This property overlooking the bay at Fountainstown has been modernised to top specifications
It didn’t bother them that it was the property equivalent of flotsam, a bit washed up and washed out, with a damaged roof and needing salvation. They bought it.
That was 2006, and it was 2008 by the time they got around to all the necessary works on the terraced, old fashioned dwelling, by the Ferry Road, a short flip-flop trip to the hugely popular beach at Fountainstown, and which has a water sports activity centre almost directly across the road.
It’s a great place for day trips, for holidays, and for rearing children, and since the couple bought 10 years ago, their family has grown to three children welcomed into their space.
It has got a lovely family feel to it, but, in truth, it just isn’t big enough or exactly laid out for smallies. As a result, they owners are selling up, and moving on, on the hunt for another, larger do-er upper in the locality.
It was a huge help that one of the duo, (Ian Burke, who hails from the UK, and was smitten by often under-appreciated Fountainstown) is a chartered architectural technologist by training and profession, and was able to use his expertise and contacts to do a very thorough job on the house called Ridgeway (he has worked with Wilson Architecture in Cork, and currently is back and forth to South Korea, designing nine-storey accommodation blocks for oil rigs at sea).
Ian’s grounded abilities in this total refurb, done by direct labour over a five month period, now is going to be to the benefit of any new owners of Ridgeway.
Launching it for sale at €275,000 and starting viewings of the Ferry Road home in unseasonal February (but, that means buyers could be in by summer if they are swift) selling agent Tom Woodward says it’s primarily a lovely summer time or retirement home, but really, it’s open to all bidders, likely to charm on its own merits alone inside, while its proximity to the sea will be a clincher for the fortunate new occupants.
Tom Woodward says the mid-terraced home has about 120 sq m, thanks in the main to a rear, single storey extension, “and has been totally renovated and modernised to top specifications.” As indeed it has.
Even from the outside, you get clues: the place has been reroofed with natural Capco slate which will age beautifully.
Slate is a dearer choice, but here, the roof area wasn’t so large as to break the bank, the couple Ian and Julie went for it, and it looks right.
Next, the gutters and drainpipes are in low profile metal, a sort of architectural touch, and the windows are Swedish, triple glazed front and back.
They’re in grey frames, of course, the colour de jour of the past decade or more for the architectural profession who generally eschew white or cream pvc, and the house is fronted by a lovely glazed 19’ by 12’ sun room/porch, with timber framing at its edges, and with unobstructed sea and beach views to be savoured from within, and from the sandstone paved front patio.
Behind meanwhile, the back kitchen/dining family space has sliding Marvin double glazed windows/doors, opening the rear space to the decked patio and raised gardens, reached up a few Liscannor stone steps, for a fine weather inside-outside vibe and connectivity.
Essentially, for all its relatively modest proportions, Ridgeway has two impressive rooms to show off: there’s the original cottage section, now a 16’ by 13’ living room open right up to the roof apex for extra airiness.
This room has red oak feature roof beams (non structural, but mimicking what had to be taken out) and the Veluxes up on high have electric closing mechanisms and rain sensors. That’s practical, smart technology.
The room also has a feature wood-burning 8kw Charnwood stove, set on a stone plinth, and the black cast iron flue goes the full height of the apex to radiate every possible calorie of combusted heat.
This Kahrs timber floored room has a split level opening to the kitchen/dining room, a similar 16’ by 13’ in floor area, also with a Kahrs oak floor, and it has a wall of units with built-ins and appliances, a dining table midships, and at the room’s far end is a family space with sofa; above it is an unusual wall-mounted and brushed steel radiant panel, an Ecolek heat system with wireless smart programmable thermostats.
The flat ceiling has recessed spotlights, and the roof’s a membrane finish on the outside.
Elsewhere, there’s a ground floor bathroom with bath and separate shower cubicle, a ground floor bedroom and a stairs to a mezzanine and an attic-style dormer bedroom with Velux, with a black-out blind for when summer’s sun comes around.
If the roof-light’s left ajar, the splash of waves on sand and shingle should be heard, and the beach a-beckons.
Life by the beach, a half an hour’s spin from the city.
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