VIDEO: Rare option to buy on Cork’s Model Farm Road
A HOUSE on a hidden acre garden is selling at the moment, very quietly, for about €1.3 million, and it’s very close to this new-to-market Model Farm Road home. But this latest (and thankfully,for home hunters with a bit of cash to spend) more public arrival, is a walk-in job and priced at €875,000.
Just listed for its downsizing owner is Dunmahon, a high quality home discretely tucked in on a private mature site at the city end of the Model Farm Road. “It’s a ‘Triple-A’ location,” enthuses its selling agent Sheila O’Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald, pointing out its proximity to schools, CIT, UCC, the CUH and the Bon Secours hospital, (embarking on its a long-heralded multi-million euro extension, with more well-paid consultants set to be employed).
Indeed it is an AAA-location: Dunmahon is one of a handful of detached homes, on large grounds between Dennehys Cross and Farranlea/the Rendevous bar, much favoured by medics and their ilk.
Sales and resales are incredibly infrequent, and some are off-market too, ‘handed on’ to friends, colleagues and contacts for handsome sums indeed. One in particular, not yet on the Price Register but understood to be ‘sale agreed’ is an 3,000 sq ft wisteria-draped home of exceptional period charm on an acre.
It went to market with Casey & Kingston in summer, with vendor’s instructions of no sale sign, subtle advertising and low-profile, and is understood to be finding a buyer around its €1.3m asking price.
Also close to Dunmahon too, right by its long entrance driveway, is a semi-detached compact lodge which recently sold for over €150,000, and already now being renovated and re-roofed by its purchasers who swooped in to buy swiftly
Dating to a different, later era than both those little’n’large neighbours is Dunmahon, built in 1947 by Cork builder Tommy Barrett. This home came into the current occupants’ family around 1970, and has been three generations in its care, getting alterations in each generation’s turn, in the 1980s, and again in 2001.
It has already gone up in the world from its 1940s single storey status to a dormer,(though one with modesty in demeanor and facade), and now comes with options for up to six bedrooms, over ground and first floor levels.
The ground floor has spread generously and is immaculately kept and furnished, and well-reoriented to boot, with access to a canopy-sheltered garden deck/terrace from a large 26’ by 13’ living room, from an even-larger kitchen/dining room, from its adjacent sun room.
It really does fit the Sherry Fitz description of it as being “deceptive”, and that’s down mostly to the three roof dormers in front: the house’s footprint and the gardens’ quality and planting could hardly be bettered in the suburbs.
Given those positives, and the ‘inner’ Model Farm Road setting, there’s every chance some new owners will even look at re-doing the upper floor, and could seek planning for a proper, full two-storey residence, with full heights out to outer walls, and a bit of upstairs’ rooms re-jigging.
The nub and the rub could be to do it without upsetting the elements on the ground floor when the roof is raised, if a bit more head height is needed. There’s already 2,936 sq ft to hand, plenty of bathrooms, and a bang-on south and west aspect to all the main rooms.
Right now, the upstairs has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus very good storage into the eaves and alcoves, as well as a den favoured by daughters on the landing. There had been four beds up here for a while, but two were joined up to suit one space-hungry offspring.
Current layout going to market sees two comfortable west-facing ground floor bedrooms, each with a bay window, next to a well-done wet-room/shower room and either, or both, can switch back to day time use easily — just take out the beds, and presto, you’ve a family room and an office.
There’s also a guest WC, and a long utility room with further WC and garden access back off the kitchen, which has plenty of quality units, dresser, wine store, and central island, made by House of Coolmore and now hand-painted in a well-chosen, soft grey/green shade.
This is a hospitable space, 22’ by 15’, backed up by a utility room that’s a full 17’ long, and stacked like a professional laundry, with over-sized appliances to match. The sale includes built-in appliances, but not the enormous, double width fridge-freezer that brings kitchen cool to new levels.
Thought you had an American fridge? Well, this is the Alaska State version.
For a warmer reception, double doors lead out from the spacious kitchen to a raised and railed deck, very much an outdoor room for fine weather, which also can be accessed from the sun room and formal reception room.
In fact, this veranda-like deck can get so warm in sunshine that a frame is left up, year-round, to support a canopy/awning.
Sherry Fitz have open viewings at 12 noon today, and location is at the end of a long, private drive on the Model Farm Road, close to the Lee Garage and the under-used back entrance to the CUH campus.
Dunmahon’s owner is now downsizing, and is busy decluttering the accumulations of decades and generations, and boxes and boxes of books, and what it shows is just how accommodating the house has been, and will continue to be.
Deceptive, indeed.
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