If you’ve been entranced by the bountiful crop of flowers on the kousa dogwoods this spring and have been tempted to add one to your garden, now is the time to act. Head right to your favorite garden center and pick one out while they are still in bloom — what you see is what you get, is what I was told years ago by a nurseryman.

Look closely as you go around town and you will see there is tremendous variation among kousas. Some have very large, oval and overlapping petals, while others have small, star-shaped ones. Some trees are so covered with blooms you can hardly see the leaves, and the branches hang down from their weight, and others have only a few paltry flowers.

In East Hampton Village, these differences are easy to see, in the cluster of trees growing near Town Pond, in front yards on Dayton Lane, and in Cedar Lawn Cemetery on Cooper Lane.

There are other big differences between individual plants as well. In our area most kousas have multiple trunks, but they are also available with single trunks. Their structure, or architecture, is normally horizontal, although there are more upright ones and even weeping varieties.  

Depending on where you are placing it, its shape may be an important consideration. At the small vest-pocket park in the village in front of the old barn that houses the Ralph Lauren surf shop, called Millstone Park after the old millstone at its center, the Garden Club of East Hampton was careful to select a pair of narrow, upright trees to flank the bench on the left, while the two on either side of the shop entrance are more spreading. 

Dogwoods are one of the most beautiful of flowering trees and rightfully one of the most popular trees for the home. The kousas, also called Chinese dogwoods but distributed from central China northeastward through Korea and Japan, are close relatives of the natives that flower along South Fork roadsides in wooded areas. The many venerable kousa specimens here indicate its popularity goes back decades.

 “Chinese” Wilson introduced the kousa dogwood into the United States from seed he collected in China in the early years of the 20th century. He later went on to become head of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. A great admirer of the eastern flowering dogwood, he wrote that it was “the envy and despair” of English gardeners, who could not grow it because of differences in climate. As much as he loved our native dogwood, though, he admitted that the kousa was a more valuable garden plant because of its greater bud hardiness.

Native dogwoods flower in April on bare branches. This past winter in particular, when the weather cycled from very warm to extended cold snaps, their buds were stressed. Kousas begin blooming in June after the foliage has developed, and we can see the weather did not affect flowering.

There are other differences that make the kousa an excellent choice for the home. Its flowers can last throughout the summer, while those of the eastern dogwood last only about two weeks. Kousas also prefer and flower more abundantly in full sun; natives do better in a partially shaded position. Some of the variegated kousa forms do prefer some shade, and I use smaller varieties as a foil to light up dark areas in the woodland garden.

Kousas are much more resistant to disease. Both they and the Rutgers hybrids, which are crosses of the native and kousa species, are largely unaffected by the anthracnose diseases that devastated native populations during the 1990s. 

The showy fruit in autumn, which resembles large raspberries or strawberries, and the mottled bark, in shades of gray, copper, and olive, extend their interest in all seasons. 

There are hundreds of named selections of the kousas and their hybrids.  Many are grafted, though some popular varieties, like Milky Way, are propagated from seed strains, and their offspring can be highly variable.

The cultivar with the largest flowers of all is Venus, one of the Rutgers hybrids crossed with the western dogwood. Its flowers are typically five to six inches in diameter. At 15 years, the original tree was reported to measure 18 feet tall by 25 feet wide. Some might think it is a little too much of a good thing — or not.    

A handsome tree of unknown parentage with lots of large flowers will make most people happy, and our garden centers and nurseries have a good selection. If you would prefer something a little more unusual and different, Broken Arrow Nursery in Connecticut lists about 20 cultivars, and Forestfarm in the Pacific Northwest, nearly that many.

Since kousa dogwoods are long-lived trees, a little thought given to selecting one will pay long-term dividends.

For the first time since they were planted in 1982, there will be no blue mophead hydrangeas flowering on my front lawn this year. And I’m afraid I will not be alone.

Travelling throughout our area, you notice dry sticks protruding above the new foliage of this icon of beach communities in the Northeast. These dead or weakened sticks are the stems of last year’s growth, off of which this year’s flowers grow. Without them, there will be few, if any, mopheads this summer.

