Dernville House true one-off

Tommy Barker says this builder’s own home is smartly designed.

CORNERS weren’t cut in the building of Dernville House, although some – like those wrapping around the feature curing staircase – have been rounded.

A builder’s own home, this detached home at Annabella, Mallow in north Cork is a true one-off.

Its owner, John Holt, has a building background and business, and he and his wife Angel designed this 4,000 sq ft, five-bedroomed home with the help of his architectural technician brother, Sammy (they’ve just started up doing house external insulation, with a company called HomeGlow.)

John Holt started building in autumn 2002, and the family moved in May 2003, having sourced a lot of the more unusual !items after painstaking trawling. Now, after steadily trading up through three houses they’ve build down the years, the Holts are set to trade down.

Their smartly designed and specified house is new to the market with John Singleton of Sherry FitzGerald, who seeks offers around the €750,000 mark, and who says buyers can take comfort from the fact it is built to a high standard by an expert.

The split-level house, on a sloping site, has its best rooms upstairs for the views, south-facing overlooking the River Blackwater, the town of Mallow, and over towards Mount Hillary, the crowning glory of the Boggeragh mountains.

Features include a very large L-shaped living room 29’ by 26,’ (max measurement) with great views and double/triple aspect, include a curved glass wall looking into the central feature stairwell. French doors open to a raised decked balcony across the mid-section of the house. Another separate living room has a wood-pellet stove as a practical, warming feature.

The house is built on a sturdy slab/raft foundation, block-built beneath, and highly insulated, and with a timber frame upper, and with concrete poured on 9’ by 3’ joists for underfloor heating at both levels. There’s a heft of retaining wall, heating is backed up by geothermal (combined ESB and gas bills for the 4,000 sq ft house are enviably low) and three of the five bedrooms are at ground level, reached around sweeping stairs spiral in steel and wood, with stainless steel hand rails. The upper level has one bedrooms, and a study/bedroom five, while the master suite is below decks, large, with a big bathroom with double Jacuzzi bath, large pumped shower, and there’s a sauna and dressing room as well. This lower level has a laundry room, shower room, utility room and airing room, plus boiler room, and airing room.

Design touches include hardwood floors and some marble flooring, cherrywood doors sourced from Spain with inset glazed panels, recessed lighting, raised ceiling in the hallway, and marble tiling on floors, with underfloor heating at both levels. The kitchen, also in cherrywood, is by local man John Goggin of Woodcraft Fitted Furniture, with granite tops, and the sale includes appliances, as well as an Aga. Windows and other feature glazing section come from Swedex.

Dernville House is on 0.6 of an acre, with lots of landscaping touches, with sunken and raised beds, and even a selection of vegetable beds – some well-heeled buyer’s allotment in life.