Weir a bonus with Lee Cottage
Adjoining the Lee waterworks treatment plant (and now, also a piece of industrial archaeology, with the adjacent LifeTime Lab a popular visitor attraction) is this terraced house, now all done up and turned upside down in its internal accommodation to catch those river and weir views from its new, smart first floor living space.
The attractive south-facing and river-oriented terrace (built in the 1800s for the waterworks’ employees) here has six homes, and No 1 at the city end, is a brand-new, New Year market arrival which carries three centuries of history — the Victorian 19th, the 20th, and now a 21st century revamp — with it.
No 1, right next door to the old watch tower and smoke stacks used for the boilers that fuelled the old coal boilers for its original pumping plant, also has another notable link: it was the family home of broadcaster and print journalist Matt Cooper, who wrote movingly in these pages in 2005 about growing up here, and having free run over the hazards of the old waterworks: he recalled crossing the weir to get to the old Lee Baths by County Hall, the outdoor pools used by Cork generations for swimming and diving.
Cooper recalled (in memories certain to put the wind up any modern parent,) “we played there along the galleys between the open water pits, we hid among the turbines that pumped the water to the Shanakiel reservoir to serve the city, we ran across the gangways and accompanying grilles that kept debris from entering the turbine house and jamming the giant iron pumps, we walked our dogs in the grass areas and we dug trenches for our war games at the top field.
“It was the best opportunity a pre-teen child could have had for learning about personal risks to life and limb and to behave accordingly,” he said, adding fond memories of days fishing on the weir with his father.
Cottage No 1 was sold by the Cooper family in the mid-2000s, and has since been completely transformed by a young couple, with the arrival of their second child prompting trading-up thoughts.
Behind the makeover is owner and interior designer Jane Dennehy, who is immersed in the house design business and who last year featured in the RTÉ Showhouse TV challenge.
Jane had worked with her dad Tony Dennehy’s former architecture practice, and her mother Geraldine is a noted and long-established interior designer (coincidentally, Geraldine for years traded as Weir Interiors, so Jane fetching up by a weir is serendipity indeed.)
Selling agent for No 1 Lee Cottages is Lucy Wolfe, who gives the 900-plus sq ft home a €285,000 guide price, and who reckons its proximity to UCC, County Hall and hospitals will bring keen viewing and, hopefully, bidding.
Designer Dennehy has maximised just about every square inch of space for storage and display inside (great use of window seats with storage underneath, for example), while outside there’s just enough exterior space fore and aft for bike and toy storage, a few deckchairs, and a BBQ, plus a place to take the sun.
Think of the space effectively as an apartment, only ten times nicer, with parking on the road outside, and the city and colleges a short cycle or walk away. The river, and its walks and views is a real amenity, and the good news is that while much of the area near here (and especially, the Kinglsey Hotel across the way) got hit by the November ‘09 devastating floods, this Lee Cottages terrace escaped thanks to an extra few feet above flood levels.
There’s a bright, and fresh feel to the inside of No 1, with clever ideas used to get light through from front to back. Scene stealer is the c20’ by 20’ first floor living space, with its apex window perfectly placed to catch views of salmon and kayaks disporting on the wide stretch of weir.
Ceiling height here is up over 10’, so it feels airy, while there is a large hatch with oak counter linking back into the galley kitchen behind. A combined roof and wall Velux brings light also into the kitchen (cream gloss units, built-in appliances,) which has neat double sliding doors retracting into side walls onto the airy landing.
The main living/dining space is screened from the feature-painted stairs and landing by tall clear glass panels, which serve to keep down noise, while still keeping the space seemingly large.
Floors up here are in wide plank oak, and oak also features in the stair handrails, and on the floor in the two compact ground floor bedrooms, while cream porcelain tiles flow from the front porch through the 21’ by 6’ hall and into the back bathroom.
Despite the modest floor area (essentially, think the size of a traditional two-up, two down, with rear two-storey annexe) there’s three bathrooms here in all, a wedge-shaped en suite off the front main bathroom, a main ground floor family/guest bathroom, and a top floor loo off the utility/laundry space.
The back/second bedroom, currently used for the smallies, has a pull-down/fold-away bed integrated into a wall of built-ins, a neat space saver — but it means kids and others can’t stash dirty laundry under their bed in the so-called ‘floordrobe.’
Best suited to a single occupant, or a couple looking for a quality quirky buy in a handy city setting with views, the decor is suitably modern, with feature lighting and quality finishes, and it should be an easy home to keep and run.
When last on the market, No 1 had needed lots of work, and it got it, says Jane Dennehy. So, it has been re-roofed (plans to build up even higher, almost to match the adjoining smoke tower were rejected), and it has been rebuilt from the outside walls in, dry lined and heavily insulated with Sorpetaler double-glazed timber windows painted a marine blue colour (it’s code is RAL 5024, and Jane’s had people knock at the door to ask about it) to give it a high BER B2 rating.
Its gas-fired central heating is underfloor at the lower level and with rads overhead, and the whole place heats up quickly and stays warm, say the owners.
They’ve only resorted to firing up the feature, tall, contemporary Swedish wood-burning stove in the living space on a handful of occasions, as it just gets too hot — now, after the recent winters of 2010/2011, there’s a hot selling point in that alone.
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