Yewlands could be just right for you

Tommy Barker says Maryborough Woods property has had a brush with genius and altered bedroom tallies, too.

MARY SHEEHAN has tricked with her house format like an experiment football manager, trying 4:2:4, 4:3:3 or 4:4:2 player combinations for very best personal result.

Her own home through the 2000s went from an initial three-bed design to her own two-bed, two en suite adaptation as she was trading down, with her family of four children, all adults, all having grown up.

Mary’s daughter, and her young grandson, moved in for a while — so Mary extended, going out the back and up on top into the attic, so now its back as a three-bed once more, albeit far larger.

So now, in domestic terms, Mary Sheehan’s house is like a Mazda, a 323 over time. And, with plans changing again and two house moves on the cards No 13 is a new, pre-Christmas market arrival.

Mary bought No 13 back in the early 2000s when the Maryborough Woods scheme on the edge of Cork’s Douglas village was being built by O’Brien and O’Flynn. She picked out a well-set semi-d/end terrace for herself, and — as she was buying at the plans stage — she was able to make the changes she wanted, particularly to allow for some extra large pieces of furniture she was bringing from her old Wicklow home.

So, her ‘downsizing’ plans included providing two very good en suite bedrooms, one of which wouldn’t really be out of place size-wise in a Celtic Tiger McMansion, with a big 7’ by 7’ en suite and lots of storage. At 17’ by 12’ the bedroom area takes up the full front of the house, with two window and has views down to the Douglas estuary, plus the back bedroom is another great-sized, full width room.

And that was how it was planned, how it turned out, and how the house came to be featured in these pages back in 2004, as a quirky two-bed interior feature. That feature picked out the adapted layout and rooms-reduction, and especially the hand-painted interiors done by Geraldine O’Riordan (and which are still pristine) and noted Mary had gone into the interior design business herself, with her first commission from builders O’Brien O’Flynn.

Rising house prices had meant that her daughter and grandson had to sit out the decade’s house-buying spree and splurge, so three generations ended up living here: now, they’re ready to pounce and buy again individually.

Both are aiming to buy new builds in the Maryborough vicinity, via agent Olivia O’Leary of Thomas J O’Driscoll auctioneers.

Mary jokes that she’s really ready to trade down this time, and Olivia O’Leary of Thomas J’s has No 13 going to market guiding €390,000 for what’s now a 1,600/1,750 sq ft home, thanks to a recent quality ground floor 17’ by 16’ living/familyroom addition, plus a 150 sq ft of very adaptable attic conversion, with proper stair access. That top room, lit by Veluxes, also has a shower room/WC up top, making for four loos in all in this accommodating, and clearly adaptable home.

Olivia O’Leary loves the place (she sold the scheme day one, and knows these houses backwards), and says it’s probably the best-presented in the Yewlands part of the overall development, where the bigger detacheds overlooking Douglas Golf Course made over €1 million in re-sales at market peak.

Virtually all of the rooms here have specialist paint finishes, done to a classical palette and with gold, cream and umber hues, paint block effects, washes, marbling and some limited trompe l’oeuil effects and warm, Italianate still life scenes as well. They’re superbly executed, and subtle enough to appeal to a wide range of buyers as colours throughout are muted and restful.

Floors in the kitchen/dining area are solid creamy marble in large tiles, other floors are solid maple, upstairs and down, painted units are topped in beech, and there’s back garden/patio/terrace access via French doors from the dining area. The new back room is a great, relaxed airy space, while the front drawing room is very much more on the formal sides. Here in front, even the chimney breast was made wider than standard day one, to cater for the white marble fireplace and horseshoe-shaped cast iron inset Mary wanted to fit in.

All reconfigured again and shipshape for sale and with expensively landscaped gardens front and back, No 13 by the end of a cul de sac is going to best suit a trader down, a single or a couple, or a small family who want an extremely well-finished home — but, going on Mary Sheehan’s ‘3-2-3’ experiences, there’s really no way of predicting how things are going to work out and who’ll be wooed by No 13’s charms.