To the Manor born — Castle calls

Well... more a mid-terraced renovated 720 sq ft two-bed, but with a price that won’t require a king’s ransom, reports Tommy Barker

BEST goods, small parcels and all of that — the 100-year-old Waterford city townhouse at 39 Castle Street neatly fits that shorthand description.

Sensibly done up for a range of buyers near Manor Street and an arts centre, the 720 sq ft two-bed with walled-in back garden has a €72,000 price tag quoted by agent Deirdre Gough of Ennis Gough in Ferrybank.

It’s mid-terraced, a renovated property where its modest foot-print has been made best use of, effectively by opening up the ground floor’s front and back rooms, so there’s a far larger space, and one with two fireplaces/chimney-breasts as a result; the front one now has a stripped-back brick finish that’s even warm to the eye when unlit. And, as a bit of a feature, the supporting beam where the dividing wall would have been is left exposed.

Wide plank original pine floorboards keep the timber theme going, as do the casings around the wooden framed windows (top-hung openings) and wood-slat blinds complete the rustic, mellow picture. The same blinds are used again to the rear, in the newly fitted kitchen with Shaker-style units, and a tiled floor. The kitchen’s in a rear extension, which also houses the bathroom.

No 39 probably originally had a narrow hall, thus narrowing the adjoining rooms, but now there’s a short vestibule inside the front door, which — like the internal door just a couple of feet inside — is glazed.

The result is front-to-back light throughout the ground floor.

Other accommodation includes two bedrooms, the larger of which is to the front, with two windows.

Heating is via gas and the house has a private courtyard back garden, walled-in and grass-less, with slab and slate-paved surfaces, curving shrub beds with salvage brick used as a border, the beds are graveled, and screening bamboo is taking hold by the kitchen window.

The house is one of four in-a-row on a sloping terrace with railing for privacy, with a further four similar homes down on a lower tier, and parking’s available across the street. Auctioneer Deirdre Gough says condition is excellent.

VERDICT: Clever floor plan and presentation make this a seller.