House of the week: Rochestown, Cork, €690,000


But, among the early arrivals on its then-leafy and seemingly distant hills was Mount Oval, a scheme of several dozen detached red-brick homes, with a ‘New England’ meets ‘Colonial’ design charm.
They’ve all stood the test of time well, and since the 1990s have had to share a sometime confusion of address with the far larger Mount Oval Village development by O’Flynn Construction further up on Clarkes Hill.

Now, one of the originals, No 20 in the ‘old’ Mount Oval has come to test the market and the waters: it even has a pond for toe-dipping and goldfish keeping, in its landscaped back gardens.
It’s no scant home, and has just under 2,700 sq ft within, kept well up to speed with quite modern decor from top to bottom.

But, even that floor area calculation doesn’t tell the full story, as there’s a very handy attic conversion, with stair access, and this top level room will delight any child, with tucked way private bunks like somehting you’d seen in a ship’s cabin; it’s a room to fire young imaginations.
If you are more boring, it offers acres of storage or work space alternatives.

No 20 feels almost like a pyramid, broadest at the base: there’s an all-spanning ground floor level, and a first floor with four bedrooms, including en suite master bedroom with spa bath, plus capacious dressing room and a good, four-piece family bathroom with power shower, and then up above is that attic level, suitably topped with sloping ceilings, and just a tad caught for head room for six-footers.

It comes for sale with joint agents Michael McKenna and Sherry FitzGerald, for its trading-down owner, and who rightly say it’s finished to a very high standard, in turn-key decorative condition.
Guide price is €690,000, and there haven’t been very many comparatively recent resales.

One, at peak, made well over €1m, and others several years ago in a poorer market have been in the high €500/€600,000s: one even resold twice in the space of a couple of years.

Houses here along ‘old’ Mount Oval are on good sites along a central ‘spine’ road from the roundabout by Rochestown church and which feeds up to the foot of Clarkes Hill, where a traffic restriction a few years ago had the desire effect of discouraging ‘thru traffic and now onle more it’s lovely, leafy and heavily landscaped, top and bottom.

No 20’‘s on the lower side of the road, with drop-down drive to a brick paved apron with small water feature and willow tree, and, now extended/colonised to the side at ground level, it spans most of its 0.16 acre of grounds.

Behind, there’s stepped gardens with large pond, garden room and storage/shed; several rooms overlook the back garden’s tranquillity, as appealing for looking out over as sitting at with paved patio and sun-trap niches.

The updated interior (and re-worked rooms’ layout) has a modern fitting and furnishing edge, no more so than the kitchen with its glossy wood-grain effect units and island/low breakfast bar, with Miele appliances, all linking into the family/TV area, contining the same tiled floor and at the room’s end are French doors to the front patio’s sunny seating space.

Separately, through glazed doors there’s a dining section with rear patio access, with a feature art glass divide filling a former doorframe, done by craftsman Eoin Turner, and other feature glasswork features elswhere as wall lights, etc.
There’s also a double aspect principal reception room, with cast iron fireplace, and off beyond the back section is a sun room extension.

This main living section opens through yet more glazed and sandblasted doors to the dining room, so it’s a perfect entertaining home, say agents Ann O’Mahony and Mick McKenna. And, when needs be, the dining room can be compartmentaised, as required.

Elsewere, there’s a home office, wood-floored with lots of built in shelving, plus a guest WC, and a large utility room off the kitchen, a big as most home’s own kitchens, with garden access and views.
: Kept well up to speed and spec in a lovely, much matured sylvan setting.