This past winter appears to have been more difficult for hydrangeas than the winter of 2014, with its extended period of deep cold and a single cold snap in April that put paid to most of last summer’s flowers. As I recollect, earlier this year we experienced at least three cycles of very warm weather when plants broke dormancy, followed by cold spells that fried open flowers and killed soft wood.

After two bad seasons, I am seriously considering pulling the mopheads by the street, together with my favorite, the lilac hydrangea Ayesha, that didn’t make it. But then again, this is the first time in 34 years that this has happened. Odds are it’s worth waiting another year before resorting to a drastic solution.

Dennis Lemonius, of the family that owns Buckley’s garden center on the Montauk Highway and the wholesale yard in East Hampton Village, tells me he is gaining new respect for the repeat-blooming Endless Summer hydrangea. “It’s come through the past two seasons in much better condition than that old favorite Nikko Blue,” he says.

Endless Summer, with blue mopheads, was a breakthrough in hydrangeas with its ability to flower on both the previous season’s woody stems and the current season’s new growth. It has been joined by Blushing Bride, with white semi-double flowers that mature to a soft blue; Twist-n-Shout, the first re-blooming lacecap, and the newest, BloomStruck, that has very strong red-purple stems and purple mopheads.

I’ve counted at least 11 other mopheads and lacecaps that are said to be re-blooming, and the list grows longer each year. They tend to be grown by huge commercial growers like Monrovia and marketed by organizations like Proven Winners. Those who al ready are growing any of the re-blooming hydrangeas will have flowers this summer, but they will bloom later, on the new growth.

I personally have no experience growing any of them and am always skeptical of anything that is marketed as the biggest or the best. In my own garden, where I experiment with many different types of plants, I’ve learned to cut my losses, and am grateful to have the room to try something new. That’s part of what makes gardening so interesting. Why not give these new hydrangeas a try? They might actually live up to the claims on the labels.

One that caught my eye is Seaside Serenade, a Cape Cod re-blooming hydrangea, only because I was raised on the Cape and that’s where I learned to associate hydrangeas with the beach. It grows to about four feet.

Many of the other re-bloomers are compact, growing two to three feet high.  There are five different cultivars in the Let’s Dance series. These would be good for the front of a planting area or in containers. Mr. Lemonius is encouraging me to try Tuff Stuff, a small, compact blue lacecap.

Of the eight different varieties of mophead/lacecap hydrangeas in my garden, the one that came through in best condition is Blue Bird, a Japanese mountain hydrangea. It is covered with small, bright, neon-blue lacecaps, generally beginning in mid to late June. An old classic that is not a re-bloomer, its flowers gradually transition to a bright ruby, giving the bush the appearance of a second flowering later in the summer. The leaves, too, turn red in autumn.  

The other popular species of hydrangeas flower on new wood, so are not affected by erratic weather and late cold spells, but the flowers are white or white tinged with pink. The native oakleaf and Annabelle-type smooth hydrangeas haven’t missed a beat, and may, in fact, be opening as you read this.

If you want to make an impact, it is hard to beat a mass planting of Annabelle — which, sadly, flops. An alternative newish cultivar with stronger stems, called Incrediball, is planted just inside the gate to the Mimi Meehan Native Plant Garden, beside Clinton Academy on East Hampton Main Street, where it only gets morning sun and makes a strong statement. In my garden the bushes are in full sun, and the huge size of the mopheads is truly incredible. Is it just a little too flamboyant? Who cares?

So here are the choices. Play the odds, keeping your old bushes and letting the new growth set the scene for next year’s flowering. After all, this has been a once-in-30-years event.

Or, put your toe in the water and give one of the new repeat-blooming hydrangeas a try. Or, visit the native plant garden in another few weeks to see how you like Incrediball. You might decide to give it a go.

Nancy Hollister, the co-owner and chef of Breadzilla (now in its 20th year!), is self-taught. She and her business partner and ex-husband, Brad Thompson, used to be marine biologists. They work side by side at Breadzilla, where he does the baking, and are the best of friends. So much so, that when she hosts her bimonthly pizza parties at home, he is often a guest. To take it a step further, he even helped Nancy and her husband, Owen Jander (her high school sweetheart), build an addition to their 700-square-foot house in Springs to accommodate a beast of a pizza oven.

