Go Close this 'al fresco' deal in Cork's Coolroe with a glass of outdoor bubbly 

Tommy Barker hears how this Ballincollig home has cracked outdoors dining and entertaining

11 The Close Coolroe Meadows Ballincollig

Coolroe Meadows, Ballincollig
€525,000
Size	150 sq m (1,615 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	C2

THERE’S a sales trump card up the sleeve, or at least around the back, of 11 The Close – it’s a 2020 lockdown project, which saw a ‘room outdoors’ al fresco dining option added, by its owners as they embraced confinement to their home thanks to a certain global virus.

The family got a professional to add on a simple lean-to protective canopy with glazed roof and sturdy supports to the back wall of this four-bed detached house within Ballincollig’s Coolroe Meadows, and it can now be accessed by sliding doors, either from the back reception/dining room, or alternatively from the projecting family room off the kitchen.

They’ve fitted it with outdoor seating and a table big enough for family sit-down meals, while close-by they keep a barbecue set up for short-notice firing up.

It’s very functional, and effective to boot, and once our homes open up again in coming weeks to the possibility of visitors able to call around (the easing on April 12 allows two households to meet outdoors for social and recreational purposes , but not yet in private gardens) it will be a perfect place to entertain legitimately and safely, and is something other households may wish to try and recreate with a modicum of DIY skills. It will continue to pay some Irish weather-proofing dividends too, long after the global virus is a thing of the past.

The family, who’ve been here is this good-sized four-bed home (it’s 150 sq m just over 1,600 sq ft) for a good number of years, but now are returning to their native county of Kerry, for family reasons, indicates selling agent Norma Healy of Sherry FitzGerald who says “they are answering the call of the Kingdom.” No 11 the Close is guided at €525,000 and so will be a trade-up option, and the early and immediate interest coming after its market launch at the start of the week is from families looking for more pace, and a fourth bedroom, Ms Healy reveals.

“It’s a great size,” she declares, “ there aren’t enough homes built at this sort of scale, so many are either about 1,300 sq ft, or over 2,000 sq ft. This is a perfect balance,” she feels.

She describes the detached house as well-appointed, flexible and in a very popular and well-established development (builders were O’Brien & O’Flynn), with very easy access to the Ballincollig bypass for connectivity, while the town centre’s within a walk.

Accommodation inside includes two ground floor interconnecting reception rooms (the front one’s with a fireplace and bay window, the rear has patio access) to the left of a solid wood-floored hall, with a study/home office to the right.

Projecting off the rear is a kitchen with white units and small island, plus utility in the distant corner, and it links to a double aspect family living room with garden/deck/patio access, via sliding doors which have cover provided gratis of the recently-added, fixed canopy.

There’s a C2 BER, and off-street parking plus front lawn, and the back garden has a north/west aspect, with raised brick-fringed beds and mature shrubs and planting.

The Close, within Coolroe Meadows, has a mix of both four-bed semi-detacheds and detached homes, with about a half a dozen detacheds clustered around No 11.

The Price Register records 19 resales in The Close in over a decade, with the detached No 8 making the highest sum showing, €410,000, but that was back seven years ago.

VERDICT: Attractively-sized No 11 The Close is ready for al fresco dining and entertaining, come rain or shine.