House of the week: East Cork semi within charming waterside commute of city

Price: €385,000
Size: 14sq m (1,550sq ft)
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 3
BER: A3

NUMBER 56 The Woods, Glounthaune, is part of a respected estate built with laser-guided foresight by Diamond Rock Developments in 2015.

Handsome, with a lofty spec and keen, understated functionality this crisp — I’m impressed by this crisp suburban choice, new to market with Hegarty Properties.

For someone who had not spent a winter in an A3 (BER) rated home before, the coming months would be astonishingly cosy and completely baffling.

Conjuring warmth from the outside atmosphere on even the darkest, wettest day — an air-to-water heat pump (ASHP) serves low-temperature radiators throughout Number 56.

This is the new, positive euro- and carbon-saving world of consistent, sensory comfort and superb energy efficiency.

In terms of location, we cannot do better, with just a short stroll from the house down to the incredibly pretty Glounthaune train station serving Cobh, Midleton, and the city. It would make a meditative commute, the Lee yawning out to bird-skimmed views of Cork Estuary.

With the N25 girdling Glounthaune, traffic relief has returned the area to the role of a thriving, beloved village anchored on its lovely 19th-century church. Ask anyone about the local shop, deli, and pub Fitzpatrick’s, whose towering fruit pavlovas and doorstep sandwiches are simply legend.

With off-street parking and a delightful short entryway through billows of lavender, the house is entered over a durable, fully-tiled floor.

Its first overture is a determinedly adult, elegant front sitting-room with its own (largely feature focus) marble fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows. The room is perfectly decorated in the latest rain greys with accenting in stone and mustard.

The main body of the house centres on a well-conceived kitchen/dining area connected to a family room in the “broken-plan” that’s fascinating architects at the moment.

There’s a fully-fitted Champagne gloss kitchen that will appeal to most buyers, with integrated Bosch electric hob, Neff double oven, Belling microwave, dishwasher, and Bosch fridge/freezer (these are offered with the house and in perfect shape).

The large-format, rectified tiling and Silestone Spanish worktop and breakfast counter are beautiful, durable and right on trend.

The west-facing sunroom extension has a pleasing pitched roof, two Velux units, and an attractive clerestory window. The space reaches into a compact, contemporary garden — and with sliding and traditional exterior doors on two sides, we can peel this house open in summer.

The Indian sandstone patio is multi-level, with a carefully-tailored sunken style, exterior tap and power points, ornamented in container olive trees and scented Mediterranean planting set through pebble beds.

Up a few steps, there’s enough elevated lawn for infant play around the Wendy house and trampoline, and to entertain a rambunctious dog. The shed comes with the house if you want fancy it — ideal to stash the robot mower.

Downstairs is completed by a guest WC, and an ample utility room taking ballast and noise away from the kitchen with a side door to dart out with the washing. Upstairs, the master bedroom includes laminate wood flooring and French doors, allowing a step out to pretty glimpses of the estuary below. The room also includes the sleekest built-in storage solutions I’ve seen in some time — a full wall of sliding grey mirrored wardrobes, presumably by market icon Zermatt.

The master delivers an en-suite, and there are three more bedrooms (one to the front, two to the rear) served by a generous family bathroom. A third storey could be told here, with the large cut-roof attic space under a useful high pitch roof suitable for conversion, subject to planning permission (a Stira stair is fitted, and the area is already partially floored).

VERDICT: Faultless family buy on an enviable edge of the city village, front of the field for energy performance.