Encased in brick in the center of their small but super-efficient kitchen, the pizza oven was built from a Wildwood Ovens kit, with refractory cement inside to withstand 980 degree heat. It takes three to four hours, and plenty of firewood, to get up to temperature and continually requires feeding as cooking commences.

On this particular evening, guests arrived bearing gourmet treats and wine. I felt compelled to bring one of my favorite pizza toppings: Taleggio cheese and sauteed wild mushrooms, a la Cittanuova.

Nancy’s friend Steven Salzman, a jolly fellow and clearly a superb cook too, came with his home-smoked bacon. He cut it into thick slabs, placed it in a cast-iron skillet, and topped it with some turbinado sugar. The speed with which food cooks in this Luciferous furnace is staggering. Caramelized and crisped within a minute, the bacon was then cut into cubes and served with a variety of mustards for dipping: whole grain, honey, and others from Maille. 

Next up, fresh bay scallops took a turn in another cast-iron skillet. These cooked faster than it took you to read this sentence. They were slipped into a serving dish and doused with fresh lemon juice and a bit of salt and pepper. By this time, the Kampf family had arrived, as well as Kyle and Reed Karen, all the way from Shelter Island on this moderately snowy but very slippery evening.

Nancy’s kitchen is scrupulously organized, with space above, below, and in between utilized as if in a ship’s galley. When I arrived, little balls of pizza dough were gathered in a tub on the counter with an array of toppings — frisee, cheeses, pepperoni, more scallops, tomato sauce, herbs, apples, and red onions, among others. 

Owen was in charge of the oven, frequently checking the temperature with a digital thermometer, cleaning the “deck” inside, and sliding the pizza peel and paddle in and out. Nancy’s pizza dough is a variation of the “squishy” doughs she makes for Breadzilla’s popular lunches using King Arthur’s Sir Galahad flour, French instant yeast, olive oil, salt, and sugar. Her tomato sauce is simple perfection: San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, onions, marjoram, sugar, and salt.

Finally, the first pizza “baby” went in. It is small and covered only with a thin layer of sauce and cheese, and cooks in less than two minutes. Watching the dough blister and bubble is a thrill, eating it even more so. Then the real fun began.

  Frisee with more scallops, parmesan, and a little salt and pepper with a spritz of lemon to finish was next. The cheese turns to what might be described as napalm and we have to wait a few minutes before digging in. The mushroom and Taleggio version, I am thrilled to hear, is a hit with everyone. Steve then makes a pizza with homemade tomato jam, Halsey Farm buttercup squash cubes that have been roasted with sake and honey, more Taleggio, and some rosemary. At some point a calzone gets made but I forget what was in it.

I ask the gang what their favorite pizzas are: Brad loves clam and mushroom, Owen’s is sausage and peppers, Nancy’s is apple slices with red onion and Gorgonzola. I notice that she makes this one last, when most of the guests are full. She has also made a Thai-style dipping sauce, more sweet than salty or hot, with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, sirarcha, rice vinegar, garlic, cilantro, and scallions, kind of a nam jim-nam pla prik mash-up. It is surprisingly good with pizza!

If you’ve ever been to Breadzilla or read reviews of it online, you probably understand the juxtaposition therein. The breads, sandwiches, soups, cheeses, and pastries are divine, the signage throughout reminiscent of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. “Please! It’s cheese, not a T-shirt sale at the Gap!” and “Mean people not welcome.” All of this cracks Nancy up, especially the reviews that refer to her as “the wife” or “the one with no people skills.” Even her friend Steven says she may be better suited for forensic science than retail.

Maybe it was because they welcomed this stranger into their house for a story, or because we were giggling and sharing recipes within minutes, but my perception of this dynamo is more of a cross between Olga Korbut and Dorothy Parker, petite and pretty, relentlessly energetic, and witty as all get out.

And those were the best damned pizzas I’ve ever had.

