Snazzy extension adds pizazz to €400,000 Glanmire home

70 Copper Valley Vue is a ready-made family home

Sun, 02 Apr, 2023 - 21:00

Catherine Shanahan

Glanmire, Cork
€400,000
Size	160 sq m (1722 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	B2

THE Beast from the East was one of those seminal weather events that everyone remembers, but the owners of 70 Copper Valley Vue have even more reason to do. They were midway through extending their home when in came that Siberian chill.

"The Beast from the East arrived and the boiler broke as well,” laughs the owner, but they weren't too fazed as a boiler upgrade was on the cards at any rate.

The building work took place over three to four months in 2018, transforming the heart of a standard semi-d in Glanmire into a very snazzy living space. The rear wall of the house was pushed deeper into the back garden, and an open-plan living/kitchen/dining/lounge area replaced what had been a separate kitchen and living room.

No 70 gained a utility room too and the downstairs WC was extended to include a shower, a godsend for anyone with sports-mad kids. The utility can be accessed from a side entrance and adjoins the shower-room, ideal for muddy bodies/muddy football boots.

The owners of No 70 bought it off the plans back in the early noughties and moved in in May 2003. Fifteen years and three children later, they decided to extend their Murphy Construction home, with the help of O'Brien Walsh Architecture and Design and ODL Homes.

“We essentially lived in the front room while the work was underway, but ODL were brilliant, and had it done in no time,” the owner says.

The 34 sq m extension is the scene stealer at No 70. Crisp and contemporary, the glazing makes it – a combination of veluxes and clerestory windows, as well as substantial glazing along the rear wall. Two of four velux windows are electric skylights that close automatically in case of rain (one over the kitchen, one above the dining area).

Two clerestory windows, above the flat roofline of a mini breakout area to the rear, allow more natural light into the dining space, where the ceiling rises into a half vault. Along the back wall, tall glass doors rise into an apex, while two long, narrow windows bring light to the mini breakout area, where a gas Faber stove brings instant heat.

“It’s remote controlled and when you flick it out, it heats the place instantly and there’s no cleaning out to be done,” the owners says, adding that they intend to install something similar in their new home.

There’s a lot she’d like to take with her, such as the sleek Glenline kitchen, painted in Farrow and Ball shades of navy and grey, with a 3m wide, quartz-top island, a gas hob and double electric cooker. She’d like to take the TV unit too, by Gary Kelly Furniture, in the open-plan living area, with its solid oak top.

In fact the owner's half questioning the need to move at all, but they're not moving far, to a detached home, in the same area, with a bigger garden. Their own southeast facing garden is a very neat. low maintenance job, all part of the work done by ODL Homes. It includes a patio of porcelain tiles at the same level as the ground floor and steps to a higher level, which the owner says gets great sunshine in the evenings.

New owners of No 70 will have little to do and will be reassured to hear that the building work led to improved energy efficiency, bumping the rating up from a C3 to a B2, with triple-glazed Aluclad windows, a new boiler and zoned heating. The builders also extended the front drive which can accommodate three or four cars.

No 70 is very much a family home which makes schools a consideration – and there's a good choice, both primary and secondary. There’s plenty of retail in the area too, as well as sports facilities.

Gillian McDonnell of Sherry FitzGerald is the selling agent and she says No 7 will attract a variety of buyers.

“With a guide price of €400,000, we will see some first time buyers, but also traders up from the area or even downsizers, looking for a low maintenance home in a convenient location,” Ms McDonnell says.