Starter home: Lismore, West Waterford €149,000

Trish Dromey reports on a renovated 19th Century worker’s cottage that is deceptively spacious and cosy following an extension and insulation.

Size: 100 sq m ( 1,076)

Bedrooms:3

Bathrooms: 2

BER:C1

THERE are quite a few surprises hidden behind the attractive rubble stone wall of this Victorian cottage at 8 Church Lane in Lismore, Co Waterford.

From the frontage a viewer will be expecting it to be a tiny property, but following an extension it now has three bedrooms and 1,076 sq ft of space.

Since it’s a worker’s cottage built in the mid 19th Century a viewer will probably expect a fairly low energy rating but with renovation and insulation it has now achieved a C1 BER cert.

What a viewer definitely won’t be expecting, is an interior fitted out with an interesting and varied range of salvaged materials that include old roof beams from a Waterford factory, double glass doors which once hung in a bank and church pews which came from a convent.

It was transformed from a derelict ruin into a pretty cottage in the early 2000s by a Waterford builder who used it as a holiday home.

The kitchen/living room has ceiling beams, a pine kitchen, a brick counter, an old table and church pews as well as a fireplace made from salvaged bricks and fitted with a stove. There’s also a utility room and two ground floor bedrooms including an en suite.

Upstairs there’s another bedroom and a bathroom. Out back the cottage has a graveled garden.

Selling agent William Quinlan says it is well renovated and well located near the church and the castle in the centre of Lismore and is getting good viewing from UK buyers.

VERDICT: Charming and quirky