Real LI

“Color at Home: Creating Style With Paint” by Meg and Steven Roberts (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $29.95): This book delivers on its promise to show splendid rooms of deep, rich color, sometimes in hues that ordinarily might not appeal to homeowners. The book’s pages run through the full color palette, starting with red and ending with black and white. Some of the color choices are startling: There’s a photo of an old-fashioned wall telephone, but it’s pink; interior walls go quickly from yellow to red. Considerable thought goes into matching, contrasting or blending, so that a home fronted by evergreen bushes gets painted with a misty green; a vase of daffodils is reflected in a bedroom mirror showing walls of butter yellow. Particularly effective, if unspoken, is that careful color selection can remake a room or an entire house without a huge investment of time or money. The authors are believers in the effect of color on mood and these pages certainly show how different they can appear because of relatively minor changes in color and decisions about what furniture or simple accessories will go with those choices.

- PAM ROBINSON

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This house in Baldwin is for sale.

And it's got a room that's good for stacking.

According to an article in the August issue of Vanity Fair, Southampton residents have been occupying themselves with the “parlor game for the summer” which involves trying to figure out just who really bought the former Marty Richards mansion at 104 Gin Lane.

The home sold for $60 million in March to South Lane Properties LLC. At the time, Tiger Woods was reported to be the buyer, but he has denied his involvement in the sale, as has real estate agent Beate Moore, who handled the deal through Sotheby’s International Realty.

Now Southampton developer Kim Pape weighs in, telling the magazine, “I’ve heard it’s Tiger Woods after all.”

Pape’s source? “The seller told someone who told me.”

“Confessions of a Subprime Lender” by Richard Bitner (Wiley, $19.95): From his vantage point as a former president and cofounder of a mortgage company, the author wants to tell readers what went wrong in the industry, hitting these main points: why nearly three out of every four mortgages were misleading or fraudulent; how unscrupulous brokers tricked lenders and borrowers; how brokers and lenders turned unqualified applicants into "qualified borrowers" and why Wall Street and rating agencies are largely to blame for the collapse. Bitner believes fraud and greed too often overwhelmed common sense and there are plenty of guilty parties. This is not a terribly in-depth look at the problem or a whole lot of new information but the stories he tells will confirm what people already suspect: People working in the mortgage industry got carried away with making money.

- PAM ROBINSON

The owners of some 500 of the 65,000 single-family homes in Babylon soon will be eligible for low-interest loans to make green upgrades, such as to heating and cooling systems, Newsday reports. Borrowers will have up to 12 years to repay the loans, which will be awarded up to $12,000. The interest rate will be 3 percent. "This program is not only innovative and creative in allowing homeowners to retrofit their own homes and play a part in the solution, it also will be an example to communities across the country," said Vince Campogna of the U.S. Green Building Council. Read the full story here.

How would you like to scope out a sprawling North Shore estate all while helping children with cancer? If this sounds appealing, then check out a Prudential Douglas Elliman fundraiser for the Sunshine Kids, a national nonprofit, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.today at 411 Mill River Rd. in Upper Brookville.

The event, hosted by salesperson Valerie Stone and associate broker Barbara Brundige, will include a barbecue and a disc jockey. A raffle for those who make a $25 donation awards the winner with an overnighter in Manhattan that includes a one evening stay at the new Empire Hotel in Central Park, a brunch at the Boat House, also in the Park, and a voucher for two tickets to a Broadway Show.

The Sunshine Kids Organization, Stone says, provides group activities and support to children who have cancer. Even though the day is really about the kids, adds Stone, attendees will have the opportunity to view this recently restored 1936 manor house which is on the market for $6.875 million. The gated 7.88-acre property also contains a three-bedroom cottage and a pool. For more information, call Stone or Brundige at the East Norwich/Brookville office, 516-624-9000.

Christie Brinkley is more than an “Uptown Girl”; she’s more-or-less all around town, as the owner of an estimated $80 million in real estate, much of it the Hamptons.

