View to cathedral could be yours

By Tommy Barker

This end-of-terrace house's windows flood with light from the south and have enough water views to feel you're all at sea:

Roches Point lighthouse is a distant beacon, while to the east, a few paces from this spot's front door, the slender stone beauty of Cobh's cathedral spire punctures the skies.

But, for all the external beauty of this most physically attractive of hilly harbour towns, as many people again will have their heads turned by the tasteful makeover done with a distinct nautical theme on this three-storey over-basement home.

It has Cobh's charismatic Victorian architecture outside, and some lovely period touches inside, but there's a sparky design sense at work as well.

See, for example, the old wooden boat oar used as a handrail on the basement staircase: it is practical, quirky, appealing, and a constant reminder that this house is in a town that lives in every respect by the sea.

(See also how long it takes for this idea to be pirated: boat owners, lock up your oars. You have been warned.)

Cobh was the last port of call of the doomed Titanic, the Lusitania survivors came back to Cobh and many of the victims are buried here.

The Famine and emigration ships left from Cobh in its Queenstown days, fishermen earn their livelihood still from the sea, and pleasure sailors have the harbour at their deck-shoe footsteps.

And liners come to call again, too, reinstating a shipping link, with pleasure and profit at its core.

The vendors of Cathedral View deserve to profit for the work they've done over the past five years.

At a price region of €280,000 any new owners will also be getting an attractively worked home, worth sticking a bidding oar into.

The eventual selling price might be bid upwards once viewing really kicks in, for this lofty perch crow's nest home.

Despite having rooms over four floors, its not a sprawling place, and has three bedrooms.

The entry level has a hall with a stained glass panel in the bright-painted purple wood door, it has a bedroom and a long, narrow 13' by 6' living space, described by joint selling agents O'Grady Mahony and CB Hamilton Osborne King as an open plan reading area.

The top, or second floor has the main bedroom, with lots of built-ins and with sliding robe doors, and jaunty painted blue ceiling beams traversing the sloped ceilings.

Midships, on the first floor, is the main living room, with its feature overhang bay window with St Colman's spire in its sights, plus a second, south-facing window for more harbour views.

It has a wood floor, cast iron fireplace (gas insert) in a pine surround and slate hearth, and measures 15' by 11'.

Also on this level is a study/third bedrooms, 13' by 9' - not huge, but big enough to avoid cabin fever.

Down in the bilges, or more politely the basement, there's a kitchen cum dining room, with terracotta tiled floor, kitchen units in Alder, and built-in corner seating inpine.

A door opens to the side of the house where a narrow section of stepped wood decking has been laid out.

This decking is beside a public access set of steps, and also off this deck space is a basement storage area.

Internally, the lower ground level also has a utility space under the stairs and a second bathroom with shower and a wood ceiling painted a restful jade colour.

The vendors, jumping ship to trade up in the area, weren't afraid to use strong colours to contrast with the more muted shades of the living quarters, and the not-overpowering marine theme includes a brass porthole on the loo door - nautical, but nice.

PS: Think this house looks familiar, seen it somewhere before? It features briefly on a Lotto advertisement on the telly where a huge brightly colour ball rolls down the hill past Cathedral View. The ball is now in someone else's court ... it could be you.