Thanksgiving means turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry relish, and 5K “trots,” and in East Hampton, it also means the joy of peeking into houses both grand and historical, courtesy of the East Hampton Historical Society.

Each year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the historical society offers a house and garden tour of properties that are unique examples of contemporary and historical architecture. This year’s group of five show how history can live with contemporary comfort — classical design enhanced by Modernism’s clean lines.

Such is the case at a house on Dunemere Lane constructed in 1897 by George Eldredge, a prominent builder with his hand in several historic houses in the area. The modern update of an original summer cottage retains the traditional details while bringing open-plan living to the first floor. A liberal use of windows, along with a white and light palette, keeps the foyer and other rooms light-filled and airy.

In a similar grand spirit is a compound on Egypt Lane, with a gambrel-roofed main house close to the Maidstone Club and the ocean. The property boasts a guest cottage and a pool house, with a pergola and tennis court.

On Drew Lane, a shingled guest cottage now stands alone as a private residence. It was once part of a nearby Lily Pond Lane estate that included a stucco main house designed by Albro and Lindeberg. Its relatively diminutive scale, according to the society, highlights a taste for smaller houses toward the end of the 19th century. Its grounds include an English-style garden.

In Amagansett, two houses on Main Street make up a single property. Rather than tear down a small Cape Cod-style cottage associated with the lot, the owners added an entirely new structure and kept the tinier house on the property. Tom Samet and Nathan Wold designed the interiors.

Also on Amagansett’s Main Street is a late-19th-century house built for Isaac Mulford. Samuel Babcock and Lyman Babcock, descendants of Samuel Schellinger, who was a respected builder and millwright, constructed the house, which had been neglected over time. Now rescued, restored, and brought up to date, it retains much of its original flavor, both structurally and with its interior design.

For those who have been curious about the ongoing work at the Studio, the house and workspace of Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran on Main Street opposite Town Pond, the tour will offer a look inside. The Queen Anne-style Victorian building, a national landmark dating from 1884, is being brought back to its original state.

The tour, which lasts from 1 to 4:30 p.m. and is self-guided, costs $65 for advance tickets and $75 for same-day purchases. A cocktail party on Friday, Nov. 27, will also benefit the historical society; tickets, at $200, include the following day’s tour. This year’s party, from 6 to 8 p.m., will be held at the oceanfront residence of Elie Hirschfeld and Dr. Sarah J. Schlesinger, situated where Lily Pond Lane meets Georgica Beach. The imposing house, designed by John Custis Lawrence and built in 1920, has quirky Arts and Crafts details and Swiss-style balconies.

Tickets are available from the historical society’s website or its office at 101 Main Street. Tickets will also be sold on the Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend at Clinton Academy, 151 Main Street, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Some people buy cookbooks for the recipes, some people buy them for the pictures or narrative. And some people buy them for all of those reasons and more. I used to collect regional cookbooks, but the massive quantity of cream of mushroom soup and spinach dip recipes became distressing so I sold them all at a yard sale.

“Cookbook Book,” a compilation by Annahita Kamali, an art director, and Florian Bohm, an artist, which was published by Phaidon, is a coffee table book that covers all the bases. Almost. The authors gathered 125 cookbooks spanning hundreds of years. Each page opens up to an actual-size color photograph of a chosen recipe from each book. As this is an international volume, the back of the book gives translations for such recipes as Kogebog for Hvermand’s mashed tripe and minced sausage, and Housewife’s Friend (1936, Tokyo), Yoshino tofu with prawns, should you be so inclined.

From a dedicated cook and cookbook collector’s perspective, this book has some serious flaws and misses some major culinary talent. But, it was delightful to see that some local chefs and authors made the cut. Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey are included, as they should be. Myrna Davis’s 1972 “The Potato Book” is included, with Truman Capote’s amusing foreword. He waxes poetic about foraging for unharvested potatoes and chilled Russian vodka, and laments the “new houses that are steadily popping up to mar the long line where the land ends and the sky begins.” He also gives a shout out to the then Hampton Day School, saying “it is as open in spirit as its surroundings and for that we can be grateful.”

