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"Six Find Profit in a Series
of Harbor Makeovers"
by Amanda Star Frazer
The East Hampton Star,
June 24, 2004
Mr. Tortora's first project took
two and a half years "because we
would feel the room first and
then change it," he said. "You
can't do a house in six months
if you're going to get it
right."
Now, his projects go more
quickly. But buyers have to wait
until every last detail is in
place, over many of which they
have little say.
"When someone moves in, it's
completely finished,” he said.
"'They don't have to pick a
thing - lighting, colors,
doorknobs. I don't allow it."
His latest renovation is 40
Glover Street, an
early-19th-century house that he
bought from Paris Fields, a
member of the village
architecture review board. (It's
across the street from a house
he bought from Jean Lane, a
former harbor committee
chairwoman. He renovated and
resold it for twice the price.)
The house at 40 Glover was on
the market for one day. "They
saw me working on it and said
'I'll take it,'”
Tortora said.
"Two weeks ago, the house was
empty and awaiting finishing
touches, but the colors and
floors gave an indication of
what was to come. There were
mahogany counters in the kitchen
"because it's the only thing
that feels a little older," he
said.
The new owner wanted a wine
cooler in his kitchen,
Mr. Tortora said. "I said okay, but
only if it's behind something
old." So he used an old bam door
to cover it.
The kitchen faucet was on hand,
though unassembled.
Mr. Tortora
noted that it was the
old-fashioned kind, with
separate spigots for hot and
cold water. “I don't allow a
sprayer - it's not historical,"
he said. A rule like that
elicits little protest from his
clientele, he said. "These
houses don't sell to someone who
needs a sprayer."
They got lucky with the floor in
that house, he said, discovering
pumpkin pine ("so hard to get")
beneath the surface. "Flooring
is the hardest part."
As a finishing touch,
Mr. Tortora,
who once owned a pool company in
New Jersey, gives each house a
pool. "The A.R.B. hates pools,"
he said, "but my theory is, if
you keep them really small and
dark," there's little impact on
the neighborhood.
Besides, he said, noise is not a
factor. "These houses are not
being occupied by families with
small children. That's just not
the historic district."
Though some owners can get
antsy, he said they know that
the result will be worth the
wait. "'They've seen Rysam.
They've seen Suffolk. They've
seen my house and they know. And
I'm not going anywhere," he
said. "It's such an amazing
town. I'll never leave it."
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