Church Road’s space miracle an answer to prayers

There’s a lot more to this Cork suburban home than first impressions would suggest, Tommy Barker reports

WHEN you buy a house as a home, and plough your money and ideas into it, you tend to think of it as a base for life, or at least for decades to come.

That’s what the owners of the pleasantly-surprising No 2 Church Road in Cork’s Blackrock thought — and they got a decade out of it, at least.

But, when they bought, it was with one infant child in tow. Now, they’ve three children, and while they’ve expertly extended the terraced house to 1,150 sq ft, and even with three lovely bedrooms upstairs, they feel they really need a fourth bedroom.

So, they are selling up, and moving up to a larger home, one yet to be found, and they hope it will be around the Blackrock area.

Out the door and walk a bit, and you’ve in playing fields, a village heart with shops, bar and cafe, the leafy Marina, the Atlantic pond for bird-feeding, and the castle and restaurant as a stop-off before the Mahon promontory walk tempt you to walk, skate, jog or cycle out the harbour’s amenity paths towards Monkstown.

It’s almost a surprise to find that with all that doorstep amenity, three children, and two jobs, the couple here have got the energy to consider the rigours and challenge of a do-er upper again. Fair dues to them. But, as you might guess from the state of No 2, they’ve a bit of a flair for it, and are possibly looking for a larger palette on which to go to the next stage of child-rearing.

They even managed to live through the build and extension process without moving out, back in the early days (there are stories of builders bursting into bedrooms to find a sleeping mother and child, and of managing without water and power — the lot). Back then they raised the roof up and out at the back, and pushed out the back wall as well to extend for a very reasonable amount of space....for those without three growing children.

Every inch of the house is used right now, and there’s storage found everywhere, and however they managed it, it all seems multiples of the size you’d expect when glancing at No 2 from its modest exterior.

Carrying a €220,000 price guide via Sherry FitzGerald’s Ann O’Mahony, No 2 Church Road is sandwiched between two similar-vintage cottages 200 yards off Cork’s main Blackrock Road, near the inner-harbour suburban village.

Directly behind the cottage trio is the picturesque limestone and slate Church of Ireland St Michael’s Church — — hence the Church Road name — and its tended graves and grounds. Among those interred here is George Boole, the acknowledged father of modern day computing via his contribution to arithmetic of Boolean algebra: his name now attaches to the Boole Library in UCC. The church and spire are the most pleasant of backdrops to No 2’s equally trim back garden, with its Cota Blue limestone paving, shed, patio, ash and whitethorn trees and drift of lavender and roses visible from the kitchen table-side via French doors.

Apart from its visual presence, the yew-tree fronted church and its grounds lend the satisfaction of hearing someone else busy with the lawnmower on a summer’s afternoon, while its organ and songs can also be heard on the breeze.

In true Christian fashion, the church allows neighbours like those at roadside No 2 to park a car, or two, in its grounds, and in return neighbours can keep an eye and an ear on the church, a win-win for both parties.

Blackrock still has a community feel and is blessed with schools and sports, from famed hurling and football clubs to rowing clubs, and almost directly across the road from this Church Road terrace is St Michael’s Tennis Club, with a lawn bowls club alongside. How genteel, indeed.

There’s little from the road to suggest the quality of what’s on offer here at No 2, but the very age-appropriate replacement double-glazed sash windows do give a clue, as does the perfect, black gloss-painted front door. Oh, and the slender dormers in the roof and the crisp blinds just peeping past give other clues to the taste-curious.

When the current owners bought No 2, work on it had already been done by it previous occupant who had a flooring business, and so most of the ground floor here is pristine, solid hardwood, Canadian oak.

It gives way to black tiles in the smart, painted kitchen units topped with dark, luscious lacquered walnut, and splash-back tiles are neat, small and creamy, in timeless, an easy on the eye blend.

The whole house is easy on the senses, stripped pine doors salvaged from UCC, and with Farrow and Ball paints used throughout. The woman of the house swears on the difference between the real F&B brand quality and cheaper imitations, in competitor matches.

Walls and ceilings have a soft-dusty feel and look in these most restful of classic colour hues, with mildly textured plasterwork in ceilings, contrasting with the odd exposed waxed ceiling beam, or a section or two of exposed stone party wall, which part-screens the main front living room from the rear dining area off the kitchen.

Front to back, these linked rooms are 26’ deep, a real surprise, making for a sort of Tardis feel where space is conjured up internally that you just can’t fathom where it manages to come from, at least from an exterior glance.

Even more surprising is the fact there’s also a playroom across the slender hall, with whitewashed exposed stone wall inside and a hidden storage room behind that, quite impossibly, keeps giving up space in which to hide things.

You’d be inclined to suspect they’ve tunnelled in under the neighbour’s stairs to steal the space, but no, it’s all pretty kosher. To further bamboozle the visitor, diagonally across the house’s now-extended ground level footprint is a utility niche, and a spotless WC with tiny wash-hand basin, appropriately sized perhaps for washing one hand at a time.

Scoot upstairs, and the house — amazingly again — seems even bigger than below. While the hall is narrow, the central landing above it feels huge, lit by an overhead Velux in the new flat roof section, and it’s all carpeted for comfort, while all three bedrooms off it can each fit in a double bed — two successfully, one a bit more of pinch.

The characterful master bedroom has oodles of wardrobe space to the back, a dormer window to the front and a high vaulted ceiling in between with painted beams, and polished pine floorboards. Wrapping up the comfort stakes internally, the main bathroom is over-sized, bigger than in many modern homes, with large shower and a separate double ended bath. There’s a country cottage feel to the place, tinged with a bit of French flair or Gallic elan, added to by things like hefty curtain poles, expensive Jane Churchill fabrics and cleverly placed mirrors, plus artwork. Yet, while you know it’s a also a real family home from the masses of kids books and toys all neatly stacked, it’s all impeccably presented, without a mucky fingerprint in evidence on the Farrow and Balled walls!. Even internal joinery is scuff-free, and windows are neatly painted (F&B) sashes, and the kitchen’s French doors carry the house’s quality glazing to logical extremes — a stunner patio.

The owners laid the heavy limestone paving, blue-ish in appearance when dry, greener when wet, and a step or two leads to a minimum of grass, with a further curved paved area beyond bedecked with quality hardwood patio furniture and sun-screen umbrella (almost unnecessary under a tremulous mature ash tree) from Hanley’s Garden Centre. Even though the garden’s relatively compact, it still gets in all the essentials, and luxuries.

There’s a hidden tank for the oil central heating, garden shed/store and kettle BBQ, screened from the old stone walls with new timber fencing. And, beyond, for inspiration, a church spire.

VERDICT: No 2’s a bit of a space miracle on Church Road. Go prey.