Watch: House of the week: Broadale, Douglas, Cork €369,000
There’s not been that much movement at The Downs section of Broadale: it’s a small niche section of c 38 homes, in a sort of tightening spiral in at the back of the larger McInerney Homes Douglas Cork area development, dating to the late 1990s.
And, most people who bought here in The Downs day one, are still here, choosing to extend if necessary rather than to move or trade.
In fact, the owners of No 28 reckon they were the last to move in here to the three-bed semi-d options, buying in 2009 when they got engaged.
When they first started house-hunting, No 28 had been ‘sale agreed’, but as confidence ebbed, that sale stalled, and they ended up buying it at a lower amount.
What they are now selling is not the same house they bought, either in functionality or feel.
Back in 2009, it had the hallmarks of having been done a decade and more earlier, all varnished pine and terracotta, so they set about banishing much of that, with some gusto.
It’s now completely fresh and updated; they took down a dividing wall between the kitchen and dining room, and floored the enlarged/linked-up space with large, pale polished porcelain tiling.
They got a new high quality fitted kitchen, via Leane’s on the Tralee Road in Killarney, who’ve been 40 years in business.
It’s almost entirely done in walnut, and adds a rich, luxe look to this full-width room space.
The dining end already linked into the front reception room, and this is floored in walnut for a continuity of look, while the hall has a dark tile.
There’s a slight design twist in some Broadale homes, and No 28 The Downs features some of it, with an off-set stairs which means slightly irregularly shaped/off-square rooms.
It makes positioning furniture a bit of a test, but once sorted and cracked, it works very well, says one of the vendors of No 28, who admits to a grá for interior design.
She says the paradoxical upside of the odd shapes is ”that rooms can seem larger than they are, and we’re being asked why we’re moving as the house seems so big.”
The couple, now parents, are up for a renovation challenge and keen for more space inside and outside at an old bungalow near Cork harbour (No 28’s got around 1,200 sq ft, with south-facing back garden), hence their decision to sell, but they did consider extension options.
“I think there’s only three of the original three-bed semis in The Downs that are still the original size, all the others have been altered or extended, and they are very easy to add on to.
"People have done single and two-storey extensions, and one across the road has just been done very well now,” say the vendors of No 28.
Estate agent Barry Smith of James G Coughlan has brought the three-bed home to the open market just after Halloween, and he can expect to be busy opening the doors here for more treats, all but holding back on exclaiming Surprise! as he shows off the kitchen and other deft design touches: “it’s got an amazing level of decoration,” says Mr Smith.
Colours are all Colourtrend, an Irish brand, and much of the old pine joinery has been freshened up using their French White shade, while bedrooms have varnished and stained pine boards.
Bedrooms in the three-bed original builds here in the Downs are a shade larger than in the four-bed semis, it’s noted too.
New floors came from O’Flynns in Douglas, and drapes and fabrics via the Designer Library, Douglas and the Drapery Shop.
The deep button Chesterfield-type sofa that’s so snug a fit in the front reception room’s bay window was custom-built to fit, via House of McGregor in Lissardagh, and it’s as likely any new occupants hoping to sit pretty in No 28 will want it included in the sale.
Externally, No 28 has a good, wide site with off-street parking (there’s no attached or detached garage) that will take side extension as well as rear add ons, and the back garden has mature boundaries and lawn.
Looking for a good three-bed in The Downs? Your seven year wait is just about to end, and it’s No 28, all over again, and made over to boot.
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