House of the week: Ballintemple, Cork City - €550,000

BALLINTEMPLE locations don’t get much more central than that enjoyed at the charmingly-titled Homelea – facing directly onto the Blackrock Road, it’s in the heart of everything in this southside Cork suburban location, and has been in the same family’s hands for over 50 years.

Sat, 21 Apr, 2018 - 01:00

By Tommy Barker

And, as it comes for sale this month with agent Jeremy Murphy, at a guide of €550,000, it might well fit the bill for those home hunters who last year went to view and to bid on this sturdy, tall semi-d’s ‘other half,’ a done-up and extended family home, and who may have been unlucky in that instance.

The house next door, called Sunlea, came to market in summer 2017, guiding €665,000 via Sherry FitzGerald. The strong location and quality of home, meant lots of viewings and consequent strong bidding. In the event, it’s understood it was bid to over €700,000, but then was taken off the market after the vendors’ plan to trade up from the pristine Sunlea to a €1m-plus suburban detached home elswhere, came assunder.

So, now, might some or many of those impressed Sunlea viewers come and cast an eye over the homely Homelea? They should.

Clearly, it’s of the same 1920s vintage and integrity of architecural design, and also has a feature circular or keyhole-shaped front entrce in brick, while and the location’s top drawer for aspirational home buyers, given proximity to bars, deli, post office, bank, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and the new Marina Park public amenity by the stadium and Atlantic Pond.

Like its other half, it too has off-street parking and gardens fore and aft (the front gate could do with widening), with a full southerly aspect to the rear, where there’s a sandstone paved patio, garden path and long lawned sections beyond.

Yet, clearly given the fact this is half a century in one family’s hands the one next door got a big makeover and add-ons in the past decade, Homelea is going to see further sums spent once purchased: just how much is a matter of ambition and allowable/available budget.

Its vendor is one of seven siblings who came to live here back in 1964, when their family outgrew their previous two-bed home, and came to this roomy, five bed three storey property.

It has all the signs of being minded ever since, as the years rolled by, and all of its best internal architectural features are still here But, now it’s trade down time, and it’s going to get work.

Its windows were replaced around the 1980s, with hardwood/teak frames but single glazed. Gas fired central heating’s already in, so that’s a plus, and the property was underpinned in 2009, so another box ticked there.

A couple of ornate and original cast iron and slate fireplaces were taken out of first floor bedrooms, but again the good news is, they are still here, only reinstated in the ground floor’s two main reception room, one to the front in a room with wide bay window, the other fitted with a gas insert fire in a rear reception room.

They look so at home, it’s hard to think they were ever upstairs in ‘mere’ bedrooms, and one or two other Homelea bedroom fireplaces remain in situ still.

Not too many people use upper level/bedroom open fires anymore, hauling coal up steps is possibly a thing of the past, but in period homes like this, they do look good with logs, candle and if ‘dressed’ to impress.

And, if they still have functioning flues, even a Firelog is going to make quite the impression on a winter’s evening...and the vendor and siblings who still visit recall fires being lit especially for them if they were ever home sick from school. Current layout sees two well-sized and easily accessible attic bedrooms, with great views over Ballintemple, the Blackrock Road towards Lindville and to the new GAA stadium by the Marina from the front one’s large dormer window.

The mid level has three bedrooms, plus the main family bathroom, with side windows looking out over the array of even-older Victorian and Georgian houses and their mature gardens, just on the city side, with a lovely magnolia currently visible and in flower in over a front garden side wall.

At ground, once past the stained glass at the feature front door and original tile hallway, are two decent-sized reception rooms, an extended and simple kitchen/dining room, with the outline of an old brick arch for a range still discernible, and a guest WC.

It’s a traditional layout, too dated now for 21st century family daily living and lifestyle, but getting to grips with a glazed extension and more open flow of rooms won’t tax a good architect or builder, given they’ll be building out into the light and garden. They could also, quite easily, look over the back boundary wall and see what was done so successfully at Sunlea.