Hold your horses: Limerick's €545k converted Victorian coach-house is out of the traps
Coach House Limerick is priced at €545,000 by agents DNG Cusack Dunne
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North Circular Road, Limerick City |
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€545,000 |
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Size |
147 sq m (1,572 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
3 |
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Bathrooms |
2 |
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BER |
D1 |
OLD coachhouses can be characterful and interesting but are rarely as strikingly modern-looking as this architect redesigned, glass-walled one at Eden Terrace off the North Circular Road in Limerick.
It was built or recreated in the 1980s by Limerick architect Michael Healy from the ruins of an old coach house that had belonged to one of the large Victorian properties on Eden Terrace. Keeping the original limestone walls, he added a full glass wall and a steeply sloping roof to create a very distinctive three-bed property.
The current owner says she experienced love at first sight when she first viewed it in 2007, jumping at the chance to become the third owner of this unique home that the architect had designed for himself.
Listing the things that made her fall in love with it she mentions the glass walls, the stonework, the stylish design, the character and the privacy. “It’s tucked away in a laneway behind Eden Terrace – people don’t know it’s here and sometimes people even have difficulty finding us”.
The privacy is ensured by a six-foot high surrounding the property which is accessed by a tall set of timber gates that open into a cobblelock courtyard with trees and shrub beds.
The property is so private that there aren’t any curtains or blinds on the glass wall running along the full length of the house.
At one end there’s a sunroom or TV room which has a glass wall at one side and a limestone one on the other. The owner says this is her favourite space. “You can look out at the garden in the summer or be cosy with the stove in the winter.’’
A long stretch of the glass wall at the front belongs to a timber panelled dining space that opens into a kitchen at the rear.
The kitchen, put in by the coach houses architect designer, has timber counter tops which at one end widen into a circular table with space for three diners. The owner says she kept the kitchen and the terracotta tiles which were there when she bought the house but painted the timber units using Colourtrend Parsnip.
Alongside the kitchen is a large sitting room which has one limestone wall, floor to ceiling bookshelves at one end and a sizable Norwegian stove. Features in this room include parquet timber flooring which came from an old convent as well as a stylishly contemporary steel single spine staircase with wooden treads and a handrail.
The architect Michael Healy brought this in from Germany, ’reveals the owner.
Light is provided for the highly unusual staircase by a triangular shaped glass window at the apex of the roof. In the upstairs section there’s a bathroom and three bedrooms with sloping roofs, fitted wardrobes and Velux windows. The largest room has an en suite and one navy coloured wall.
Most of the walls in the house, except of course for the limestone ones, are painted white. The owner has brought in colour with paintings but in the upstairs bathrooms has added a few brighter splashes of colour - one has a deep yellow wall and another a deep red one.
Fitted with timber double glazed windows which the owner has painted grey, the property has gas heating and D1 Ber rating. “The BER assessor said it could be quite easy to upgrade it to a C,’’ the owner reveals.
All the coach house’s garden area is at the front where a large cobble lock courtyard provides space for parking and for sitting out. In the beds along the walls there are trees as well as shrubs and flowers.
“We planted purple wisteria along the front of the house and we also have white roses and aubretia. In the summer the gardens are always an explosion of colour,’’ says the owner who is reluctantly relocating to Kerry.
“When I fell in love with and bought the Coach House, I was single - it was fabulous for entertaining then but now I have two children it is a wonderful family home,’’ After 14 years she says she still loves all the features that first impressed her but now is also very appreciative of the fact that in addition to being visually striking, it’s also a very well thought out comfortable home.
Quoting a guide of €545,000 Gillian Dunne of DNG Cusack Dunne says the location – off North Circular Road in one of the city’s most desirable residential areas -is a huge selling point.
It’s within walking distance of the city centre as well as a range of primary and secondary schools as well as the Lawn Tennis Club and Thomond Park, she says adding that opportunities to buy detached properties in this area are rare.
Describing it as a home of distinction and character in a particularly private and tranquil location, Ms Dunne says it has attracted interest from a variety of sources.
“We have had interest from both overseas and from couples relocating from Dublin and other parts of the country and from people weren’t considering moving but were attracted to the house and came to see it.’
VERDICT: A stylish, creatively redesigned coach house
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