The supermodel, who recently reached a divorce settlement with fourth husband Peter Cook, has been a shrewd real estate investor, buying homes in Bridgehampton, Water Mill, North Haven and Sag Harbor, and another in the Carribbean. As part of the settlement, Cook will receive about $2 million and half of the proceeds of the sale of a boat. Brinkley will retain all of her real estate assets, which are spread out over 18 parcels.

The crown jewel in Brinkley’s real estate holdings is Tower Hill, the 11-bedroom mansion on Brick Kiln Road, built in 1898, currently on the market for $30 million with Susan Breitenbach of The Corcoran Group. The 20-acre spread on three parcels sits 200 feet above sea level with a 50-foot observation tower providing view to the Connecticut shore. Tower Hill has been on and off the market since 2002.

In Water Mill, Brinkley owns a four-bedroom cabin on Flying Point Road just down the road from comedian Mel Brooks. The cabin was briefly listed for sale for $7.9 million last year, before Brinkley changed her mind and took the property off the market.

Brinkley also owns two adjacent homes on Fahys Road in North Haven; one she bought in 2004 as a present for Cook, for $7.15 million. Cook is said to have used the home for his daliances with teen Diana Bianci, with whom he cheated on his wife. Brinkley purchased the second home in 2007 for a reported $11 million.

Brinkley also owns a property on .19 acres on West Water Street in Sag Harbor that records show she purchased in 2006 for $4.59 million.

AP photo

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This house in Elmont is for sale.

Where's Michael Scott?

Will there be a celebrity wedding at music mogul L.A. Reid’s Sagaponack home after all?

Last summer, the wedding between singer Usher and fiancee Tameka Foster which was set to unfold at Reid’s Hamptons home was abruptly canceled at the last minute. The couple eventually tied the knot in Atlanta.

But there’s a chance that Reid may be host to another star-studded union as early as this weekend.

A source tells Newsday that singers Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon are set to hold their wedding reception at Reid’s estate this Saturday. The couple's marriage ceremony was held April 8 in the Bahamas.

Carey and Reid could not be reached for comment.

A Hamptons wedding would bring Carey back to her Long Island roots. She was born in Huntington and attended Harborfields High School. Cannon is a California native.

Reid’s home is reportedly a 7,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bath spread on 3.27 acres, with a swimming pool, pond and tennis courts. Public records show that Reid, who is chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group, bought the home on Sagg Main for $10 million in 2006.

Ap photo

The Long Island Business News is reporting that Dick Cavett has agreed to sell the 77 oceanfront acres he listed for sale last May for $18 million so it can be preserved as open space. It had been listed for $30 million.

LIBN says, "a triumvirate of Suffolk County, the Town of East Hampton and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation will share equally in the purchase that was spearheaded by the Nature Conservancy."

RealLI had previously reported on the listing of the DeForest Road property, which was represented by The Corcoran Group's Krae Van Sickle. The land is adjacent to Tick Hall, the home that Cavett lived with late wife Carrie Nye. The rebuilding of Tick Hall after a 1997 fire inspired the documentary film, "From the Ashes."

Van Sickle told RealLI in May that Cavett decided to put the property on the open market since years of talks with Suffolk County and the Town of East Hampton to purchase the land for conservation purposes had never been fruitful.

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This house in New Hyde Park is for sale.

Does the car come with the house?

Learn to decorate your home at Natalie Weinstein Home Decorating Club's "Decorating with Player Pianos" seminar from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Frank & Camille's Fine Pianos, 482 Walt Whitman Rd in Melville. Bring pictures and dimensions for one-on-one help. To register and for more information, call 631-862-6198 or visit nataliesclub.com.

- M. BOZENA SYSKA

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This house in Medford is for sale.

Do you lounge or exercise?

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This house in Ronkonkoma is for sale.

Are you ready, are you ready, are you ready to clown around? With Loonette and Molly. A clown and her dolly on the big comfy couch.

