House of the Week: Church Road, Blackrock, Cork

The quality of the plantation shutters by the front windows are the first and only real hint of the level of spending and fine material gone into this three-bed quality semi-detached home, from the front door, right through to the back garden’s boundary wall.

Sat, 26 May, 2018 - 01:00

Feeling brand new inside, thanks to a 2014 upgrade and rear extension, it’s a c 20-25 year old home, bought by its current occupants after a return from Australia in 2001 and a career in international travel and long times spent abroad.

“Australia was just too far,” says the owner, from Co Cork, who has since continue to travel extensively, working for an FDI company and looking after their property interests in a range of countries.

That familiarity with a range of building and fit-out projects fed nicely into her decision to invest further in 10 The Walk, in Rockfield, a well-matured development done by Lyonshall developers off Cork’s Church Road, Blackrock, next to St Michael’s GAA facilities, and near a tennis club, shops and cafes.

All the basic boxes were ticked when she bought second hand in 2001, such as location, a west-facing back garden, facing a green and in towards the end of a cul de sac within Rockfield.

However, a mix of professional expertise and know-how, a growing family, and the chance to buy a doer-upper in the same area and to go again has brought Rockfield’s No 10 The Walk to the open market, after initial thoughts of selling off-market.

It’s guided at €420,000 by estate agent Brian Olden of Cohalan Downing, who’s had a very recent off-market sale in this development, while the Price Register shows two 2018 sales in the Avenue section, at €419,000, and €435,000.

No 10 The Walk got a c 200 sq ft single storey rear add-on back in 2014, with slightly inclined pitched membrane roof, and sliding doors overlooking an immaculate west-facing walled back garden with steel shed wreathed in roses and climbers, looking almost postcard pretty.

The patio and other raised beds are done in a special, all-weather Italian tile, chosen to match the main back room’s similar Italian flooring. (When redoing this back garden, the owner spotted the shed was basking in the sunniest corner, so she had it moved to make way for a sun-seat.)

The no-nonsense woman of the house worked closely with builder/project manager Frank Flannery on the top-to-bottom makeover, getting a superior kitchen, with island and all topped with pale quartz, from maker Brian O’Driscoll of Midleton, and it’s paragon of concealed storage and appliances, lending a purposeful calm to the overall 32’ by 13’ room, with runs of LED lighting, plus an openable roof light.

Double doors, with bevelled glass, link to the hall and to the front reception room, which has a Morso multi-fuel stove which the owner says nearly heats the entire house if the doors are left open.

Flooring in this front room is in a highly lacquered walnut, which is also used in all three of the first floor’s bedrooms, and all three windows on No 10’s front facade have those plantation shutters.

A soft-underfoot Ulster carpet lines the stairs and landing, and upstairs one of the pristine bedrooms has a new en suite with shower.

The main family bathroom was also full reworked (with big hot press storage) in 2014, with crisp tiling on the walls and with a corner pumped shower, and also slotted in was a guest WC, under the stairs in the hall.

Decor is without a mark, despite the presence of a couple of young children and the pressure of dressing a crew for a First Communion this weekend, and having done it all with the utmost attention to detail, No 10’s owner is prepared now to reprise it all once more, only in a larger, older era semi-d home, and with bigger bedrooms, in the same sought-after Blackrock Road catchment.

VERDICT: Prices have bounced back well in well-regarded Rockfield, and at No 10 there is literally nothing left to do, where what’s done is delivered with style and aplomb.

Church Road, Blackrock, Cork