“I always say, ‘Beware of free cars,’” jokes Mike Hogan about the 1983 Mercedes convertible that led him, the executive digital director at Vanity Fair, and his wife, Elise Jordan, an MSNBC and NBC News political analyst, to purchase their Long Island vacation home in Sag Harbor. When Jordan’s father passed away in 2016, he left her the cherry red classic car that was, as she says, “my dad’s pride and joy.” She was touched, and the gift also got her thinking: This car belongs near the water.

“I always say, ‘Beware of free cars,’” jokes Hogan about the 1983 Mercedes convertible that inspired the couple to purchase their Sag Harbor home. Here the couple stands alongside the formative gift with their beloved corgi Bobby Sneakers.

“I got this idea in my head that it was the perfect beach car, so I need a house by the beach,” Jordan says. “And Mike thought I being crazy—because I was—when I started looking, but I had my eye on this one particular house.” Their dream home, a former 1850s farmhouse nestled on a property with a pool, carriage house, and pool house, ended up being their ideal laid-back weekend escape from their New York apartment—but first it needed some work. As in, the carriage house and pool house had been stripped down to their studs.

Enter Brooklyn-based interior designer Michelle R. Smith, whom Jordan met at a dinner party several years ago and always wanted to work with, but didn’t have a project for them to collaborate on together—yet. The house in Sag Harbor, where Smith also has a home, was just the thing. “Mike and I could tell the house was already beautiful,” Jordan says, “But we also knew it had the potential to be a fun project for us. Maybe not so much fun for Hogan but fun for me and Michelle.” Still, Smith says the couple was as relaxed about the renovations, even when she suggested tearing apart a bedroom to create a mudroom, or when she painted the trims and doors light blue and yellow throughout the houses. “We repeated blue and yellow so many times that they practically became a neutral,” she says.

The view from the guest house bathroom, which Jordan calls “next level,” overlooks Mother Nature via a huge window—but there’s also curtain to shield modest bathers.

In the end, the speedy renovations, which took all of four months, resulted in a relaxed, Southern-tinged (Jordan is from Mississippi) hideaway filled with impressive art (William Eggleston photos hang in the pool house) and antique finds. But mostly, it’s where the couple can relax and do what they love most: host their family and friends. In the guest house, a loft fits two single beds while a king bed sits below. In the pool house, a daybed is a comfy place for guests to rest their heads. And the main house has a guest bedroom with another set of twin beds.

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And when it’s just the two of them at the property, Jordan sneaks up to the loft to write, and Hogan settles in with a book in the living room. “It’s a place where we love to entertain and have a good time,” Jordan says. “But also, for just the two of us and Bobby, we can go there, be alone for days and days, and not notice that it's just us.”