For twenty years, Dan McAllister has been in the business of breathing new life into old things. The self-taught builder is the founder of In the Attic Too, an antique furniture shop where he and his daughter sell custom furniture made from reclaimed materials.
“I started building birdhouses out of materials that I found on the side of the road,” explained McAllister. “It snowballed from there.”
After inheriting a home that had been in his family for forty years, he took on the challenge of reviving it using only salvaged materials and lumber.
Four years later, the Bungalow Nofo is now ready to be lived in and rented out for longer stays.
“I don’t think you can find a home — there are few and far between — that have this amount of salvaged material, and it’s all local,” McAllister said.
The cozy bungalow is the quintessential North Fork home. Located on Bungalow Lane, it’s a short drive to the shops on Mattituck’s Love Lane, a few steps from the water, and is equipped with its own organic veggie garden that guests can use during their stay. It’s also a North Fork time capsule — from its 19th century floorboards to its old farmhouse doors, the home is a collection of little pieces of local history.
“You can’t duplicate the character, the warmth and the uniqueness of an original material,” explained McAllister, who said it’s extra rewarding to be able to salvage the materials himself.
His favorite find is the front door — a piece he took from a 19th century home in Aquebogue that was demolished. “We have the original front door and the original skeleton key,” he said.
Inside the home, the antique furniture also comes with stories to tell, like a Gothic clawfoot tub in the master’s bathroom sourced from a property that once belonged to one of the founding families on the North Fork.
“We personally went to a home on [Pier Avenue] and Sound Avenue and took that tub home,” McAllister explained. “That house I believe had a fire in the 70s, and one of the family members had the wherewithal to salvage stuff from in the house and put it in the barn.” In the kitchen, the island is formed by an eclectic assortment of materials: a barn board from a barn in Peconic, a workbench from Greenport, and a bleacher seat from his wife’s old high school.
An old library table is the centerpiece of the kitchen, which is made of entirely salvaged materials (Credit: Dan McAllister) 
The kitchen island is made from a mix of salvaged materials, including a high school bleacher seat. (Credit: Dan McAllister) 
McAllister used beams from an old factory in Queens to create the stairwell’s accent walls.(Credit: Dan McAllister) 
The home contains 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. (Credit: Dan McAllister) 
It took about 4 years to restore the cozy Mattituck bungalow.(Credit: Dan McAllister)
Guests who stay at the Bungalow Nofo will be given an album filled with numbered photos and explanations of each piece so they can roam around and uncover the history that makes up the home.
Unlike most rental homes, the Bungalow is the McAllister family’s primary home, intended for guests looking to experience a slice of life on the North Fork.
“There was such an interest from our customers about what we were doing, we felt that it would be fun to share it and rent it out periodically,” he explained.
The Bungalow Nofo is available for rent (with a two week minimum) through Instagram inquiries only.
You can visit @bungalownofo to reach out or learn more.
