A done deal at Ardfallen: Beautiful 50s home that you can move right into

Tommy Barker admires a large 1950s family home which has been extended and maintained so well that whoever buys it won’t have to budget for any further work

Sat, 05 May, 2018 - 01:00

Tommy Barker admires a large 1950s family home which has been extended and maintained so well that whoever buys it won’t have to budget for any further work

TICKING so many boxes for family home-hunters in Cork’s suburbs is 43 Ardfallen, or Cuan Dor, meaning ‘Golden Bay’.

Bay-windowed, this Cuan Dor semi-d is in a top location, between two hugely popular national schools, within a walk of Douglas village, and also with the box-ticking attributes of a sunny, west-ish facing back garden, and is in walk-in condition. It’s been extended, too, some homework all done in advance for its next occupants.

Dating to the 1950s, and in the same family’s hands for 15-20 years, it got makeovers not once, but twice, and now as a result has been added to at the side (over two levels,) to the back, and up into the attic level, with staircase access to boot.

In all, there’s about 1,585 sq ft over its two main levels, with five first-floor bedrooms. As a bonus, and not included in that floor area calculation, is a top-floor attic conversion with permanent stair access, to where there’s a multi-use extra room or optional guest bedroom/bed 6, with adjacent shower room, eaves storage, and large Velux.

to the rat.

That top floor eyrie looks out over a west/south-west aspected back garden, to what estate agent Ann O’Mahony of Sherry FitzGerald describes as “a lovely skyline.” That view, in the main, is of the gardens of the neighbours and, over the back wall at No 43 Ardfallen Estate and a bit back from it is the original Georgian Ardfallen House which lent this hinterland between the Douglas and Ballinlough Road its name.

Ardfallen House itself last changed hands back in 1986, then on three acres, when it was bought by the Methodist church in Cork, when they decided to move from their previous church on St Patrick’s Street (now a ladies wear shop, next door to Dunnes Stores). The religious community restored the original period house and added sheltered housing for 28 elderly residents of many faiths with a 24-hour warden, while on the pastoral side there’s a church, serving a community that now represents about 17 nationalities.

It’s primarily accessed via the public park and playing fields and access road to the Douglas Swimming Pool via Ballinlough, with secondary/pedestrian access to the main Douglas Road by the Briar Rose bar and the Ardfallen Centre, where there’s a pharmacy, bookies, counselling centre and, most recently, an Iceland supermarket.

Add in the proximity to Douglas village, and further local and community services around the Ballinlough cluster (another park, cafe, community centre, tennis courts, credit union, hairdressers, Hourihans’ garage, and the ever-busy O’Driscolls deli) and the diverse range on offer really does go to show the benefits of buying into a long-established residential community.

For families with children of school-going age, nearby national schools include Eglantine and Our Lady of Lourdes for girls, St Anthony’s for boys, and Regina Mundi and Douglas Community School for the teenage years, all within an easy walk.

Easy walk? One of the owners of No 43 Ardfallen has a commute all of two minutes, by shank’s mare, to a job in Eglantine NS but, now with family growing up, it’s time for a lifestyle downsizing move, hence its arrival this week to the 2018 market: it could be ‘sale agreed’ before the summer holidays or even in new hands entirely for the autumn return to the school books.

It’s listed at €520,000 by Sherry FitzGerald’s Ann O’Mahony, who says it’s it very fresh condition, with a very good range of ground floor rooms in particular, and needs no further spending.

Most recent semi-d sales in the Ardfallen/Nursery Drive area have gone from the high €300ks to the mid €400ks, of varying sizes and condition, and by now, even ones in ‘basic’ condition would be well into the €300-400k bracket thanks to steady demand for inner suburban Douglas stock.

Going on the evidence of a drive around some of the neighbouring necklace of estates of similar era homes, many get a further spend likely to be in the region of €150,000 and even €200,000 for the trendier, more contemporary two-storey add-ons.

Viewers of TV house and home shows like Room to Improve know just how elastic budgets for upgrades and extensions can be, usually elastic to the stage of breaking point: So No 43 provides potential buyers with a set budget with the reassurance that they’ll know for sure what the total outlay will be... it will be the purchase price (wherever that ends up at) stamp duty at 1%, plus legal fees, and some tins of paint for optional personalising of rooms within.

At present, it has reception rooms left of the hall, in the traditional compartmentalised layout, front and back, with retained features like picture rails, and each has a fireplace — the one in the front, bay-windowed living room has a gas insert — while ash flooring in each is Kahrs.

Across the hall is a playroom, in what would possibly have been an attached garage space, and it’s bright, with a porcelain tiled floor, and the same porcelain then flows out to the hall, and continues into the L-shaped rear kitchen/dining room extension, and further, into a utility with guest WC.

Considerable sums were spent here, in the kitchen and its units, with its wide Belling Kensington range cooker, and elsewhere is an integrated Neff microwave and integrated coffee/cappuccino maker. Design and layout is by the interiors savvy Ber Pey, and she used above-standard units in cream, with luxe walnut flourishes and extras, contrasting timber trims, and with curves in all the right places, including the chunky, brown and cream stone worktops.

Off in a tee-section, past a dining table, is a sunny seating spot, glazed on three sides and with slight vaulted ceiling, plus patio door to a mature, sheltered back garden, with perimeter colour thanks to judicious planting, plus cobble path and a timber garden shed. Visible over the back wall are two magnificent and venerable copper beeches, in the grounds of Ardfallen House.

Heading back inside and upstairs, No 43 has bedrooms left and right of a stair split, plus main family bathroom which was done around the same time as the kitchen, and has the same modern, elegant look.

Overall at mid level are five bedrooms, two of them doubles, and three singles, and none are en suite. However, the top floor’s multi-use attic level room.

Some of the mid level’s bedrooms could be repurposed, if new owners decided to maximise the en-suite top floor room, and one or two could be used as a study, or as a walk-in robe/dressing room.

For those keen to flex a bit of makeover muscle — despite the fact the overall property’s a walk-in job — there might be some viewers who’d take out a wall to make a mid-level bedroom en-suite, or, at ground, they may decide to open the two main ground-floor reception rooms one into the other, front-to-back, or to put in a patio door at least in the rear reception for garden access (though that would mean relocating an existing radiator).

The back garden’s aspect is excellent for day and evening sunshine, and in front, Cuan Dor aka No 43 Ardfallen Estate, has a small lawn, and off-street parking.

One of the more recent, comparable, sales at Ardfallen was of No 16, aka Rosario which had a long back garden and 1,560 sq ft. It was featured as House of the Week in these pages when it went to market in spring 2015 guiding €375,000, and it shows on the Price Register as having had a swift sale by the autumn of that year, at €457,000, €82,000 over the guide.

VERDICT: Will tick lots of boxes for sure.