 The local watercolorist and illustrator Lauren Jarrett’s exquisite work can be seen in “Catalan Cuisine.” It’s a shame that some other “locals,” such as Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and Sheila Lukins of Silver Palate fame didn’t make the cut. Surely, the 1980s fame of Silver Palate and New Basics cookbooks deserved a place in this tome?

Since this is a British publication, however, it is heavy on British authors. While I admire Jamie Oliver a great deal, I’m not sure his “30 Minute Meals” is a worthy addition. There is also quite a bit of infatuation with totally kitschy cookbooks, mostly American, natch. There is “The Mafia Cookbook,” “The Special Effects Cookbook,” “White Trash Cooking,” “The Astronaut’s Cookbook,” “Singers and Swingers in the Kitchen,” “I Hate to Cook Book,” “DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook,” and worst of all, “Bridget’s Diet Cookbook.”

Do you remember the brief, sad fad of the ’70s with calendars, cards, and, yes, a cookbook with a fat, nude girl named Bridget? The chosen illustration for “Cookbook Book” is Bridget eating a plate of bird seed. Sooooo politically incorrect nowadays. Probably even better (or worse) is the “Super Heroes” recipe for Invisible Banana French Toast. The comic strip shows Batman wondering where the banana is. Robin replies, “You get that taste by putting the banana in the Batman . . . er, I mean the batter, Batman.” There have been sniggering jokes for decades about Batman and Robin’s sexuality, but such innuendo in what is supposed to be a children’s cookbook?

The book is divided into chapters/categories such as “Design Mavericks,” “Enduring Classics,” and “World Flavors,” but these, too, contain flaws. Sylvia (Queen of Soul Food) Woods, the owner and proprietor of the eponymous Sylvia’s of Harlem, is a true blue American, not African. However, it is heartening to see that Yotam Ottolenghi gets a page from his “Plenty” cookbook, and there are some single subject books that enchant, such as Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Bread Bible,” Pierre Herme’s “Macarons,” and Myrna Davis’s aforementioned “The Potato Book.”

There are also books for cooks that may not catch your eye at a Barnes and Noble. “Visual Recipes: A Cookbook for Non-Readers” is an example. “The Eskimo Cook Book,” written by the students of Shishmaref Day School, was published by the Alaska Crippled Children’s Association in 1953 and has charming drawings by the children, along with some very regional recipes for seagull eggs, dried salmon eggs with berries, conch, and tomcod.

As Colman Andrews says in the introduction, “Volumes like these bring us not just cooking lessons but inspiration, insight, and context.” And even a touch of our own local flavors.

Click for recipes

Potato Pancakes, Milwaukee Style

    Elaine Ewing, East Hampton, N.Y.

    These potatoes are thin and crisp, and especially good with poultry and poultry gravy.

2 cups raw grated potatoes

2 whole eggs

11/2 teaspoons salt

1 Tbsp. flour (rounded), breadcrumbs may be substituted

1 Tbsp. finely chopped onion

1/2 cup boiling milk

    Mix all ingredients together well and bake on greased griddle.

Quahog Chowder for 100

    Helen and Everett Rattray, Amagansett, N.Y.

1 bushel chowder (quahog) calms, opened and minced

15 lbs. dressed-weight striped bass fillets, chunked

13/4 gallons clam broth plus 1 quart, reserved from steaming open clams

18 medium-size onions, minced fine and squeezed

2 lbs. salt pork, diced

1/2 lb. butter

10 lbs. potatoes, pared and diced

3 quarts milk

1 cup white wine

Thyme, one bunch minced

1 cup parsley, chopped

    Try out pork, add onion, and cook until just slightly brown. Add butter if necessary. Add clam broth. Bring to boil. Add potatoes, cook until tender. Add fish, cook until half or three-quarters done. Add clams, simmer briefly. Add thyme and parsley. Add milk and wine. Simmer all awhile.

Potato Pie Crust

    This is a good pie crust for hearty fillings of meat, fish, or chicken.

