Top standards make Glencree in suburban Browningstown a ‘must-see’
IT’S only four years since Glencree was last on the market as an executor sale, and it sold then after being empty for two years.
But what now comes up for sale in early 2016 might as well be a different house, bar the fact the location, and aspect, are still as ace as ever.
Built in 1942, during the depth of WW11, this Douglas area semi-detached is called after the scenic Co Wicklow valley Glencree which featured in the 1967 movie Casino Royale, and which, coincidentally, is also home to a cemetery for German fighters from the First and Second World Wars.
That Wicklow area is also home to the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, set up in the 1970s to bring communities together from the Northern Ireland divide, and now drawing visitors from around the globe: truly, it’s a name with resonance.
As it goes on open view today with selling agents Sherry FitzGerald, Cork’s Glencree is however likely to cause more division than reconciliation as, for the right type of buyer, it’s now a ‘must-have’, and may well be set to spark a bit of a bidding war.
Why, well it’s got location in its favour, first and foremost: it’s in Browningstown, a series of linked roads by Hettyfield off the main Douglas road, near a range of schools and services.
Second, it’s facing due south to the back, with a private and very well landscaped back garden, given additional screening by a detached garage and fenced yard.
And, thirdly, it’s a true walk-in job, having been upgraded top to bottom in the past few years.
It has been rewired, replumbed, has internal walls drylined, it has double glazing, has a modest-sized rear ground floor sun-room addition, and has its bathroom redone also.
Oh, and now it’s mostly open plan as well at ground level, as its front and back rooms now interconnect, and it even opens too at the back to the sun room and into the kitchen, thanks to a builder who knows his steel RSJs from his plumbing elbows.
In the few years since this was last on the market, there’s been a strong recovery in values as the inner Douglas suburbs and hinterland back to Ballinlough, Ballintemple, Beaumont, and Blackrock make for easy commutes and school runs.
Prices for semis around these parts seem to have risen from the mid €200k’s back then up to the mid €300,000s now, up about 40%, and typically the price variations on individual offers are down to condition when put up for sale.
There’s work going on this week on a corner Browningstown home that’s one of the estate’s latest sales, having made about €340,000, and another sale last year, a house called Marneil, made €382,500, so aspiring bidders on Glencree could expect it to go well above its €365,000 guide.
It’s in top order inside, but it’s most likely to have an appeal to older buyers, singles, couples, and traders down, as the open/interconnectedness of the ground floor mightn’t suit younger families who’d like to compartmentalise a bit more downstairs to have a den/play space (but, there’s always scope to bridge over to the garage and upgrade that in time also.)
The layout is a bit different from the norm in typical semi-ds of this era: the owner decide to block up access from the entry hall to the kitchen, and to block access to the back room too back here, so now the end of the hall by the understairs guest WC has been made over to a writing area with desk and seat.
All the rest of the ground level is reached through the front reception room, with bay window and fire surround.
The next room back has a 6kw gas-fired cast iron stove on a plinth, with flue up the former fireplace’s chimney, while across from this is the reworked kitchen, home to a deep blue, gas-fired shiny topped Rayburn range cooker, which also does central heating.
It’s incredibly efficient, and does both heating and hot water for about €50 a month, it’s reckoned, thanks to all the insulation.
There’s now a straight, front-to-back run of about 30’ from front bay window to back sun room, and the space would feel even larger with some smaller furniture pieces: right now, there’s a lot of furniture making itself comfortably at home.
Condition and decor is excellent, calm and considered, sort of ‘traditional meets French chic’ and toned-down wallpapers are used judiciously, with an attractive map-like paper used in the kitchen, and with a large world map graphic on the sitting room wall, opposite the gas stove.
Plus, there are carefully coved ceilings and roses downstairs and right up to the first floor landing, and floors are, in the main, carpeted.
Both the sun room and kitchen have a southerly aspect, the sun-room addition is used for dining in the main, overlooking the immaculate back garden and units in the kitchen are ‘repurposed’, painted pine and topped with black granite.
The Rayburn’s the centrepiece here, and the original gas central heating boiler has been kept too, as a summer time water heating back-up.
Externally, all the work has been done too to a similar high standard, with contrasting colour brick pavers in the front path, and rear garden.
A section between the car-parking space and garage has been screened off for storage (and there’s a rain-water butt), and the garden proper has a central lawn and raised beds with sleepers, while plants include fatsias, roses hydrangeas, Chinese lanterns, and climbers including jasmine, clematis, honeysuckle, and more.
Give it another month to six weeks, and it will start to be seasonally glorious.
Selling agents Ann O’Mahony, just recently made a director of Sherry FitzGerald, and her colleague Florence Gabriel say Glencree’s a must-see, as it’s quite spacious, lovingly refurbished by its current owner and has character in spades, in a central and sought-after mature location.
: Hats are back in fashion, so here’s a place to hang the headware collection up in.
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