A 'Glandore' address meets Cork's Blackrock for €340k

A once-small cottage, now more than doubled in size to 1,800 sq ft in size, just a few minutes walk to the pier in Blackrock

Second impressions: this is what you couldn't guess at  from the front of 6 Glandore Avenue

Blackrock, Cork City
€340,000
Size	168 sq m
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	3
BER	C2

SET to grow on its next owners, as it did on its current owners is 6, Glandore Avenue – it’s a Blackrock village home that expands, Tardis-like, as soon as you get past the front door.

Life on the lane, gratis of No 6 Glandore Avenue in Cork's Blackrock village

Coming for sale as part of a planned post-Covid-19 lifestyle shift with the family here now moving to live by the sea in West Cork, it looks like quite the smartened up, but perhaps modest-sized, mid-terraced home on its first visual encounter.

But, the superbly located home (a two-minute walk to the pier in Blackrock) is an utter surprise once past the threshold: would you believe there is just over 1,800 sq ft within?

Well, there is, thanks to a major overhaul and extension, done back in 2007 by its engineer/builder owner, who drew up the renovation plans on c 200-year-old Blackrock cottage while on his honeymoon.

It involved quite the upheaval and reconfiguring, as well as extending to the back with a single and double-story extension, clad in sheeted cedar and with a membrane Trocal roof for a contemporary look and finish.

Open plan living/kitchen/diner

The work saw the once-small cottage doubled, if not trebled in size, up to a shade over 1,800 sq ft, and as part of the upheaval, the couple decided to move the front door to the side (and, the stairs) instead of the centre, to give a single, larger reception room, 17’ ’ by 15’, with open fire which also serves as a walk-thru room to the back, so that’s the first surprise.

Then, wend your way towards the rear past a mid-section laundry/utility room with guest WC behind, and you come to an open-plan/interlinked kitchen/dining/family room, overlooking a long and private back garden, with re-done composite decking at the patio area.

This L-shaped room here is 21’ across, so the full width of the house, and is 24’ deep, well into the extension, with gloss units and an island, with white granite tops.

Extra light is drawn down in the back living space thanks to a roof light or window, and this back room has a hardwood floor, butting up against the pale tiles of the hard-working kitchen core.

The dining section, at the back end of the extension, effectively has a double aspect, east and south with sliding door access to the decking, where the composite boards are framed with old railway sleepers.

Garden size  helped persuade the couple to buy and do the work

The back garden stretches well out beyond, now mature with good planting and very private: in fact, the owners say the privacy back here is one of the things that tempted them to buy and take on a do-er up. (Well, that plus the fact doing this sort of work is standard day-to-day fare for the capable man of the house.) The couple, now with a fast-growing family, gained more privacy too when they put in reflective glass on the ground floor’s front façade’s two windows, with a tall, wall-mounted rad in the interior wall between these two opes.

Upstairs, No 6 Glandore Avenue has three carpeted bedrooms, all of them doubles, plus main family bathrooms, and the back bedroom is 18’ by 12,’ with built-ins and a compact en suite shower room.

The ‘clearly deceptive’ good-size mid-terraced home is in very good overall condition, especially for a home with nearly 200 years of history, bought in the mid to late boom years as an executor/estate sale, in need of lots of updating back then, which is so-clearly got.

It now gets a decent C2 BER, is ready for viewings by appointment with agent Suzanne Tyrrell of Cohaland Dowing.

She guides the fully done home at €340,000, but accepts it may go a bit higher in bidding, especially given the current unnatural Covid-19 times market and dearth of good stock.

Ms Tyrrell reckons there’s going to be a very broad appeal, ranging from first-time buyers given the €340k guide, to traders down and relocaters keen to be in one of Cork’s hottest suburbs, with Blackrock’s many amenities and the Marina on the doorstep, as well as other walks, cafes, weekend markets, and bars.

Blackrock House (the converted convent) and the Ursuline girls’ school are just to the east, while directly behind this section of Glandore Avenue is a very large and utterly private family home.

Glandore Avenue itself quite a narrow cul de sac avenue, widening out at its southern end where there is unassigned parking for cars, and bikes (the fact no 6 is mid-terraced means those who won’t want to lock bikes outside may have to bring them in through the front door.) The Price Register shows five resales on this stretch in the past decade, with the strongest price to date at €250,000, set in 2018 in the case of No 12. Just how much of a jump up in values No 6 will set is about to be seen, with a swift sale considered extremely likely

VERDICT: A most pleasant surprise, indeed.