Get out your Lotto-winning checklist for this €1.75m Waterford home

Ready to take the plunge in Dunmore East? The pool is at the ready, writes Trish Dromey

Sat, 17 Jul, 2021 - 17:58

Pictures: Colin Shanahan

Dunmore East, Co Waterford
€1.75m
Size	743 sq m ( 8,000 sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	7
BER	B2

If you made, won or inherited a fortune you would want to buy a property just like Auskurra House in Dunmore East.

You would want it not just for its swimming pool, gym , roof terrace , home cinema, sea views and 8,000 sq ft of living space - but also for its distinctive contemporary style - which might just tempt you to part with its €1.75 million guide price.

It was built at the height of the boom in 2005 for owners who wanted a spacious family home with a pool house and were prepared to pay whatever was necessary to make it distinctive, energy efficient and luxurious.

When it was finished Image magazine described it as spectacular - noting that the elegant, understated glamour of the design made it blend well into the local landscape. The magazine article also revealed that for the owners, part of the deal in employing New Zealand architect Stephen Nelson to provide a personalized design, involved travelling with him to Europe to look at fittings and furniture.

The owners had looked at concept sketches from a few architects before being wowed by the ones shown to them by Mr Nelson. “ The others were of the type of house you see all over Ireland now – but this one stood out - it was different,’’ the man of the house reveals.

Built in to a sloping hillside above Dunmore East, Auskurra House is a three storey property on a one-acre site with views across the village and countryside to Hook Head Peninsula on the Wexford coast.

Mr Nelson told Image magazine that he took inspiration from local traditional architecture and used limestone in the entrance, natural slate tiles on the roof and sandstone in the pool house.

The choice of white walls may have been influenced by traditional rendered cottage - but in its size, rectangular shape and with its walled roof terrace the house looks just a little like a modern take on a castle Given the sheer size of the property , energy efficiency was given a very high priority and a mechanical electric consultant was brought on board to help achieve the high B2 BER rating. It has heat recovery ventilation and a bank of solar panels on the roof of the pool house.

Explaining to Image magazine that the windows of the houses were produced from sustainably grown oak from Austrian forests, Mr Nelson revealed that he went to the factory to see them being made.

For the flooring throughout the house the owners chose Maribu – an African hardwood which is also used in the treads of the glass balustraded staircases.

Following 14 month construction period the owners moved in to Auskurra House by Christmas 2005. By then it had been furnished with a selection of items chosen by the owners and the architect at furniture fairs in Cologne and Milan.

The main entrance to this extremely spacious three storey split property on its middle floor. At this level there is a huge open plan living area in the shape of an inverted L which at one end has a high gloss grey/blue Italian Poliform kitchen equipped with Gaggenau appliances.

It opens into a long lounge dining area with three sets of double doors opening out on to a decked platform with glass balustrades.

“ On fine days you can fold back the windows – from here you have views out over the village and across the coast to the Saltee Islands ,’’ says the owner admitting that this is the place in the house he loves most.

On this floor there’s also a lounge, an office and a bathroom while the top level has three bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom is the epitome of luxury with an en suite, a walk-in-wardrobe with Poliform fitted units as well as a separate Jacuzzi room.

The bedrooms also have access to a walled roof terrace which has a high sandstone chimney with a BBQ.

On the lower ground floor there are two coast facing en suite bedrooms which are used for guests in addition to a home cinema room, a gym and a bathroom.

The attached pool house has a 25 ft long heated pool with air conditioning as well as a bathroom, a sauna, a steam room and a shower area. A second staircase at this end of the house provides access to the pool house from all three floors.

In addition to having two staircases , the property also has a lift serving all three floors.

Margaret Fogarty of Remax believes this uniquely designed, expensively finished property offers good value for its guide price. “You would pay millions of Euros to built something of this size to this standard now – to achieve this level of finish you would pay €400 per square foot.” Describing it as possibly the finest property to come on the market in Dunmore East if not the South East in recent years , Ms Fogarty says it is already attracting interest from local and Dublin buyers.