Big size, retro looks a winner
HE’S young, but builder Darren Hourihane has already made his name among the ranks of west Cork builders... itself a fairly well-regarded bunch of home providers.
The man behind DH Contracts (he built the very successful Pairc na Fana scheme in Union Hall for a development consortium) is completing five detached houses at the Baltimore Road in Skibbereen which won’t do his rapidly-grown reputation any harm.
Victorian in style, they fit an emerging ‘retro’ design pattern book which took off in the 1990s with Cork city’s Lindville scheme, and which has proven hugely popular, with home buyers harking back ever so slightly to the past ever since.
This niche scheme of five 2,700 sq ft homes fronts the Baltimore Road, probably Skibbereen’s best address, says selling agent Pat Maguire of SWS Property Services.
It is a separate element of the Abhainn Beag project there on land previously owned by the O’Brien family, and a different builder is doing other similar-sized detached houses to the rear, making for about 20 big detached houses in all. Recently, planning has been granted for 138 smaller houses on adjacent land, so Skib has scope for buyers at all levels, notes Mr Maguire.
He prices these five Baltimore Road houses from €575,000 a pop, and says “if they were in Clonakilty they’d be hundreds of thousands of euro dearer,” he adds of the houses which are Skibbereen’s largest and most upmarket new offering to date.
The target market is full-time family home buyers, especially as there is so much space and five bedrooms in all, thanks to the tall three-storey structure.
Design is by Denis O’Donovan of O’Donovan, MacConville, Skibbereen, and the finish level is high: buyers will get fitted kitchens with granite worktops and integrated appliances, oak internal joinery, slate roofs, polished marble flooring throughout at ground level. Houses also have recessed lighting, zoned heating systems, Jacuzzi bath in the main family bathroom and contemporary sanitary ware throughout, built-in robes in most of the bedrooms and walk-in robes in two, and the master bedroom is en suite.
Although sites sizes are small, they are lifted up by the retained mature trees, and the 500 sq ft of decking put over a boundary stream can be put in all the properties.
Other touches include French/double doors for garden access and garden landscaping, bay and arched windows, hardwood fascias and finials, with wrought iron railings on 6’ high boundary block walls.
Skibbereen Golf Club is half a mile to the west, and houses have easy access to the town, to Baltimore and local beauty spots.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
