Home improvements were a hobby at this €395,000 Ballyvolane home

The owners of No 1 Brookvale extended the kitchen and converted the attic, so job(s) done

1 Brookvale, Banduff Road, Ballyvolane

Ballyvolane, Cork
€395,000
Size	145 sq m (1561 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	B2

OVER the 20 or so years that the owners of No 1 Brookvale have lived at their Banduff Road home, they’ve extended, converted, re-decorated, upgraded, you name it - which is why it’s in even better shape than when they bought it new in 2000.

For starters, they installed a downstairs bay window, adding a few feet to the front living room and heightening light levels.

 They gained more ground to the rear when they extended the kitchen in 2007, turning two separate rooms into one generous open-plan living space.

Open plan living

 Here is where most of the family activity takes place, in the kitchen/dining/lounge area. It opens, via French doors, onto a raised patio area, great for BBQs.

Outdoor patio area

 

There’s also a steeltech shed.

When doing the extension, they took care to maintain light levels, installing lots of glazing, including four rooflights.

Upstairs, they converted the attic. It’s a large, versatile room, perfect for a home office/teen den/playroom. 

Along with all of the structural work, the owners diligently upgraded, installing a new kitchen just four years ago, with duck-egg blue units, granite worktops, a large kitchen island and a much-loved six-plate Rangemaster, which will be staying for its new owner, as it’s dual fuel (gas hob) and incompatible with the house the vendors are moving to.

A 16kw stove in the lounge area of the open-plan living space “heats the whole of downstairs” the owner says, as it’s double-sided, throwing heat into both the front living room, and the open-plan area.

“We don’t need to use the gas central heating when it’s on,” the owner says.

The stove helped bring the energy rating up to a B2, as did the decision to pump the cavity walls with insulation 11 years ago. They insulated the attic too and installed a condensing boiler. All of these actions contributed to a good BER which will assist buyers applying for green mortgage rates.

Selling this semi-detached Ballyvolane home is Tirza Hourihan of Sherry FitzGerald and she says it’s a “turnkey”, property, warm and inviting, from the moment you step into the Victorian tiled hallway.

 Off the hallway, you will find a guest WC and a cleverly-designed understairs storage area, which serves as a utility.

Ms Hourihan says it’s an ideal family home, at the end of a cul-de-sac, with no through traffic and a fine big green for kids to play on. No 1, where the front lawn was swapped out for parking, overlooks the green.

The owner says it’s “genuinely very safe for kids”. Brookvale is ideally located for the everyday essentials – Dunnes Stores Ballvyolane shopping centre is a five minute walk, Lidl is even closer and bus services into Cork City centre are regular. There’s a choice of schools in the area too.

Brookvale has matured well and Ms Hourihane says there’s “a good bit of interest” in No 1.

All of the interest is from families, as it’s a four-bed, albeit one bedroom was converted into a walk-in wardrobe after kids flew the nest, but can easily be converted back.

VERDICT: Meticulously maintained ideal family home.