Stylish €520k Ballinhassig home pairs Alpine-style 'man cave' with superb outdoor living spaces

A lovingly upgraded four-bed with an Alpine-style garden cabin, A3 energy rating and versatile outdoor spaces

Raising the bar at 23 Gleann Órga, Ladysbridge. Pictures: Niamh Whitty

Ballinhassig, Co Cork
€520,000
Size	152 sq m (1,636 sq ft)
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
BER	A3

HOME decorating can be a thorny issue if one half of a couple wants the house to “look” good, while the other half prioritises comfort.

At 23 Gleann Órga in Ballinhassig, the key battleground had nothing to do with the house itself — it came down to whether a high-quality Hanley’s garden cabin should be used for remote working or as a man shed.

“My husband had always dreamt of having a log cabin, but I was working from home, so the question was ‘would it be a home office or would it be a man cave?’,” laughs the woman of the house, Franziska Hintner Lazarski.

In the end, her husband, Sebastian Lazarski, won out, but she doesn’t begrudge him, as he did such a terrific job of fitting it out, building in a bar counter, adding shelving and soft furnishings, and turning it into the kind of snug chalet you might find on an Alpine mountainside. 

He built a deck out front too and that, combined with the roof overhang, means they can barbecue in any weather, which they do, because a love of the outdoors is deeply woven into their lives.

There’s even a specific word for it in German — Franziska is from Berlin — and it’s Naturverbundenheit, which literally means “connectedness to nature.” 

“When we moved in, we got a drainage system installed because we wanted to be outdoors, even with the amount of rain in winter,” says Franziska.

They installed a deck off the kitchen too, and even though there’s a lot going on in the garden, it’s all pretty low-maintenance, with easy-to-keep shrubs in raised planters.

There’s even a little yard, tucked away behind the log cabin, where Sebastian keeps his power tools.

The couple also did work out front, widening the drive to fit two SUVs and laying a small patio, cleverly concealed behind hedging, where their daughter Matilda could play with her sandbox.

There was room too for a small garden shed and log storage for a wood-burning stove.

While they put a big focus on the outdoors, it wasn’t at the expense of the house itself, which they dedicated significant energy to improving when they bought it as a new build in 2019. 

“It was just before covid arrived and that gave us time to do a lot. It was a massive opportunity,” says Franziska.

They used the time well, painting, decorating, installing high-spec bathrooms, and flooring the attic, which is reached by a thermal ladder designed to prevent drafts.

Now that the three-storey, four-bed semi-d is ship-shape, they are relocating to Ballinspittle, closer to Kinsale and even more outdoor opportunities.

Selling their 152 sq m property are Majella and Caroline Galvin of DNG Galvin, and they say the Gleann Órga home — in a scheme of 40 with lots of green areas — is proving very popular among families, who like the superb A3 energy rating in a home with underfloor heating on the ground floor. 

Green mortgage rates will apply.

“There’s a lot of families from Cork City interested. They like the fact that it’s in a good school catchment area, close to both Cork City’s western suburbs and to Kinsale,” the agents say.

The guide price for No 23 is €520,000.

VERDICT: Turnkey home with an excellent outdoor set-up.