Roll on Bluebell season at this €395k characterful Cork buy

Glanmire's Bluebell Cottage had tasty upgrade in past four years

Bluebell Cottage has had €100k spent on it since it last sold five years ago. Agent Paul Fenton of Sherry FitzGerald now guides at €395,000

Glanmire, Cork
€395,000
Size	117 sq m (1,250 sq ft)
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	2
BER	D1

YOU can get a home for the future, and physically fit for 2025 and beyond, if you make the right effort at Bluebell Cottage – the vendor is prepared to include a Nordic Track treadmill into the sale if next occupiers want it.

Right now, the treadmill stands by a bedroom window and as the owner is moving to live overseas, it’s not going with her: “the fact this room currently accommodates a commercial treadmill, which actually emphasises the size of the room,” says estate agent Paul Fenton of Sherry FitzGerald, who guides the two/three-bed home at €395,000.

Make the running?

In walk-in, or jog in, order inside, Bluebell Cottage last changed hands about four years ago, but wasn’t in quite the same good shape as it is now and was guided back then at €290,000: it sold for closer to €260,000, with the owners rolling up their sleeves on renovation just as Covid kicked in from early 2020.

It had gone to market back in 2019 as a bit of a do-er up, and was called Rest a While at the time, but its buyer of that time clearly had energy as well as effort and cash to invest in it, spending the guts of €100,000 on renovations, and changed the name to the sweet-sounding Bluebell Cottage.

It got new glazing and Palladio style external front door, rewiring, new plumbing and bathrooms, new kitchen with gloss and veined brown units, topped with flecked granite: it got an adapted feature fireplace in the main living room framed in machined old railway sleepers and the BER was brought from a rock-bottom G to now rest at a D1. Heating now is via gas, instead of oil, controlled by an app, and there’s a dual fuel Rangemaster oven in the upgraded kitchen.

Sherry Fitz’s Mr Fenton says Bluebell Cottage “combines the elegance of a traditional cottage with contemporary modern fittings and decor throughout,” and the vendor hasn’t shied away from bold use of dark colours, with black-painted feature walls used to effect in several room, including the bathroom by a stand-alone bath, in the main living room, and externally also in window frames and boundary walls.

Hit the decks

Most of its c 1,250 sq ft is at ground level, and about 200 sq ft of that is upstairs with a stairs opening directly into a large, multi-purpose room with adjacent bathroom, used most recently as a third bedroom and with expansive views from a gable window.

The cottage’s other rooms beyond the porch include a large, double aspect living room, modern kitchen/dining room, two bedrooms and a family bathroom.

VERDICT: Briefly on the market in 2023 with a different agent, Bluebell Cottage is there now for those who want to do the bidding, and the running.