Ovens home is a candidate for starring in Bungalow Bliss
Cuilin, Kilcrea, Ovens, Cork
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Ovens, Cork |
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€900,000 |
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Size |
302 sq m (3,293 sq ft) |
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Bedrooms |
5 |
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Bathrooms |
3 |
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BER |
B1 |
TWO or so years ago engineer-turned-writer Adrian Duncan did a deep dive into Bungalow Bliss, the hit 1970s guidebook for how to build your own single storey home.
Duncan’s book, called Little Republics: The Story of Bungalow Bliss, looks at the cultural impact of a tome that kick-started what one critic described as a “bungalow blitz”. Duncan weighs up the impact the book had on the Irish landscape and on the housing market and on the individuals that it liberated to build their own homes.
Interviewed at the time by the Irish Examiner, the writer said modern students of architecture did not thumb their nose at the oft maligned 1970s’ bungalow, that in their courses, it was “presented as a challenge – can you improve this or change it? - but it’s an architectural challenge, not a problem”, he said.
The challenge of changing and improving 5-bed Cuilin, the bungalow featured here, was expertly dealt with.
It’s twice the house it used to be, double the size of the original L-shaped building, which is what you see when you turn into the driveway. Behind the original house, a link corridor joins the older home to a new two-storey wing, big enough to be a house in its own right.
“We replicated the look of the original building and because the site slopes from front to back, it was easy to dig down and keep the new house level with the old,” the vendor says.
The original was built by a couple who retired home from London and settled in Kilcrea, west of Ballincollig, on a site between the L2216 Kilcrea road and the River Bride. It was one of four similar-looking bungalows built by a local builder along the same road. Nowadays, it’s nothing like its neighbours.
The vendor says her father, a retired builder, did much of the transformational work (design was by Innishannon-based engineering consultant Barnes Murray de Bháill), which involved knocking some internal walls and raising ceilings. The pitch is quite dramatic in a few rooms, including the main bedroom, the broad entrance hall and over the link corridor.
Light streams through Keylite roof windows.
Glazing (by 2020 Glazing) is a key feature at Cuilin, from the picture window in the corridor near the main bedroom to the row of floor-to-ceiling windows along the link corridor that overlooks a private courtyard.
“It was my little sanctuary, where I could sit out for a coffee or a glass of wine. It faces south west, so it was a complete suntrap,” the vendor says.
Dining out options are are well catered for in the rear garden too, under a large Lugarde gazebo which has all the bells and whistles: lighting, sockets, firepit.
Anchored on its own foundations, and accessed via French doors off the kitchen, it’s overlooks a long and private lawn.
The lawn, at a level below the gazebo, easily accommodates an old traditional cowshed, and beyond it, a large grassy playing area. The cowshed is divided by a thick wall, with a utility on one side and storage on the other.
“Initially the intention was to convert it into a living space for an au pair as I’d planned to go back to work,” says the vendor.
“Then covid came and the idea was to convert it into a home office.” In the event, neither happened, so the next owner can decide its future: workshop/home office/granny flat/gym.
Cuilin is on a generous, richly planted 0.34 acres, with lots of maturity, including cherry blossom and apple trees. The driveway is laid with golden-hued gravel from O’Connell Stone, in Ovens. The gravel is kept in place by a subtle gridmat from Lavendar Landscapes which the owner says cost c€20,000. The gravel/grid combo extends to two patios (including courtyard). It’s a pricey but effective way of keeping tyre tracks and the like at bay.
“It’s a very big luxury to have in the driveway and it keeps everything looking neat and tidy,” says the vendor.
A walk-in pantry with floor to ceiling storage helps keep the cavernous kitchen - with huge granite island - neat and tidy.
“The pantry is an overflow kitchen really and it’s ideal when catering for occasions,” the vendor says.
You could pack a fair crowd into the kitchen/dining area, with cloakroom storage in the nearby bootroom and guest overflow through the French doors into the courtyard and rear garden.
The kitchen is handmade, by Limerick-based Aidan Quaid and includes a built-in wine fridge in the island and a built-in desk. If entertaining in the depths of winter, a solid fuel stove “heats the whole house” the vendor says.
There’s a stove too in the main living room in the original part of the house, where you will also find a family room/potential playroom/possible home office.
Back out in the link corridor a staircase with bold Royal Stewart Ulster carpet leads to three bedrooms and a bathroom.
The main bathroom, with standalone claw foot bath is downstairs, near the main bedroom, which has an en suite the likes of what you might find in a spa – natural tones, with an oval river stone hand basin and wooden-effect shelving. The luxurious shower was fitted by a Polish handyman and tiling is top class, with ne’er a piece of shower trim in sight.
Another piece of quality work is the front porch, the handiwork of the vendor’s father.
He also did the wall panelling in the hallway and up along the staircase.
“He’s retired, so it was like a pet project,” says his daughter.
If a student of architecture was to run the rule over Cuilin now, it’s likely they’d have high praise for the changes and improvements made and for the considerate touch shown by retaining the form of the original house. Buyers will be impressed too by this quality, 302 sq m, energy efficient home (BER is B1) which Gretchen Kelleher of Barry Auctioneers is selling with a guide price of €900,000.
Ms Kelleher predicts interest from families trading up and points out that Cuilin’s west-of-Ballincollig location makes it a good option for those travelling to work at CUH or MTU or UCC (c15 minutes by car). For families with school-going kids, Ovens has a reputable national school.
Nearby amenities include Kilcrea Abbey and Castle, the scene of many’s an Easter Egg hunt, the vendor says, as well as Farran Woods, Lee Valley Golf Club and the National Rowing Centre.
You’d be hard pressed to guess that Cuilin was ever a 1970s bungalow. Renovated and extended to exacting standards, it’s a gorgeous family home on a glorious site.
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