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup cold mashed potatoes, without seasoning, butter or milk

6 Tbsp. solid shortening

    Resift flour with salt and sugar. Blend in potatoes with a fork until mealy. Add shortening, cutting in with pastry blender or two knives until mixture consists of small crumbs. Form pastry into a ball, put into plastic bag and chill in refrigerator for about half an hour. Then roll out dough on lightly floured board to one-eighth-inch thickness. Press into eight-inch pie pan, trim edges, pricking several places, and bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow crust to cool before filling.

“Shines for All,” the motto of The East Hampton Star, goes back to the origins of this enterprise in the 19th century, when doing so was surely easier. The community some 130 years ago was quite homogeneous, comprised of farmers, fishermen, merchants, and a small group of professionals (along with a very small sprinkling of folks “from away” in fine weather).

The huge variety of people living here, and visiting here, now is so complex and kaleidoscopic that it could be the subject of an anthropological dissertation. But as I look at the houses at which we shine a light in our second seasonal HomeBook supplement today, I realize that we have taken our old motto to heart. This HomeBook is a celebration of eclecticism and idiosyncrasy.

We feature a house that needs almost no furnishings as it immerses those inside in a unique, surrounding native plain. We take a peak at an estate that allows its owner to retreat from the outside world into a meditative environment that juxtaposes Accabonac Harbor and the Far East. A house we stop at in Wainscott is a virtual museum of treasured artifacts from the owners’ travels and earlier American life. And we take a look at a cottage where a resident has made a home for all the books gathered in a literary career. 

Homogenization may seem an almost overwhelming force in our lives in 2015, in architecture as well as other arts. But East Enders, and their nesting places, are invariably worth a visit. 

Well, it’s not a shoe box exactly. But Barbarajo Howard’s one-room Montauk condominium certainly is small — officially, 483 square feet, or 683 if you count the balcony deck that runs the entire width of her top-floor apartment in the 30-acre Rough Rider Landing development. 

Yet confined it’s not. It’s in one of the development’s three-tiered buildings with multiple balconies that are set back farther as they get higher, a fairly common feature in locations with sweeping views. The complex was built in the late 1980s after considerable controversy and concessions  to meet local environmental concerns. The architect, Gary Cannella, created 21 buildings with 147 apartments, all with full balconies facing Fort Pond Bay. Their views, over greenery protected by raised walkways, are spectacular, with the bay’s far (western) side the Hither Hills State Park. 

Clearly Albert Barone, the developer, had a keen eye for a site, even though he had to surmount the difficulties of building over low-lying land that once held the old fishing village of Montauk, which was swept away by the Hurricane of 1938. All the buildings start on the second floor, the ground level or first floor consisting of poured concrete units that support those above and hold heating and air-conditioning equipment. They are enclosed in walls of wooden lattice so storm waters can rush right through. With good luck, the buildings will survive.

“Everyone who lives here says their view is the best,” Ms. Howard said, “including me.” She added that a hobby of most residents is taking photographs of the ever-changing sunsets, the angles of which noticeably move right or left with the changing seasons as the earth’s orbit puts the sun in a slightly different part of the sky.

Ms. Howard has arranged every inch of her tiny apartment to take advantage of the giant view. She has relished the sweep of Montauk’s open spaces ever since she began going there in the summer, staying just down the beach from her present home at the Port Royal motel, which is now a condominium complex as well. She bought the studio in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks rained debris on her New York City apartment, and she began looking for a way to live in the area permanently. That dream came true when she leveraged her experience in public relations into her present job as director of marketing and communications at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

A complete view-centric renovation followed her purchase. She completely covered one wall with mirrors, extending them behind the sink in the kitchen area so both the cook (“I cook a lot,” she said) and her guests can see a reflection of the panorama even when seated at the small kitchen counter with their backs turned. She replaced a rough-textured ceiling with plaster, the better to blend with the brightness from a large skylight in the high ceiling.  She eschewed curtains (“I like to see the stars at night”). She made sure her bed, couches, and even the small backs of the tall chairs at her kitchen counter are off-white to match the paint on the walls. 

The only visual competitors with the view are a faintly Asian armoire by her bed concealing a small TV, a dark wood coffee table between the two couches, decorated by an off-white ceramic tray she made at the nearby Edward Albee Foundation studio, and a photograph and two drawings by her late mother, an artist, the largest of which is a Picasso-esque drawing that is mostly white space. 

