Habitat

The Star’s hunter-gatherer, Durell Godfrey, wishes everyone a safe start of the summer season. While you’re at it, she suggests you shop locally and drive carefully. Enjoy yourself, keep calm, and carry on.
 

Sheet metal runs in Max Philip Dobler’s blood. His grandfather, who immigrated here from Germany in 1925, was a sheet metal worker, and among his father’s projects was a copper roof for the Montauk Lighthouse.

The Southampton History Museum’s house tour this year will open the doors to eight houses that illustrate Southampton’s architectural history from the 17th century to the present.

It’s a hearty pink, vibrant, almost the hue of those Hostess Sno Ball snack cakes, if you’ve ever dared to indulge, or a flamingo fresh from its latest inhalation of shrimp.

‘I have about 7,500 books in this library, and approximately an equal number downstairs,” said Michael Braverman, while seated in the biggest room of his East Hampton house, where wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling shelves are filled. “I don’t buy a lot of books anymore.”

Even though New York State says new houses have to measure at least 800 square feet and existing ones being renovated must be at least 600 square feet, Matias Whitmore and his companion, Nikki Seelbach, have one that comes in at only 575 square feet.

A talk, reception, and benefit with Enzo Enea will be held on April 4 in Manhattan.

Caplan Rose, an East End travel company that organizes private tours of gardens and cultural destinations in rural England, has announced its summer 2019 excursions.

So farewell then, multiculturalism. It seems you’ve been dumped, alongside pet rocks and fondue sets, as yet another 1970s fad.

The search for perfect holiday gifts can test your imagination, shopping stamina, and, above all, patience.

Christmas is coming and garden shops and nurseries already have begun selling fir trees. You’ve seen them everywhere. For the most part, when the holidays are over they are allowed to dry out on firewood piles, used by municipalities to shore up dunes, or taken to the dump.

When Barbara Toll, an art adviser and former gallery owner, sold her Sag Harbor house and moved into a two-bedroom condominium in the Watchcase factory in 2015, she was eager to give up the maintenance responsibilities that come with homeownership, but she wanted to retain some of the aspects of her former, beloved home.

Customers come from near and far and at this point the general manager of London Jewelers in East Hampton can often spot them the minute they walk in. They are almost always men, and when they look at the cases of glittering jewelry and watches and rings, they suddenly seem unsure they’re in the right place. Then, with a quick glance, they see “Humidor” in big letters on a glass door to the right and shelves of cigars inside a climate-controlled, walk-in room.

Universal Design, the design of products and environments suitable for everyone, from children to the elderly, is a term increasingly heard on the East End, where retirees continue to swell the population. Put simply, it is intentionally planning houses and public spaces to meet changing needs, design that allows “aging in place.” And it is happening here.

What she could possibly give her husband as a 25th wedding anniversary present was on Yusi Gurrera’s mind about a year and a half ago when she came up with a perfect solution. She would ask a friend who is a sculptor, James Grashow, who lives in Connecticut, to create something that would epitomize her husband’s main interest — fish.