House of the week

WHEN first built back in 1897 the man who built Golden Grove planned to roll out a series of big, semi-detached contemporary family homes — contemporary to the Victorian era, that is.

For whatever reason, he got as far as finishing just the two, which now stand quite calmly, set back a tad off the Douglas Road in Cork, halfway between the city itself, and Douglas village, each an easy walk away.

The neighbourhood mix includes big Edwardian follow-ons, detached early 1990s homes, and those two eye-catching modern builds with spikey roofs across the road, now gone sale agreed. In Cork suburban location terms, this stretch of road is as good as it gets.

The caring owners of No 1 Golden Grove moved in about 20 years ago, minded the already well-tended and entirely manageable period home, nurtured the gardens and, more latterly in the 2000s, added a garden room to the house out the back and side, and upgraded it overall, with taste.

It’s now new to market with agent Sheila O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald, who pins a €710,000 asking price to it. While that might seem hopeful in the current market, they are confident it’s going to quietly woo viewers once they sample its clear charms.

The clincher will be the serenity of the sun-room (almost 20ft by 11ft) to the back and side, overlooking a dog-leg back garden and reached just off an open and airy kitchen/dining room.

Designed by architect Tom Coughlan who reconfigured the rear of No 1 for modern day living style, it oozes quiet taste, with solid oak floor and high vaulted ceilings. Its glazing is set in painted hardwood frames on two sides, plus there’s a sliver of a third aspect catching direct south light and views to the main road, while some of the old exterior wall is exposed back to bare-bones, stone and brick.

Original features abound: the hall has highly polished original tiles, there’s decorative plaster work on high ceilings, original sash windows for the most part, many have working shutters.

The large, almost double-depth formal front room, with deep bay window and period fireplace, is an ideal winter and TV room, with plenty of space for a baby grand piano, and the ground floor also includes an L-shaped kitchen/dining room with garden aspect, large utility, and bathroom with bath.

Overhead there’s a lovely quiet back room off the stairs return, next to separate WC and shower rooms, and the main section has two bedrooms. There’s a gracious master bedroom, with two sash windows, swathed in silk curtains, and like most rooms here, there’s very good built in storage, integrating rad covers.

The top floor has three more bedrooms under the eaves, none of which feel in the least bit ‘atticky,’ and there’s a WC too, with a sand-blasted glass wall letting in natural light and keeping the feel airy.

There’s not a bad room in the whole house, every bedroom is effectively a double, and the only changes will be decorative — perhaps a wallpaper or carpet change, as the essentials are all good, with the place re-roofed, centrally heated, and with easy off-road parking in the sheltered tree-fringed front drive. There’s side access to the rear garden, and just a glance up the dead-straight gable shows just how big a house No 1 is.

And, due to thick stone walls, the fact it’s a semi-d won’t cross your mind, except for the positive fact that a party wall to a neighbour cuts down on heat loss.

VERDICT: No 1’s going to have huge appeal for traders-in, and the garden room will sell it.