Trading up: Glanmire, Cork €375,000

Lots of things come in twos, at the initially hard to figure out home called Alun’s Cottage. 

Size: 184 sq m (2,000 sq ft)/half acre 

Bathrooms: 2 

Bedrooms: 4 

BER: C1

First up, it’s a semi-detached ‘cottage’, originally one of a pair on an acre at Knocknahorgan, above Richmond Wood in Cork’s Glanmire and likely dating to the early 1900s.

But while the side-by-side and joined-up duo might have started out as ‘twins’, each has very much forged its own path in their subsequent growth spurts.

So says agent Tim Sullivan as he puts Alun’s Cottage up for sale on a landscaped half-acre, and it gets its name from the owners’ names, Alan and Una, who’ve been here for close to two decades.

Apart from putting their names to Alun’s, they’ve also put a firm personal stamp on the quality interiors, and as a result of extensions (it’s now sort of in two wings, with four bedrooms, two-up, two-down) it’s quirky and interesting on several levels.

Those changes include a mezzanine/elevated sitting space in the main 22’ by 17’ split level living/dining room, which now grants the unusual visual effect of being able to see two fireplaces at the same time, one on top of the other, with a stove in place in the lower one.

It’s exactly as it might be in a two-storey home, but you just don’t see them in this way, stacked.

There’s also a beech floored hall, a kitchen with a brick fireplace, a rear hall/sun room and main bathroom, a first-floor den/study, and one of the four bedrooms is en suite.

VERDICT: Two’s company