House to suit affluent buyer down to a tee

IT has scarcely been lived in, it looks like it should be the development’s showhouse, it has been done up to a tee — and that’s appropriate, as it overlooks a golf course and green.

No 17 Augusta Drive overlooks the 17th green of Douglas Golf Club in Cork, and after just a year in occupation, its owners are on the move, to be beside another golf course.

This house, coincidentally, hit the market, however, just as the club members debate €100/€180 million bids from rival developers bid to buy out the golf club.

The chances of any development on this golf course are considered a long shot, but in golf and property development anything is possible. However, in worst case scenario the views from no 17 (and from the balcony outside the bedroom) may not be utterly altered thanks to the existing trees which should be retained and there’s also remaining green-belted valley views up along Carr’s Hill.

This 2003-built, five-bed house is in the last run of 24 large homes on Augusta Drive in the O’Brien and O’Flynn development Maryborough Woods, a large scheme with a welcome diversity of sizes and styles.

Named after the US Masters course in Georgia, Augusta Drive is solidly affluent and is squarely trading-up material.

No 17 has a €780,000 price guide quoted by estate agent Con Dennehy of Property Choice, and is under active offer, with interest picking up after the Christmas/January lull.

The owners moved in to stay in November 2003. The Siemens integrated appliances in the kitchen smack of a family putting down roots, while the very high quality of the bathroom tiling (porcelain tiles on walls and floors) also shows a desire to get things right. The decision to move only came about, they say, because of the property market arrival of another home, a one-off residence alongside a Cork harbour area golf course.

So, no 17 meets and surpasses the auctioneering profession’s ‘ready to move into’ rhetoric, and you’d know it from the hall entrance way in.

You get a marble tiled hall, wool carpets in the 24’ by 14’ sitting room, carpet again in the dining room via double doors, the kitchen has a chic cream porcelain tiled floor, with painted solid timber units with black granite tops (as does the island unit/breakfast bar), and even the utility room has a similar high level of finish.

Downstairs joinery (doors, skirting, etc) is in oak, the stairs is oak, and the stairs and bedrooms are all carpeted and hushed underfoot.

Two of the five bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, all the bedrooms are big enough to take a double bed, and the master suite and main bathroom each have pumped showers, with an extra large hot water tank to feed these thirsty beasts.

The decor is impeccably kept, all in pale and neutral shades, and the sale includes kitchen appliances, carpets, some curtains and blinds.

The front drive is cobble-lock paving, while the back garden and patio is west facing with the outline of higher density housing visible in another portion of the highly successful Maryborough Woods scheme. No 17 has a minimal maintenance exterior, in brick, dash and render, and has gas heating and a mix of wood-effect and white PVC double glazing.