Enjoy an architect in residence

LOOK, and learn. You can sense an architect’s hand at work in 3, Main Street, in Innishannon village. In fact, the only surprise is the fact this house was made over as far back as the early 1990s.

It hasn’t just stood the test of time in the interim, it still looks well ahead of the posse in terms of clever use of space, design and detailing.

A mid-terraced townhouse facing on to the busy main thoroughfare in this popular and scenic town, west of Cork city on the river Bandon, it is an oasis indeed once past the front door, a feeling enhanced by a walled-in, terraced rear garden with raised deck.

It was entirely rebuilt and reordered from the front wall in at the time, and given an open-plan treatment from front-to back, with a kitchen/dining extension put on behind and decking on top, reached via a spiral staircase.

Here, too, is where the architect’s craft is visible, with a pitched skylight inserted just overhead, leaning up against the back wall, and it serves to draw light down into the heart of the added-on area, which in other extensions is often left as a dark problem area.

In all, there’s about 800 sq ft of space here, with a fine open and airy feel at ground level, while the first floor has a main bedroom and quality bathroom, and the top floor has a second, double-sized room under its sloping ceilings.

Guide price for this immaculate village-living option is €275,000, and joint selling agents are Johnny O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald in Cork city and Don Brennan of the recently formed Sherry FitzGerald Brennan Busteed in Bandon.