Hampton Style - June 13 -

On a recent balmy evening in Montauk, caterer Janet O'Brien was sipping Prosecco and watching the sunset over the ocean from her kitchen, just steps from the beach, and right down the road from an enclave of Stanford White-designed mansions.

A surfboard was propped up against a wall in her living room and O'Brien was plotting out the next time she could hit the waves. A framed photograph, taken by her friend and Montauk resident Bruce Weber, of one of her handsome staff members--she only has handsome staff members--was hanging on another wall.

O'Brien was taking a well-deserved break after a hectic weekend working for the well-heeled party set, an occupation which keeps her insanely busy during the summer months. Her celebrity clients have included P.Diddy, Kelly Klein, and 50 Cent. (She thinks the big summer-catering trends will be kid-friendly parties and dessert banquets). Surprisingly, there wasn't much in the fridge--but maybe not that surprising, considering her surfside crash-pad is a pied-a-terre to her 3-bedroom house in Sag Harbor.

"We're supposed to call them condos," said O'Brien, who came to the Hamptons from Dublin with just a backpack in the early '80s. "But it's a trailer park."

Other words often used to describe her type of modest home in a gated community: resort cottage, elongated cottage, park models. According to a recent feature in the New York Times, a park model can cost from $20,000 to $80,000 just for the structure, not including a permanent parking spot and maintenance. The Recreational Park Trailer Industry Association provided statistics to the Times indicating that there's been a 46-percent increase in sales of park models since 1997. In other words everyone's doing it, but it's much more expensive to do it in the Hamptons than anywhere else.

In the fall of '05, O'Brien bought her "condo"--which looks like a trailer without the wheels--for $430,000 (with monthly maintenance reaching about $150). She first heard about the spot when she was visiting a friend in Montauk Shores, the trailer--whoops, condo!--park on DeForest Rd, near Ditch Plains Beach. He let her in on the secret that the best-located condo, the one closest to the water, was about to be sold by a woman who had lived in it for 15 years. She bought it from a man who lived there in squalor--the ceiling had holes. O'Brien convinced her friend to show it to her and immediately fell in love with the modest 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom, 600-square-foot place with a big porch, and the ocean for a backyard. Just a few days later, she made an offer to buy it. (Broker: Nancy Keeshan of John Keeshan Real Estate.)

The deal seemed to be going smoothly until Jimmy Buffett came along and offered an extra $30,000. Damn those rich rock-star surfers! As if they don't already have it all. The seller was decent enough to ask O'Brien for just an extra $5,000 and call it a deal.

"What an honorable lady," said O'Brien, grinning. Now she regularly surfs with Buffett and he doesn't exhibit any aggressive real-estate envy. "He's so busy; he doesn't even seem to remember it."

After she closed the deal, O'Brien's first step was to rip out the ratty carpet and paint the floor white. She bought furniture from IKEA and a plastic chandelier from what she describes as "the Kmart of Dublin." The throw pillows from the couch look like they're from Jonathan Adler, but they're from Target. The boat chairs in the kitchen, facing out over the ocean, are from a tag sale. Total cost for decor: about $1,500.

In December, O'Brien goes to Dublin for a visit, then spends much of the winter at her other modest home in Aspen. She pretty much lives in Montauk full-time throughout fall and spring. During the fall, when her workload lightens and the waves get bigger, she invites her surfing pals over for red wine, hors d'oeuvres after a big day in the ocean. They have dubbed the break near her place "Backyards."

She also entertains Paul Morrissey, her neighbor who bought two trailers--dammit, condos--after selling Eothen, the Montauk compound he shared with Andy Warhol, last winter for about $30 million to J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler. (Real estate sources say that Drexler is restoring the rambling, weather-beaten houses on the 5.6-acre property, with 600 feet of private beach, rather than knocking them down. Drexler and Morrissey declined comment).

"Paul comes by two times a day," said O'Brien of Morrisey, who's renting a house while he renovates his new condos. About 20 other families live in the community full-time, but a lot of owners only come during warm weekends. "They're all very nice people," said O'Brien. "They think I'm just fabulous because I'm Irish, and there are a lot of Irish ex-cops and ex-firemen."

O'Brien leased her condo for $7,000 a month for June and July, but her tenant is generous enough to let her stay there when he's not around, and he has yet to really be around. She expects to get an even higher rent for August. Still, she can't wait to have it back to herself once the weekend party people clear out of the Hamptons.

"It's magic," said O'Brien. "When I'm out there surfing, I just have to pinch myself."