Starter homes: Annestown, Waterford €300,000

Size: 325 sq m (3,500 sq ft)

IT MIGHT have driven the builder and the roofers around the bend — but the end result is worth it at this Kilcannon, Co Waterford home, a couple of miles from the coastline near Annestown. Right in the county’s acclaimed Copper Coast or Geopark area, the setting’s both scenic and intriguing. The copper coast appellation came from the area’s rich metals mining past, and the underlying geology recalls its volcanic Palaeozoic past and formation in the last ice age.

It earned its UNESCO ‘Geopark’ credits in 2001, one of only 100 such-designated areas globally to-date, and is amongst the smallest, at about 50 square kilometres.

Faced in stone on the outer, wider of its curved facades, this contemporary-meets-country family home heads into 2014 with hopes of a spring-time sale with agent Brian O’Shea of REA O’Shea O’Toole in Waterford.

It came to market a few months prior to Christmas, but with days already lengthening, it’s time for fresh eyes to pass over it, he reckons.

It weighs in at a fairly impressive 3,500 sq ft and guide price is an even €300,000, so there’s a deal of bricks and mortar for the sum on offer.

In good overall condition and on a site of 0.75 of an acre in an area with some interestingly varied architecture and stone detailing, this is a distinctive and airy home, with its main living room and kitchen high-ceilinged, right up to the roof apex. The curving walls are a real feature internally as well as outside, and the kitchen opens to the main living room, with exposed ceiling beams and three sets of French doors to the curve-embracing courtyard/patio/terrace.

Two of the four bedrooms (master en suite) are at ground level and also have French doors opening to the courtyard, while upstairs are two more bedrooms, one en suite and two other rooms suitable as play room, study and more.

There’s underfloor heating downstairs, and the smart design sees a sheltered, arched carport integrated into the house’s structure. Mr O’Shea comments that Ashton House “has some nice individual features with generously proportioned light filled rooms” and finishes include quarry slate roof with red clay ridge tiles, limestone window sills, stone and brick facade and some exposed timbers internally.

Location is close to Dunhill village with its services, and also adjacent on the coastline is Annestown, a one-street village by the River Anne with safe, sandy beach which gets winter surf swells, and is also popular with bird-watchers.

VERDICT: Not your typical box bungalow or dormer, and amen for that.