House of the week: Glanmire - €495,000

NOPE, Greybrook is not your standard bungalow home – even if at the very first glance it might appear to be a single storey property.

Sat, 12 May, 2018 - 01:00

By Tommy Barker

NOPE, Greybrook is not your standard bungalow home – even if at the very first glance it might appear to be a single storey property.

Set on a sloping site with green valley views on Church Hill in Cork’s Glanmire, this year 2000-built family home stretches to a surprising 3,390 sq ft, over three internal levels, with lots of work and planting and garden enjoyment spots in its tiered grounds to the back.

And, now, coming to the age of 18 years itself and for sale for the first time, Greybrook is set to host a new family of occupants: estate agent Trish Stokes of Lisney, Cork, has it fresh to market, with a €495,000 asking price, and sensibly has made sure a drone imagery and a fly-past/fly-through view online shows it at its most expansive.

Church Hill is home to a clutch of one-off architect designed homes, as well as a few upmarket house development such as Cúl na Gréine, where two resales have topped the €700k price level. In fact, of the 24 Glanmire house sales recorded on the Price Register with a Church Hill address, ten have made over €400,000, and one of three recent strong results was of a bungalow, Derreen, across the road from Greybrook on large grounds which made €600,000 last year as an executor sale for the Dwyer family, with old Sunbeam factory Cork links.

Greybrook is as big as any, and probably bigger than most of its hillside compatriots, with a palatial-sized 35’ by 15’ top floor multi-use attic dormer room, which has three Veluxes and a gas stove.

Its tucked away, out of sight lower ground floor is home to four bedrooms, each sharing access to one of this level’s ‘Jack and Jill’ en suite bathroom plus there’s one other main shared bathroom down here, with feature glass block wall and a Jacuzzi bath, plus there’s access to a sunny terraced patio from the central lower hall.

Up above, at mid/entry level, there’s also a central hall, with staircase running down below in a straight line, and off to either side are the ‘day’ use rooms.

They include a 21’ by 18’ kitchen/diner, with wide range cooker and integrated appliance in timber units, and double doors open from here to a raised balcony which spans the full width of this aspect of the house. Off behind is a utility, and the central hall (with guest WC by the entrance) also has a set of double doors to the same shared balcony. Across from the kitchen/diner is a lounge, about 18’ by 16’, with a gas-fed stove (bulk tank gas also fuels the central heating) and here, yet again, is a third set of Rationel-style double doors to the balcony and woodland views beyond.

Meanwhile, back off the hall to the front/entrance end is a further 18’ by 11’ sitting room, with a second staircase, up to the spacious attic ‘cavern’ room, with storage, while down beneath, effectively ‘under’ the house on the back lower ground level is a large store room.

Overall condition and finish is very good, befitting a one-off built in 2000, and there’s off-street parking on a gravel drive in front, past stone boundary walls. Paths lead down by side gardens to lower grounds, with level sections created in tiers, with winding paths, raised beds with old rail sleepers, fencing, a feature gazebo, and, at the lowersmost section, a railed deck for taking in woodland vistas down into the valley folds.

VERDICT: Way more than first meets the eye.