Ms. Howard’s artistic family background, she said, influenced her choices of décor. Another helpful influence was having grown up spending summers aboard a 40-foot sailboat, where small cabin space dictates that every item is stowed in precisely chosen locations. (The apartment has a built-in “California” closet with drawers, where she keeps scripts from her local acting career.) The Web has helped her minimalism, too. She keeps all her books on her Kindle and streams her music from the cloud. For all that, she says the apartment sleeps eight during family visits — two on the standard double bed, two on each of the couches, which convert to beds when the coffee table is folded and pushed back, and in a pinch, two more on blow-up floor mattresses.

Ms. Howard said she makes one concession to tight living by renting one of the development’s storage lockers near the beach. There, she keeps three bicycles, two paddleboards, and, in winter, cushions for the four chairs and two chaise longues that go with a small dining table on her balcony. 

“Living small allows one to live large,” she said. “It frees up space in one’s life for doing stuff rather than maintaining it.”

The diminutive white frame house on Union Street in Sag Harbor is known both as the 1693 house and the “five-times-moved house.” Judith Auchincloss, who purchased it in 2010 from the tennis pro Guillermo Vilas, described it to a recent visitor as “sort of magical.” A real estate broker in New York City who has been a longtime summer resident here, she owned a house in Bridgehampton until 2002.

“I was a houseguest instead of a homeowner for eight years,” she said. “Then I happened to be walking on Union Street when they were having an open house. It was a beautiful day, the front door was open, and you could walk all the way through the house. And I thought this is cool. I was looking for something that wouldn’t be too much to take care of.”

From material unearthed at the Sag Harbor Historical Society, a consensus emerged that the house was built in 1693 and moved five times before settling on Union Street. One description, from 1959, states the house was originally in Poxabogue, but most others say it was put on rollers and hauled by teams of oxen from Sagaponack. 

Officially, Sag Harbor turned 300 in 2007, but Stephen Longmire, who wrote “Keeping Time in Sag Harbor,” ratified the 1693 date of the house and called it the oldest in the village. He wrote that its five moves were the result of “an old Yankee habit rich with the thrift that built such proud and simple dwellings.” 

The claim that it is the oldest in the village is arguable, however. The Umbrella House, the brick-and-shingle building on Division Street where Cavaniola’s Wine Cellar is today, is more often said to be the oldest house in the village, having sheltered British soldiers during the Revolutionary War and been hit by canon fire in the War of 1812. It’s unlikely that the truth will ever be determined beyond a shadow of a doubt. 

As Barbara Schwartz of the historical society said, “Sometimes a story gets told and retold often enough that it becomes accepted as fact.” She pointed out that when the society inherited the Annie Cooper Boyd House in 1998 from Mrs. Boyd’s daughter, it was believed that David Frothingham had published the Long Island Herald, Long Island’s first newspaper, there. Further research proved that the paper had in fact been published across the street.

There is no doubt that 64 Union Street is old. The snug living and dining rooms are the core of the original structure and retain the rough ancient beams and extraordinarily wide wood planks on the ceilings, and some of the floors and walls. Some, in the dining room, run parallel to the ceiling, some perpendicular.

Next to the fireplace in the dining room is a brick “beehive” oven, where meals were cooked over firewood. If not original, the two small panes of the front door seem to be crown glass, which was common until the 19th century. The glass was blown into a hollow globe, then flattened and spun into a flat disk with a bull’s-eye at center. The front door and several others downstairs have old latchkey handles.

Ms. Auchincloss said that her friend and neighbor, the artist Donald Sultan, suspected the roof had been raised at some point because there is space between the top of the pilasters on the façade and the roofline. Indeed, a 1973 photograph at the historical society confirmed Mr. Sultan’s observation and the fact that it had been done sometime within the last 40 years.

Like the other changes, the adjustment of the roof height s subtle. Respect has been paid to the historical character of the structure. The original roofline of the second story, reached by a narrow and steep staircase typical at the time, can still be seen in the upstairs bedroom, but a wide dormer facing the backyard is a more recent addition.