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This house in Mt. Sinai is for sale.

"Imagine" was filmed here?

This "Butterfly Chair" by Vermont artist Johnny Swing is in Manhattan architect and designer Campion Platt's family room at the 2008 Idea House in Sagaponack.

Discover which plants are best for planting in the shaded areas of your garden at Old Westbury Gardens' "Talk & Tour: The Shade Garden" from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow. Master gardener and docent Barbara Levine will lead the tour through shaded areas of the gardens. Free with park admission, which is $10, $8 seniors, $5 children 7 to 12. For more information, call 516-333-0048 or visit oldwestburygardens.org.

- M. BOZENA SUSKA

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This house in Centereach is for sale.

Yes, you have entered the twilight zone.

The Corcoran Group’s Penelope Moore is listing a four-bedroom, four-bath, three-story cedar clapboard home on Shelter Island for $1.485 million.

Moore says that the house is surrounded by cherry trees and Japanese maples. “It’s like being in an elegant treetop house …hidden on top of a hill with peek-a-boo water views of Gardiners Bay.”

The nearly 3,300-square-foot dwelling sits on .88 acres, with wraparound decks, a media room, a heated Gunite pool with mahogany decking and sound system, a bamboo garden and a blue stone driveway. The property is adjacent to the golf course of the Gardiners Bay Country Club, and is only a block from the beach.

The current owner of the home is James Seuss, chief executive of Cole Haan, the luxury footwear, accessories and outerwear company owned by NIKE, Inc. Moore says Seuss is selling the property since he can no longer spend as much time there due to his hectic work and travel schedule.

Shelter Island celebs include designers Jonathan Adler and partner Simon Doonan, who own two homes there, and hotelier Andre Balazs, who has lived on the island for 14 years and who also owns the Sunset Beach hotel there.

By the nature of their work, Realtors think in dollars. But starting today, they will also be thinking in pounds.

Members of the Long Island Board of Realtors hope to collect 100,000 pounds of food by the end of the summer for local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs that feed the hungry. More than 74 realty offices and six service centers will be collecting food from Realtors through Aug. 15.

They announced the Realtors Against Hunger Campaign last night during a Long Island Ducks game at Citibank Park. The food drive stems from the trade group's "We're More Than Realtors" campaign, which began in 2006.

Members of Long Island Cares, The Harry Chapin Food Bank, were at the game to accept donations. “We’re very excited about the Realtors Against Hunger campaign that will support the work of our network of more than 540 member agencies that feed the hungry on Long Island," says Paule Pachter, executive director of Long Island Cares. “The support of LIBOR and their affiliates throughout the tri-county region is especially needed during these very difficult economic times when so many families are finding it hard to put nutritious food on their tables while the cost of fuel and basic food staples are dramatically increasing."

Mohsen Zandieh, LIBOR president, says his members see people every day who are trying to stretch their dollars. Many are "too dignified" to seek for help.

“With more than 300,000 children and adults facing hunger or potential malnutrition in the region, the Long Island Board of Realtors must respond to the needs of our communities, especially in these difficult times for so many families,” he says.

But the group has gone outside Long Island and Queens to help, recently donating $5,000 to earthquake victims in China and $10,000 to the IOWA Realtor Relief Foundation for those in the Midwest affected by the recent floods and tornadoes.

Learn about plants, trees and flowers and why an arboretum is important at Planting Fields Arboretum's "Family Garden Tours" at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow in Oyster Bay. The cost is $4 per adult and $2 for children 5 to 17 years old. Tour includes a free guided tour of Coe Hall house museum for children 17 and younger; adults pay $6.50. To register for the Family Garden Tours, call 516-922-8670.

- M. BOZENA SYSKA

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This house in Mastic Beach is for sale.

Someone need a maid.

This bank-owned three-bedroom, two-bath cape in Brentwood is on the market for $325,000. Annual taxes are $6,082. The house was built in 1971. The lot size is .15. Listing agent: Todd Yovino, Island Advantage Realty, 631-351-6000.

