Moving on: Time to put that deposit Downs at Abbottswood — it’s divine

Tommy Barker finds a mellowing home in an American-looking scheme.

REALLY good gardens, expensively landscaped, are the crowing glory at 3 Abbottswood Downs, a four-bed family home on a surprising quarter acre site above Monastery Road, in Cork’s Rochestown.

Now neary a decade old and mellowing nicely, the big, trading-up homes here in this section of a Fleming Construction scheme have a tangible American look to their exteriors, thanks perhaps to their all-brick facades: they wouldn’t look out of place in a Boston suburb.

No 3 has just had a change of selling agent, and €100,000 taken off its summer 2010 asking prices, and now is guided at €595,000 by agents Catherine McAuliffe and Clare O’Sullivan of Savills who rave about its gardens.

The back, a full 100’ wide, is expensively landscaped, an investment made all the more worthwhile thanks to its south-west aspect. It’s a real sun trap, and is accessed from the kitchen/dining area, and from the formal dining room too. The front of the house has off-street parking for several cars, done in brick paving, with secure access gates to the private gardens behind.

The main living room, to the front, is 17’ by 16’, with an oak floor and period-style fireplace with tiled insert, and double doors open back to 16’ by 15’ dining room, also oak-floored. Kitchen units are in cherry, and there’s a bright sun-room type dining area to the back.

Overhead are four bedrooms, all with built-ins, all have varnished floors, and the master bedroom is en suite. Other houses here have extended up into the attic.

VERDICT: Abbottswood gets better with age, the houses are low-maintenance on the outside, and owners are house and garden proud. No 3 fits the profile to a T.