Amagansett Dream Home

An Amagansett electrical contractor designed the house of his dreams. No one would ever guess that the main parts came from a factory.
As an electrical contractor specializing in high-end installations, Marc Mathews, who runs the company First Light, has seen a lot of fabulous houses. And so when he was ready to build a house for his family, on almost an acre of land in Amagansett, he knew exactly what he wanted. Instead of taking his ideas to an architect, however, Mathews chose a modular house–”an empty shell” is how he describes it–which he then completed to his specifications. The result is a sleek 3,200-square-foot L-shaped structure that you would be hard-pressed to guess had not been custom-built. All the tile, floors, closet shelves, appliances, kitchen countertops, and trim were chosen by Mathews and installed on site.

“Basically, I drew my own plans,” said Mathews, who lives with his fiancée and their two teenage sons. The installation and site preparation was handled by an industry colleague, Ross Berti of Ross Berti Construction in East Hampton. “I was familiar with his modulars so I knew Ross did good work. And because I trusted him, I knew what I was getting into,” he added.

Before Mathews set pencil to paper, he conferred with his fiancée. “Being minimalists, we knew we wanted clean lines,” the fiancée said. “We’re simple people and we don’t need much.”

On the couple’s list of “must-haves” were an open floor plan, a guest suite on the ground floor, and a living room with views of the pool. For privacy, Mathews placed the guest room just off the main entrance, which allows guests to come and go as they wish. An imposing brushed steel staircase leads to the family’s living quarters on the second floor. Like the guest room, all three upstairs bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, a feature that rates high with summer renters. “It’s also a gigantic perk for our boys, because it means that each of them have their own space,” the fiancée observed. Also on the second floor is a laundry room, a decision that eliminated needless trips to the basement. “Many people don’t have room to put a washer-dryer upstairs,” Mathews noted. “It’s unfortunate, because it’s wonderfully convenient to have one less than ten feet away from the bedrooms, especially if you wash a lot of towels and sheets.”