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This house in Lake Ronkonkoma is for sale.

There's a sofa in the kitchen?

A source has confirmed a report in an upcoming issue of Hamptons Cottages & Gardens magazine that an eight-bedroom, 11-bath home in Amagansett, once part of the Warner LeRoy estate, was sold last month for higher than the asking price of $9.85 million. There had been several bidders vying for the property.

According to the magazine, "there was an unexpected bidding war at the last minute, driving the price far beyond expectation." REAL LI has learned that the final sales price was $12.5 million for the 13.5-acre estate.

The column in the magazine's August 1 issue identifies jewelry designer David Yurman and his wife Sybil as the new owners of the mansion; however listing agent Rylan Jacka of Sotheby’s International Realty declined to identify the buyer or provide any details of the sale, citing a confidentiality agreement.

Warner LeRoy, who at one time had owned the property, died in 2001. He owned and operated several famed Manhattan eateries, including Tavern on the Green and The Russian Tea Room. Leroy's grand- father was Harry Warner, who founded Warner Bros. Studios. His father, Mervyn LeRoy, produced "The Wizard of Oz."

Donna Karan’s hilltop compound in the Northwest Woods section of East Hampton is where the designer began her spiritual journey, she recently told Hamptons magazine. Of her home, Karan says, “This has always been my retreat. I would take long walks along the beach and look at the rocks and the water, and that was where I would find my calm.”

Karan lives in a “conglomeration of modernist-style homes inhabited by the entire Karan clan” which includes next-door neighbors daughter Gabby Karan and Gabby’s husband Gian Paolo de Felice and the couple’s two children. The compound overlooks a rocky shoreline leading to Gardiners Bay. Public records show that Karan, who lives on Hedges Banks Drive, is a neighbor of music mogul Sean Combs.

Karan once told In-Style , "I grew up on Long Island, in Woodmere, right near Atlantic Beach. I raised Gabby on Fire Island. The beach has always been my place to think and create.”

"House Call: Foolproof Tricks of the Trade from a Master Contractor” by Ed Del Grande (Viking Studio, $15.95): The author, host of HGTVPro.com and DIY Network shows encourages homeowners to know what their house is all about before taking on projects -- learn about the plumbing, heat and electrical systems first. Then he takes on a series of projects and through easy directions and illustrations, he shows us how to clear a sink clog, replace a showerhead, change ceiling light fixtures, install wainscoting, repair damaged drywall and a lot more. His biggest emphasis, though, is knowing what the house already has and making sure homeowners understand how their house functions so they know realistically what jobs they can safely tackle.

- PAM ROBINSON

Could the Hamptons be losing the shine in home prices?

Median closing prices for Hamptons and North Fork homes dropped a combined 9.2 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago, even though spring is considered the strongest season for sales, according to a report commissioned by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. That means the median closing price is $817,500, compared to $900,000 the same time last year.

The decline was largely due to the Hamptons’ 11.8 percent drop from a year ago, because the North Fork saw closing prices go up by 13.1 percent in the same period, data showed.

“You have a contraction in credit, which diminishes affordability, and you have concerns over the financial services sector in the city, with Wall Street layoffs and bonus cuts,” said chief executive Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, the Manhattan-based appraisal company that did the report. “Those have an impact on the bulk of the East End market.”

In those regions, figures show second-quarter prices going up by 3.5 percent from the previous quarter, not unusual with more buyers getting out when the weather warms.

The North Fork has been attracting more year-round residents with relatively cheaper prices than the Hamptons. In the second quarter, it had a $605,000 median closing price, versus the Hamptons’ median closing price of $970,000, the report said. That was a 17.8 percent increase from the previous quarter for the North Fork, versus the Hamptons’ 9.9 percent hike, data showed. North Fork homes sold faster and at smaller discounts than Hamptons homes, according to the figures.

