Midleton self build tests the mettle better than any pre-marriage course

High-spec, meticulously finished four-bed property has stunning views of the countryside, writes Catherine Shanahan

Sat, 13 Mar, 2021 - 12:59

Midleton, Co Cork
€480,000
Size	279 sq m (3003 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	5
BER	B1

BUILDING a relationship and building a home have certain parallels: both require time and commitment, expectations have to be managed along the way, and unexpected expenses can cause headaches.

Having stress-tested both, the owner of this meticulously finished home in Rathorgan, Midleton, believes any couple that undertakes a self-build should be given a pass from a pre-marriage course.

He should know, as he and his then fiancée, now wife, were knee-deep in concrete when they enrolled in their pre-marriage course back in 2010.

“It was my first project and we were only engaged at the time. If you can survive a self-build, you can survive anything,” Seán laughs.

In any event, both projects (marriage and self-build) stood the test of time and the couple and their two children have enjoyed more than a decade in their commodious, high-spec family home. At more than 3,000 sq ft, however, they are finding it a little too big and besides the owners (Seán at any rate) are itching at the notion of another self-build.

As a bonus, this time around, the design idea would be his own. The house he is selling was already fully formed in someone else’s head, when they bought the site with full planning permission in 2010, from the agent who is now selling their home, Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties, guiding at €480,000.

The prospect of building his own home never daunted him. Maybe it was the naval training (he was in the navy for 14 years) because he approached the task with military precision, working with his brother-in-law builder and bringing his own electrical skills to bear (he trained as an electrician). Having turned the sod in 2009, the house was completed by October 2010, albeit it was only in 2019 that they opened up the first floor fully, creating a very generous main bedroom in the process, with impressive vaulted ceiling and enviable walk-in wardrobe, not to mention stunning views of the countryside through a triple-glazed Munster Joinery window and a fabulous en suite with a bath.

The kids’ double bedrooms are also high grade. One comes with a dressing room and en suite, while the other has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite.

“It’s just a pleasure to come upstairs; the views are fantastic. It faces west so, when the sun sets, the evening view is just stunning,” the owner says.

There’s a fourth bedroom downstairs — a guest room with Jack and Jill en suite — and that’s just one of many downstairs rooms to choose from.

There’s also a sitting room, a sunroom with vaulted ceiling and double doors to the rear patio, a playroom/home office, a guest WC, a utility room, and a kitchen-dining area with a feature heart-shaped island worktop made from granite and cherrywood.

“My wife designed the kitchen,” the owner says, with help of Woodland Kitchens in Doughcloyne.

His wife is of the view, he says, that there are two ways of doing things: “There’s the normal system and there is Seán’s system.”

Seán’s system, he says, is that there is always a better way.

The house was done “above the building standards of the time,” he says, “and the home automation system is future proofed” with the installation of Control 4 (one of the biggest names in home automation that pulls together all of the technology in your home, controllable from your smartphone etc, so that you can, for example, tweak the heating or the lighting from a remote location); four zoned heating systems (he brought in home heating expert Harry Rea to design it for him); and a mechanical ventilation heat recovery unit. After the BER assessor had assessed his home in preparation for this sale, he awarded him a B1 and said in a footnote to the BER cert that it was “a very good achievement given the age of the house”.

“I was able to tell him everything about the house; I know every nail, every block,” Seán says.

He relished the project and the outcome, and he allows himself to enjoy the achievement occasionally when he and his wife are sitting in their favourite spot in the garden, watching their two kids bouncing on the trampoline, which is set in soft bark mulch with box hedging around it (nothing is left to chance). He’s even moved palms trees around the manicured 0.9-acre garden, three times in all, to find the perfect spot. “Once the digger comes out, my wife shakes her head,” he says.

The digger will no doubt be out again when the next project starts.

“I really enjoyed the first project and I saw it as a hobby, the way some people enjoy fishing. We really feel we got our first home right, it’s just too big for us, but it was a brilliant learning curve,” he says.

He did the whole build for €260,000 “to the penny” and is now on the lookout for the perfect greenfield site for his next build, or even a total renovation.

“I wouldn’t be afraid of a renovation project if it was in the right location,” he says.

As to the next owners? “It was built for a family and lived in by a family and that’s what it is — a great family home,” he says.

It’s also near to all the services families need. It’s about a 10-minute drive to the bustling town of Midleton, with schools, retail, amenities, farmers’ market etc.

VERDICT: Nothing left to chance in this superbly finished family home.

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