€10,000 walnut staircase and granny flat in Cork are part of massively extended €750,000 home
Allolee, Laburnum lawn, Model Farm Road
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Bishopstown, Cork |
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€750,000 |
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Size |
200 sq m (2,220 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
4 |
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Bathrooms |
4 |
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BER |
A3 |
MID-CENTURY modern is hot right now — just take a gander at what’s happening in the ‘burbs, in our 1950s housing estates.
As original owners depart for the Great Unknown, a younger generation is investing in divesting these classic homes of a boring uniformity. Drab pebbledash is giving way to smooth render, windows are changing in size, shape, and frame colour — and timber cladding is gaining ground as a design feature. Even roofs are getting in on the remodeling act, as homeowners grow bold in choice of tile and roof style. It’s all good. Where homes can evolve, it brings new life to neighbourhoods that might otherwise stagnate, or worse, find themselves blighted by dereliction.
Laburnum, between Wilton and Bishopstown, is a prime example of Cork City 1950s housing where new owners are delivering on mid-century modernity. Take the house featured here, Allolee, at 12 Laburnum Lawn, Model Farm Road.
Like many of its neighbours, it bears little resemblance internally to the run-of-the-mill three-bed semi-d that it once was, although from the kerbside it hasn’t changed much, other than broadening out.
Walk around the back though and you will appreciate the scale of change: Up/down, back-to-front, side-to-side, the result of a two-storey extension which travels around to the rear, where it pushes out into the still generous back garden.
“When I bought Allolee in 2009, it was very outdated, very cold, no heating, very small rooms,” says the owner, a medic who previously worked at Cork University Hospital and a number of other hospitals in the county.
“We literally knocked the house. The only part left standing was the front wall.” Building work — by Cork-based Brian Malone Construction — started in January 2010 and they were in in jig time, by April 1. At 2,220 sq ft, their new home was more than twice the size of the 900 sq ft house that it replaced.
“We did it from the bottom up, piling, re-building, incorporating a garage, expanding sideways, adding to the lower and upper floors.
“When it was rebuilt, it was essentially a brand new family home and we put everything into it: Geothermal heating, triple-glazed windows all over, a central ventilation system, a central vacuum system, solar panels, concrete floors at ground and first floor level, and underfloor heating on both floors,” the owner says.
The also gained ceiling height.
“When we knocked the house, there was a metre-wide void under the ground floor, so we used that space to increase the ceiling height,” he says.
They converted the attic too (floored, with a stira) and, for good measure, they built a one-bed guest apartment at the end of the garden.
It’s now a rental, currently generating monthly income of €1,200. The property can be sold with or without a tenant in situ.
“We used it for guests originally, but if I had realised that I could have paid half the mortgage by renting it out, I would have done that,” the owner laughs.
He adds that it’s been very well-maintained over the years and includes an ensuite bedroom and open-plan kitchen/dining.
As the owner bought Allolee in pre-price register days, it’s not possible to say what he paid for it, but what he will say is that the re-build cost €450,000. There was no scrimping on what was intended to be the long-term family home. A walnut staircase cost €10,000.
The geothermal heating cost three times that, but the payoff is an A3 energy rating, very impressive for a 1950s home and very attractive for potential buyers at the mercy of fluctuating energy markets.
The owner says that, prior to the current energy crisis, their bimonthly electricity bill was €100. They have a gas cooker which is supplied by a gas bottle, which is kept in the plant room with the geothermal heating system, and which only has to be replaced every two years, the vendor says.
The underfloor heating on both floors is a boon and so is the site orientation: The neat rear garden, laid mostly to lawn, with some raised beds along side walls and some hard landscaping, is “100%” south-facing, with a deck for sitting out accessed via double doors from the open plan kitchen/dining/living area.
The deck is a suntrap and the open-plan area off it is bright and airy.
Kitchen units are walnut — and walnut, along with cream porcelain tiles, is a theme throughout the house, starting at the front door.
“I love walnut, it’s the most elegant wood,” the owner says.
Given the size of the house, there’s a good selection of rooms: As well as the large open-plan area, there’s a separate living room, a home office, and a utility room on the ground floor.
On the first floor, the main bedroom comes with a walk-in wardrobe and an ensuite.
A second bedroom has an ensuite too and one of the two remaining bedrooms also has a walk-in wardrobe. The attic is fully floored.
“There is plenty of storage space upstairs, which was important for us with three children,” the owner says. Also important was proximity to schools — St Catherine’s Girls’ National School, Mount Mercy Secondary School, both on Model Farm Road, and Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh (boys’ secondary school) in Bishopstown — not to mention how convenient the house is to CUH, UCC, Munster Technological University, the Bon Secours hospital, and Wilton Shopping Centre.
Allolee (it’s the name of a small fort on Hadrian’s Wall, the north western outpost of the Roman Empire) has served the family well but with a move abroad on the cards, it’s selling up time. Shane Finn of DNG estate agents says the two-storey semi “hits all the right notes for modern living”.
As soon as the house was advertised, calls came pouring in from a range of potential buyers — local, national, international, he says.
“We’ve had callers say that they’ve been looking for years and this is exactly what they want,” Mr Finn says.
If Allolee is exactly what they want, it has a guide price of €750,000 which, if reached, will set a record for house prices on Laburnum Lawn, at least in terms of sales since 2010, when what homes sold for became publicly available.
Nothing on the register since then comes anywhere close, although in nearby Laburnum Park and Laburnum Drive, a couple of homes went for over €750,000.
On the Lawn, the highest price paid since 2010 was €415,000, for No 1 in 2017. The price at Allolee though reflects the massive investment by the vendor, its turnkey status and its terrific energy rating. And that’s before you ever mention the location.
No expense spared at this substantial trade-up home which comes with city convenience and rental income/granny flat options.
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