Miller said North Fork price hikes may be a blip, because other indicators of real estate health were either flat or showed bigger discounts in prices as houses stayed longer on the market compared to a year ago. For example, it took an average of 133 days to sell a North Fork home during the second quarter, compared to 103 days a year ago.

Paul Brennan, Prudential’s regional director of the Hamptons, said the rich aren’t dropping $20 million easily any more.

“There’s plenty of people looking,” he said. “There’s plenty of activity, but there’s not seriousness about buying. It’s eerie — people out here with lots of money but they’re not spending it.”

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This house in Huntington is for sale.

Here's a house for those who prefer to sleep in their straw hat.

"Get Your House Right: Architectural Elements to Use and Avoid" by Marianne Cusato and Ben Pentreath (Sterling Publishing, $29.95): This is a terrific book for anyone who wants to learn more about building principles or ever looked at a house and realized that something was wrong but didn't know what. Visual concerns drive this book, though many purely practical matters are addressed as well. Hundreds of line drawings show us right from wrong: shutters and railings combined in a way that don't allow for the shutters to open; complex roof designs that involve too many combinations of slopes and geometry; disproportionate windows or doors for the size of the wall; garage doors that are two bays wide, causing a visual overemphasis on the horizontal and dozens of other architectural violations. The authors firmly believe in classic architectural principles that they find adaptable to contemporary styles and fashions. What they don't care for is boring and ugly contemporary designs that fail to follow these principles. They devote a lot of words to the use of columns, parapets, posts and cornices and show us what works right and what doesn't. In each example, we are introduced to the language of architecture and the methods needed to achieve the best style so that a reader will not only know what works or doesn’t but be able to articulate the issues with an architect or builder. This book is thoroughly educational, a nice tool on a stroll through a downtown area or neighborhood where buildings can be judged by the principles so clearly explained by the authors.

- PAM ROBINSON

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This house in East Meadow is for sale.

Shoosh the cushions!

The East Hampton Star reports that New York State governor David Paterson was a hit with East Enders at Russell Simmons’ East Hampton estate last week.

Paterson attended the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation’s Art for Life fundraiser, which brings arts programming to inner city kids. He spoke about his commitment to Long Island and his understanding of the challenges faced by homeowners here, including high energy and housing costs.

“With Dean (Skelos) from Rockville Centre and me from Hempstead . . . we understand the unique problems here,” the Star quotes Paterson. “I grew up here on Long Island…I used to come out here to Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, East Hampton. We had friends in Greenport. . . . I know a lot about the lifestyle here...only Governor Carey had that kind of relationship with this area.”

Paterson added that his parents, Basil and Portia Paterson, have been renting a home on the South Fork every summer for the past several years.

REAL LI reported earlier this year that the governor’s childhood home on Carolina Avenue, which his parents bought in the late 1950’s, sold to the current owners in 1988 for $132,000. Property records put a current value of about $350,000 on the 1,300 square foot two-story home.

Photo by Lee Fryd

Even some professional football players have had trouble finding affordable housing on Long Island.

So says Mike Francesa, co-host of WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog radio show, who spoke last week about members of the New York Jets, who for years have trained at Hofstra University in Hempstead. Starting next year, the team will train in Florham Park, N.J., which may be happy news to some players and coaches, who found housing prices here on the Island out of reach, and opted to travel hours to training camp rather than pay the hefty real estate prices in our area.

Despite it all, some members of the Jets did call Long Island home, and REAL LI has reported on current and former team members who are now selling or have recently sold homes here.

Former Jet Vinny Testaverde has relocated to Florida, and is selling his Oyster Bay Cove estate for $6.495 million. Retired Jet Curtis Martin took his Garden City penthouse off the market earlier this year, after having listed it for $3.099 million. Jet quarterback Chad Pennington recently listed his Muttontown mansion for $4.095 million, and cornerback Dave Barrett is selling his Melville townhome for $899,000. Linebacker Bryan Thomas, who owns a home on the North Shore, sold a property he owns in Long Beach earlier this year which h