By JENNIFER GOULD KEIL
Last updated: 6:46 am
July 3, 2008
Posted: 12:13 am
July 3, 2008
If she ever tires of her role on Bravo TV's "The Real Housewives of New York City," Jill Zarin could create a spinoff - "The Real Houseboat Wives of the Hamptons."
Before owning her Joe Farrell-designed six-bedroom home in Sag Harbor, Jill summered on houseboats with her husband of seven years, Bobby Zarin, owner of the Zarin fabric emporium. (The couple purchased their house, five miles from the ocean, in 2003.)
PHOTO GALLERY: At Home With The Zarins
Jill, 44, had never even been to the East End until she met Bobby, 60, her second husband, about nine years ago in New York City. "Bobby said, 'Why don't we get a boat?' " she recalls.
The couple first lived on a 40-foot boat, then a 50-foot boat, then a 75-footer with a live-in captain and a maid
"We kept moving up," Jill explains.
"We made a whole group of friends through boating," she adds. "Boating people are very friendly. Everybody helps each other."
Jill continues, "Living on a boat in the Hamptons has changed a lot. In those years it was the best. We'd tie up our boat with the others and everyone would be drinking and jet skiing."
However, it wasn't always the perfect vacation option: "We always had problems with the weather."
Wind and rain cut down on the amount of time they could comfortably summer on the boat, plus the Zarins started to get that "been there, done that" feeling.
"We outgrew it and grew up and bought a house," Jill says.
That house is a 5,000-square-foot (not counting the 2,500-square-foot basement) cedar-shingle home built in 1990. It features a 50-foot swimming pool and a Har-Tru tennis court.
But Jill's favorite part of the home is her gym, which includes her own Pilates machine.
On the other end of the spectrum is her second-favorite thing: a 70-inch Sony television that's built into a wall unit in the den. She loves to watch it while perched on an L-shaped sofa from Zarin Fabrics and Home Furnishings.
"I plop myself down and veg," she says.
Most watched are, perhaps not surprisingly, reality shows.
"They are my biggest addiction," admits Jill, whose own reality show just started filming its second season last Saturday. She says that "American Idol," "Dancing With the Stars" and "The Apprentice" are among her favorites.