There is a partial basement, now reached by Bilco-type doors, whose stonewalls and old wooden beams suggest it dates from when the house first arrived at its final destination, presumably during the 18th century.

Much of the furniture in the house came from antique fairs (in Brimfield Mass., or the Mulford Farm in East Hampton) and from a great-aunt’s barn in Milton, Mass. It had been stored after the Bridgehampton house was sold. 

Ms. Auchincloss also found furnishings locally: the French farm table in the dining room at English Country Antiques, the small desk in the downstairs bedroom at Marika’s on Shelter Island, and a pair of armchairs at a tag sale in Southampton. The Ushak living room rug was acquired at a Sotheby’s auction.

One of the previous owners, Susan Mead, had modified the kitchen, adding cabinets, countertops, and new appliances. “The primary work I did was create a studio/garage,” Ms. Mead said. “In the winter I parked my car there, and in the summer it was open and I used it for entertaining when it was raining outside.”

Ms. Auchincloss, who said the dining room was “a bit limiting” — it can accommodate only eight people, at most — also finds that “dining outside in the summer, with candles and a full moon, is just wonderful.”

 It is unlikely that those who lived in the house in the 17th century took advantage of outdoor dining, but there is no question that the 21st century has found the house settled at last. 

The Animal Rescue Fund Thrift and Treasure Shop will hold its annual Designer Showhouse and Sale, now an institution, this weekend, likely bringing relief to many who may have expected it to be held at what had been its traditional scheduling on Memorial Day weekend.

The organizers have gathered yet another set of accomplished and fresh designers to take objects from the thrift shop’s inventory and transform them both for inspiration and purchase.

This year’s group includes Brian P. Brandy, Jamie Drake, Kevin Hart, Tamara Magel, Mark Schryver, and Peri Wolfman. The event is co-chaired by Gordon Hoppe, Gigi Mahon, Sandra McConnell, and Jeff Pfeifle.

Participants, for the most part, report that they like the challenge of using the found objects in their designs.

For Mr. Drake, whose previous credits include show houses for Kips Bay and the Metropolitan Home Showtime house and rooms in Gracie Mansion and New York City Hall, having to incorporate the store’s objects seemed daunting at first, but he immediately found things that reflected his style. “I found some wonderful pieces, a pair of simple but elegant end tables I’m using as cocktail tables; a charming painting, and a wonderful pair of wicker chaises.”

He will incorporate some of his own things, but the event guidelines are strict: Anything used in the rooms must be for sale and for the benefit of ARF. Mostly, however, Mr. Drake was able to find things “that I could bring together in a cohesive way that reflects my style.”

Mr. Drake will be in the barn with Ms. Magel, who is designing a guest bedroom suite there. She too is excited about her thrift shop finds. “I found a lot of things from here,” she said during a conversation in one of the shop’s main rooms. She had been concerned that the day the designers arrived to choose their pieces would be somewhat of a frenzy; instead, happily, everyone gravitated to different items, pieces that reflected their own style.

Ms. Magel found two old iron beds and saw right away how she could use them, either for a guest room or a child’s room. She opted for the former: “I saw the metal bed and knew I wanted plush bedding to contrast with it.” She chose black and white for the overall scheme, with some pops of color. The theme carries over in an art piece she is working on with her partner, Peter Buchman. (Some will remember Ms. Magel’s aesthetic from the Watchcase showhouse in Sag Harbor last summer.)

While Mr. Drake’s summers in East Hampton and Bridgehampton are long over, Ms. Magel lives in Sag Harbor year round, going into the city for clients but happily in residence here. She likes the style and taste of the younger generation now finding homes here. They are not interested in the deep-pile sisal and the white-walled, pale-blue-upholstery look that defines so much of their elders’ houses, she said, explaining that their tastes run more to metals, such as brass and wrought iron with black accents, glass, and marble. Herringbone floors have become popular, too, she noted. “It’s a more European aesthetic.”

ARF will open the show and sale with a cocktail party on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m., with a preview hour at 5. Tickets are $150; $250 for the preview. The event will be open to the public on Sunday. Tickets to Saturday night’s benefit are available at arfhamptons.org .