End of terrace home in Ballyphehane, Cork, has a colourful character

THE vendors of Cork’s 57 Kent Rd, right next door to the rugby pitches of Musgrave Park, are a dab hand with a paint brush: they also have a handy domestic decorative eye, and a flair for their garden.

Ballyphehane, Cork City €245,000

Size: 118 sq m (1,270 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2

BER: E2

Those attributes, allied to a handy and accessible southside suburban location within a walk of UCC via the cherry tree-lined Pearse Road and the Lough, ensured good interest at a series of open viewings of No 57 in the past week.

No 57 is a traditional-built mid-1900s era end of terrace home, extended to the back and with an attic room up top, so now there’s nearly 1,300 sq ft, with three first-floor bedrooms, big main living space, and the back garden is over 100’ long, done to a Japanese style theme with acers, and looks east behind towards the stands of Musgrave Park.

The owners have been in situ for about six years and are moving out of the city, so estate agent Johnny O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald is selling up, seeking offers of €245,000, and that’s the same sort of price at which another extended five-bed Lower Kent Rd home, needing refurbishing, went up for sale at last year.

No 57 impresses for its character and splashes of colour, and painted up for a more modern feel are the units and chimney breast around a recently installed solid fuel stove, on a Liscannor plinth, in the 21’ by 12’ main living room.

The stove feeds a back-boiler, and there’s also oil central heating, with the other boiler out in a shed.

Even at over 20’ deep, this main living space is not the full depth of the house, as there’s an 18’ wide and 10’ deep kitchen /dining room behind, most of the width of the house.

The dividing wall between living room to the front reception, and the kitchen behind, now has a large window in the divide wall, up at eye level, and it adds both to the sense of overall space, and to the brightness as well.

Kitchen units out back have been painted up too, and there’s a lobby off, and like most of the rest of the house, flooring is laminate.

Once upstairs, there’s a good double room across the front of the home, with two windows, and the other two are compact singles.

The calculated floor area of 1,270 q ft doesn’t include the attic level with Veluxes, used a study/bedroom but not planning compliant for the latter use, while there’s also eaves storage and a WC up here.

Outside, there’s a covered over utility area to the side of the house, handily with access to both the front and back gardens, and there’s off-street parking in front of No 57, to the side of a lawned garden.

Behind, there’s a patio, more lawn, several raised veg beds, a glass house, a shed, and a steel workshed with power supply ideal for DIYers and hobbyists.

Part is done in a Japanese planting theme, with gravel beds, and buddha statuary in attendance. Overall, the fenced and walled back garden’s spacious, over 115’ long and 27’ wide, with the floodlights of Musgrave Park as a night-time sentinel over the back wall.

VERDICT: Handy spot, near the ring road, and handy for business parks on the Tramore Road, for Turners Cross/Aldi.

The nearby Kinsale Road’s retail offer’s about to get a Homestore+More, and a DID Electrical outlet, in a new building by Woodies ....so No 57 Kent Road’s next owners can continue to upgrade.