, it was a tearoom. The home has incredible period details, including wide plank pegged pine floors, a marble fireplace mantle and pedestal sinks, says Bryan Cronin, who is co-listing the house with Gina M Vigliotti for Coldwell Banker Residential in Patchogue. "Everthing's been restored or updated," he says, including the kitchen, which has marble counters and Viking and Bosch appliances. The original carriage house on the 100-by-165-foot lot has been converted into a separate cottage. Letson is asking $1.2 million. Letson is a former designer for DKNY and the The Gap who is now a fashion forecaster and owner of Trend Inc. in New York

The Kings Point estate of former New York City Mayor William R. Grace went on the market last week for $9 million. The 20,000-square-foot house was built in 1880 and renovated in 1996.

The 11-bedroom, 12.5-bath house has a heated swimming pool with a warming tub, a five-car, three-door heated garage and a granite kitchen with two dishwashers and a full storage pantry.
“This is a masterpiece of design,” says Inbar Mitzman, an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Great Neck who is listing the property. “They don’t build like this anymore in Great Neck.”

Grace was elected mayor twice, serving from 1881 to 1882 and again from 1885 to 1886. During his service, he accepted the Statue of Liberty from France.