Swapping Cork for California dreamin’
There’s not a bad room in this house, or one without appeal and character, with a modern, almost minimalist sheen
THERE’S huge house sale reluctance for a young Irish family, with a job move beckoning to the west coast of the US, from the top of Cork city.
It’s hardly a consolation that the vendors are swapping the essence of quality Cork city living for Cork’s twin sister city, San Franciso — it would be hard to summon up the energy to do a house up there to their own, clearly high standards.
The pair, with two young daughters, poured ideas and energy into 1 Lansdowne Terrace, a tall mid-1800s home which featured in a raw, relatively untouched state in these pages back in 2007.
It sold back then in the high €600,000s (a neighbouring house a few doors away had just previously sold in the mid €600,000s) and it subsequently had time, money and skill lavished on it.
Now, with California dreamin’ looming, it is back up for sale, all handsomely made over, with a €640,000 asking price via Michael O’Donovan of Sherry FitzGerald.
Simply put, for the right urbanite or urbane buyers, it is a stunner. It could as easily have gone the corporate rental let route, but a clean break is preferred. It’s a pleasure to view.
It’s a sizeable, and solid, three-storey plus attic home, at the very top of Cork city, on the crown of St Patrick’s Hill — with Blackpool valley, church and cathedral views which get better, and better, and better again, on each succeeding level internally.
There’s not a bad room in this house, or one without appeal and character, with a modern, almost minimalist, sheen over the patina of age and wear. Retained and refurbished features include sash windows, stripped and smooth-action shutters, some stripped architraves, painstakingly stripped pitch pine stair spindles and newels, with a pricey ‘landing strip’ of sisal carpet from the UK’s Crucial Trading linking all three floors, a job for life.
It’s all too clear that this was a job done with a view to long-term living here: there’s no sign of corners cut. Instead, money and care was liberally applied — to the next owner’s benefit.
The owners are high in their praises of their work crew: craftsman Brian Coffey who’s based in the Marina Commercial Park did the exceptional joinery, making new sash windows, repairing old pine sashes, and he also made the rear glazed extension frames and sliding door in hardwood.
Builder for the overall six-month renewal project was Tim O’Donoghue from The Priory Killarney, and he was able to get rear access to the house and high enclosed sandstone back yard for materials, extending and plastering etc thanks to the army — literally. The terrace of houses backs on to Collins Barracks’ Camp Field, and they were allowed to annex a portion for a period for access.
Work done includes full rewiring (plus alarm, CAT 5 cabling, TV points in all rooms, quality brushed steel switches, etc) in all room, replumbing, insulation, plastering, new bathrooms, conserving windows and doors.
No 1 especially gained from opening up the ground floor rooms front to back, by putting in a supporting RSJ. So, now, the kitchen’s to the back, leading through an opened-up window (framed in US-sourced salvage bricks) to the glazed new lean-to dining room at the very back, visually connecting the indoors with sheltered back yard, which was all resurfaced/paved and power washed, with a very handy large new storage shed added on.
Most of the ground floor internally has been finished in fossil-rich Jura limestone, with large flags in the main, 35’ front-to back run-through three linked rooms, and in the large rear pantry. In the wide, impressive hall, the same stone is cut into smaller diagonally-laid tiles for a more period look. The quality of workmanship is again abundantly clear. Heating at ground level is underfloor, and rads elsewhere are good-looking, energy efficient ones, with new condenser gas boiler, and zoned sections, plus pressurised hot and cold water system for rapid delivery.
The kitchen and island was made by Home Grown Kitchens, in carefully hand-painted solid woods, with all appliances (even the kettle) kept out of sight, and the main sink’s splashback and the splashback behind the six-burner Smeg range cooker are in a brick-look tile. The units’ black granite tops were made by Michael Clifford of Southern Stone, who also redid the fireplaces (gas at ground level, open hearths at the upper levels, including, romantically the master bedrooms, where a Heatlog will do, you don’t need to be trucking buckets of coal up stairs!
All bathrooms (four in all) are fully tiled, mostly in marble, with high-end white sanitary ware, power showers etc, and the main bathroom has in pride of place the immense original cast iron bath, complete with enamel soap dishes, fully re-enamelled and glistening white.
Apart from the large, bright, open and airy kitchen/dining/family space (and long hall) the first floor has as its main room a 22’ wide and 15’ deep formal drawing room to the front of the house for valley views, evening sunset glow and night-time church steeple spot-lit high points. It has three tall sash windows, open fireplace, and is big enough to take not just one, but several very large sofas, plus armchairs a-plenty.
Behind is the ensuite master bedroom, the main bathrooms on the stairs return, and the top floor has three bedrooms, one for guests with a sort of linked ensuite, and the front two rooms have great, elevated views. Pure Cork, at your feet.
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