Why you should buy their house in Sayville
Debra and Robert Abbate in the living room of their Maple Street home in Sayville. (Jan. 8, 2013) Credit: James Carbone
Sellers. Debra and Robert Abbate
Address. 76 Maple St., Sayville
Asking price. $649,000
The competition. A waterfront three-bedroom, 2½-bath ranch on Westgate Drive is on the market for $849,900.
Recent sale in the area. A four-bedroom 3½-bath Colonial on Poplar Street sold for $540,000 at the end of October.
Taxes. $11,067
Time on the market. Since May
Listing agent. Linda Ciavarelli, coach Realtors, West Sayville, 631-567-8500
Why it’s for sale. Debra Abbate, 57, is a ballroom dance instructor, and her husband Robert, 58, is the chief financial officer for an environmental construction company. They plan to move upstate to a second home they’ve owned for 25 years.
The Abbates have lived in their four-bedroom, two-bathroom Tudor since 1978 and raised their now-adult two children there. They added a heated 16-by-17-foot four-season room in 1985. A detached two-car garage is also on the .30 acre property Debra chats about her favorite features in the home:
“The home was built in 1928 and designed by a woman . . . She must’ve thought of things not normally found in homes then. There’s a set of built-in drawers in the bedroom. She put in two levels of laundry chutes that go right into the basement . . . and she put in a butler pantry and four (sets of) French doors in the living room . . .
"There’s an [outdoor] balcony off the master bedroom on the second level and because we’re set so far back from the road it’s a wonderful place to sit . . . to bring a cup of coffee or watch fireworks. We enclosed the screened-in porch and knocked down the wall between the porch and the living room. It gave us an open [area]. ...
"The neighborhood is lovely. We are perfectly located, within walking distance to town and the beach. We don’t get the traffic from town, but it’s nearby . . . Sayville is a very spirited community."
