HOUSE OF THE WEEK

EVERY bit as genteel now as it was a century ago when built, the Edwardian semi-d Villa Nova is a big Cork city home buy, full of pleasant original features, and standing proud.

Located directly across the College Road from the Bon Secours hospital (with major investment plans still in the offing) and 200 yards from UCC’s main gates, this should be a seller to those who want a period home, and a great location — and at a big price reduction from the last successful comparable sale on the row.

Last year, agent Brian Olden of Lisney sold the nearby Edwardian/Arts and Crafts home, 2 Carrig Fern, in immaculate polished order, for an unconfirmed €800,000 (he’d been asking €850,000) and now he has the quite similar Villa Nova to sell, and it too has been owned for years by a family working nearby.

He guides it at €540,000, and the biggest difference in specification is the fact Villa Nova has a fairly standard sized back garden, in comparison to 2 Carrig Fern’s 180’ long ‘dog-leg’ woodland-like back garden which bordered the Bons sisters’s La Retraite grounds.

Here at Villa Nova, the south-facing back garden is stepped up, fully walled in, mature, home to two old apple trees, and private. It’s a sun-trap of a space, maximised or at least acknowledged by the presence of a sun room off the rear reception room, one of two fine-boned rooms, graced by period details, pristine fireplaces, and age-appropriate wall-papers in a sort of William Morris style. The owners have kept faith and worked with the house’s vintage, so all fireplaces (about six in all) are original, and gleaming, with brass and tile inserts, the wide hall and rear-annexe kitchen have polished original floor tiles, ceilings are coved and the front room’s bay window is a generous beauty, with nine upright panes, topped by even more frosted glass in smaller panes.

An almost polished-smooth front door bell carries the faint legend “night bell”, indicating that at some time Villa Nova’s occupants may have been medics on call at the Bons.

Ceilings throughout the house are high, and it’s a fairly deep property too, with a large rear annex to the left hand side, home to a guest bathroom with shower and green marble tiled floor, plus the somewhat dated pine kitchen with dark, part-tiled walls, along with pantry and utility with garden access.

The floor plan is more or less replicated on floor one, with the master bed to the front with two feature casement windows, and a wall of built-ins (presumably covering a fireplace), behind is a south-facing bed two with fireplace, and across the stair return is bed three/quiet study, and a freshly re-tiled bathroom in pale blue.

Hop up another floor level, and there are three more rooms, two of them interconnected and so there might be privacy issues if both are used bedrooms. The one further in, to the front of the house with dormer window, has a lovely attic/sloped ceiling feel and charm in particular.

Well-tended Villa Nova has had windows replaced to the back with double glazing, and the front ones remain original, keeping a real visual and architectural integrity to the face this house presents to the front, where’s there’s also off-street parking, garden plus garage.

VERDICT: They don’t make houses with features to last the test of time like this too often any more. New owners might want to look at opening up the kitchen space a bit more, though.

Location: College Road, Cork

Price: €540,000

Size: 261 sq m (2,800 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 5/6

BER rating: Pending

Broadband: Yes

Best asset: Size, period detail and location