House of the week

THERE’S a lot of homogeneity about Irish house design, with very little variation from the standard — and that’s why something as mildly tweaked as the house designs at Charlemont Heights stand out.

Built over 20 years ago, in the late 1980s, these big, detached Rochestown Cork suburban homes on sloping sites and with a slight split-level interior, looked refreshingly different for their day. They still have that individuality, and the design has stood the test of time.

In fact, if anything, they’ve improved with maturing landscaping, giving a bit of space and screening from one another: case in point is No 10, a good example of Charlemont’s strengths.

This c 2,000 sq ft home, being sold by a family who bought it new 22 years ago and who are now downsizing, is on great gardens, making the most of its one-third of an acre site, mostly to the back. They’ve been carefully tended, and thoughtfully planted with a mix of herbaceous and perennial plants, crowned by a century-old spreading beech tree at its site extremity. In between, the garden is effectively on two tiers, with glasshouse, private lawned areas, and criss-crossed by gentle wending paths, and bulwarked by a south-aspected patio to the back of this broad home.

No 10 is new to market with agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald, who says it’s an ideal trading-up option for a new family of occupants.

These white-render and red-brick detailed houses are wide, rather than deep, and so the best room is the main reception, running front to back on the left hand side of the entry hall, a decent size at 21’ by 13’, and bright thanks to its double aspect. The kitchen/dining room is also bright, thanks to its southerly aspect, and has a family room alongside, with patio doors flooding it further with light, and the house’s other main reception is a den with a difference. This room, almost tucked away down a few stairs off the hallway, is private, cosy, and a good place to keep a weather eye out towards the entrance drive too.

These Charlemont Heights houses are, indeed, elevated as the ‘heights’ name suggests, set half way up Coach Hill above the Rochestown Road, and there are views of the Mahon estuary, and to the bright lights of relatively recent building arrivals at Mahon Point and adjacent office business parks — the fastest growing city quadrant of the past decade.

The current owners made regular trips to Cork Airport and the subsequent ease of access to the south city ring road and tunnel really came to add to the ease of living in this setting. In the meantime, Rochestown’s continued growth has seen a new primary school opened further up the hill at Garryduff, while for sports and recreation fans, there’s the facilities at Garryduff itself, plus walks and cycles behind in the woods, and down along the estuary towards Blackrock/Mahon, and east toward Passage, all along the old rail line.

Back indoors at No 10, there’s little to be spent, bar on personal choice/discretionary items. It’s spotlessly clean, and has good bones with all the essentials in situ: there are four bedrooms, one en suite, a guest loo and a main family bathroom with a vibrant, striped carpet — a sure sign there are no small children left at home!

Heating is gas fired, windows are double glazed and external maintenance comes to little more than topping up the render with white paint every few years.

VERDICT: A solid buy, good to go.