House of the week: Hettyfield, Douglas €520,000

You just don’t get a handle on just what sort of Hettyfield home Corrin is from the outside. 

Size: 176 sq metres (1,890 sq ft)

Bedrooms: 3 (could take 4)

Bathrooms: 4

Best Feature: Individuality

And, when you are inside, you have no notion or care about what’s over your private hedge boundaries.

Inside, it’s quite the quintessential suburban retreat, leafy but without lawns, with an all-weather sheltered garden room, a quirky home bar, an attic conversion with shower-room, plus a lofty sun room for evening dining.

It has high-end internal finishes, excellent joinery, a smart pantry, an airy split level hall with LED lights in its four steps - and four cast iron stoves.

Three of them are gas-fired, one’s wood-burning, plus there’s ‘normal’ central heating. And, it’s all just new to market this week with Jeremy Murphy Associates, at a teasing €520,000.

Outside, it’s set on a well-screened corner plot in this chic Douglas estate, extended on its side gable, which faces the gate and entrance drive with three steps up to a sheltered front door next to a circular window.

It gives a bit of visual interest, as does the glimpse of the west-facing sun room addition, plus a sweep of freshened up printed concrete drive, and is about all you see from outside. Corrin is one of those deceptive houses, a home that has done its own thing, in its last two separate ownerships.

Right now, it is a very decent 1,890 sq ft semi-detached pad, in one of Cork’s more sought-after settings.

When it last changed hands, it had four bedrooms, quite typical for the era and the location. Its current owner extended on her purchase, but she also reduced the number of bedrooms from four to three, creating a main bedroom suite really worth of the name.

It’s big, bright, has a great bay window, a dressing area with the mirrored robes facing one another in a dressing area, and has a private bathroom as well, with gas-fired white enamel stove for extra comforts.

The other two bedrooms are more standard doubles, served by a main bathroom, and the landing ceiling has blue glass blocks set into it, with light drawn down from the attic conversion overhead, where there’s one large room, in two sections, plus shower room.

Rather disconcertingly, you can walk over the glass blocks inset on the floor up here.

Despite its post-extension size, and the adaptability of its two upper levels (Jeremy Murphy says getting a fourth bedroom back at first floor level can be done) Corrin definitely isn’t your standard-format family home: it’s perhaps best suited to a younger couple who’ll rate the entertaining possibilities, with good reception spaces plus that styled back garden room, a decked seating space with translucent roof and feature lighting.

Equally, it will suit older buyers, trading down who don’t want to sacrifice comfort or space.

Rooms include a super-bright dining room in the west facing sun room, good quality kitchen/casual dining split over two levels, plus great pantry and bright utility, and double-depth living/lounge, currently with built-in bar in elm timber.

The other half has a wood-burning stove in a black cast iron fire surround, and access to the covered garden room via French doors, )sort of a five-star hotel/bar’s smoking room). The stepped hall doesn’t stint on space either and the internal steps will be a feature for some, a drawback for others.

For either demographic of buyers, older or younger, the location is simply spot on.

It’s in a quieter, less-trafficked corner of Hettyfield, and other recent house offers/sales include a pleasant four-bed semi-d needing some work and which previously made close to €1m, and now is close to a sale around €450,000 with Sherry FitzGerald, who also got €665,000 for a nice, upgraded mature detached on a corner site, and whose fortunate owners kept a garden portion of that house to built a new home on.

Guiding Corrin at €520,000, Jeremy Murphy says the layout and site might restrict the buying pool, but he accepts it may well get strong bidding oomph if a few viewers want it badly enough.

Corrin has its gardens in two sections, with lots of shrubs and landscaping and colourful maturity, including a small typically red Japanese garden-style arched bridge, with gravel and paving.

VERDICT: A clean sweep: there’s not a blade of grass to trim, just autumn leaves to rake.