SELLER: Adrienne VittadiniLOCATION: Cobb Road West, Water Mill, NY
PRICE: $7,600,000
SIZE: 4,500 square feet (approx.), 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Designed by Adrienne Vittadini, this elegant souther Mediterranean-style home has 5 bedrooms, 5 en-suite bathrooms, a heated gunite pool, pool house, media room, office/den, country kitchen, and central a/c. 1.9 private acres with a beautiful back yard terrace and pergola overlooking a pond setting, creating a bucolic entertaining space. A separate limestone patio surrounds an over sized heated gunite pool with pool house and dining area. The interior space is light-filled and airy with high tray ceilings in all rooms and sliding French doors to the outside. Upstairs master has two decks and an over sized Jacuzzi with pond views. This is a unique and special property.
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Unless you're over 50 or a Home Shopping Network fanatic, you may not recognize the name Adrienne Vittadini. But she's a fashion designer. Or was, at least before she sold her eponymous company. However, before cashing out, the Hungarian immigrant had tremendous success in the 1970s and 80s, even winning herself a prestigious Coty Award for her "sporty elegant" and "Euro-American" designs. Since selling her company, she has shifted gears, and like so many moneyed people with an eye for detail, she now buys, overhauls and sells properties through her company AV Casa.
Before we get to discussing Miz Vittadini's Hamptons house, which is currently on the market of $7,600,000, let Your Mama share with y'all a little bit of our family history. Once upon a time we had a grandmother, who on top of being very, very rich and excessively educated, was a diplomat for the International Red Cross. Peggy, who would not allow us to call her grandma, also had a penchant for smuggling drugs inside the diplomatic bag provided her by the Red Cross. Hunnies, that is no lie. Not only did Peggy have a chalet in Switzerland and a huge powder blue Mercedes, she also had a closet full of colorful Adrienne Vittadini suits to go with her Aigner handbags and Salvatore Ferragamo shoes. Oh, the memories.
Anyhoo, Miz Vittadini and her husband Gigi purchased this house in May of 1997 for just $1,470,000. Located near the exclusive, gated enclave of Fordune and just a few minutes ride in the Jaguar to Flying Point Beach, the property covers 1.9 acres that backs up the to head of a small pond. Your Mama can only hope that pond is treated for the skeeters, because if you've ever been to the Hamptons in August, you know the mosquitoes can ruin your day and cause you to spend half the night itching your arms and legs bloody.
Although the Southampton town assessor says the Vittidini house is 3,688 square feet, the listing for the property has it measuring approximately 4,500 square feet. We're not sure why the discrepancy, but it may be that the larger number includes the square footage of the pool house.
Possibly because the house is surrounded on two sides by pond water, the heated swimming pool for this property sits in what is technically the front yard. Guests to this property had better be in excellent health because the somewhat unusual pool placement requires guests to walk a huge and looong arc around the pool in order to get to the front door. If you're meant to be to cocktails at 5pm, you better be parked in the Vittadini's driveway and stepping out of your convertible Rolls Royce by 4:30 or your going to miss the first round of Cube Libres altogether.
Inside we find classic old school Hamptons decor. We love the white sofas and the sisal rug–we always like white sofas and sisal rugs–But the overall scheme here is a bit staid and conservative for our personal taste. We do however appreciate that Adrienne and Gigi have provided a good number of books and magazines throughout the living room. There is nothing worse than guesting in the Hamptons and not being able to pick up something to read when sitting around the living room and everyone has run out of things to say to each other. Now, ya'll know Your Mama is seldom at a loss for words, but it does happen children. And when it does, we thank our lucky stars when we are able to avoid an awkward silence by picking up People Magazine or a big coffee table picture book on Gustov Klimt.
Even though Your Mama is quite certain those high end appliances are not that old, the kitchen feels a little dated. There's nothing really wrong with this kitchen, but beyond the high tray ceiling, we find it all a little ordinary looking.
The second floor has been entirely given over to a Master bedroom, which means all the guest rooms are on the main level of the house. Apparently Miz Vittadini has given each guest suite a different color scheme. Which Your Mama thinks is a great idea. This sort of color scheming makes it easy for the hostess to tell guests in which room they'll be staying–darling, you're in the yellow room. Color coding the guest suites is also a fantastic idea because it makes it much, much simpler for guests to locate their suite after a long afternoon of gin and tonics on the patio. Nobody, and we mean nobody, likes to return from a rousing game of croquet, ready for a cat nap in their designated room, only to find Muffy passed out on the bed having drunkenly mistook their room for her room.
While the Vittadini's have long been regulars in the Hamptons, they also have a long history of residing in Sarasota, Florida. Over the years the couple have bought and sold many properties in Sarasota including the 6,618 square foot house located 1255 Westway Drive that the couple bought in April of 1999 for $1,223,000 and sold in November 2004 for $8,900,000, netting them many millions of dollars of profit even after the significant renovation costs. Additionally, like all good people who are "social," the couple maintain a New York apartment on swanky 5th Avenue.
Clearly, given what they paid for the house, when the Vittadini's get their Hampton's house sold they'll add many more millions to their pile of money. How many times has Your Mama told the children that one of the ways rich people get richer is by flipping high end real estate?
Sources: The Herald Tribune,
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