Turning up the volume at €695,000 Paje, a capacious home with granny flat and ball alley

Midleton, East Cork
€695,000
Size	271sq m (2,917sq ft)
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	5
BER	B2

Airiness, height, openness, proportion — Paje has what those in the know call “great volume”.

It’s also a home with depth and versatility: as well as the architecturally generous main house, there’s an adjoining granny flat, 1.8acres of garden, a double garage used as a gym and a ball alley for kids to let off steam.

The views from Paje are enticing too, if not quite on a par with what you might expect in the real Paje, the Zanzibar resort where the homeowners got engaged.

As the house is on a height, it overlooks a great swathe of countryside, with a glimpse of the sea in the far distance. Those views are at a premium from a large south-facing patio, or, in dicey weather, from the conservatory, which forms part of a great, big open-plan space, centred around a beautifully crafted Nicholas Moody kitchen.

The homeowners built the timber-frame, Ballydesmond stone-faced house through direct labour in the early 2000s after acquiring the site following a tip-off from a friend.

“He had bought a site up the road and he told us about this one and we bought it in 2000,” the current owner says.

It hasn’t aged at all — due to good early design choices and diligent maintenance. The country-style kitchen is the owner’s favourite spot: vaulted ceiling, exposed timber trusses, large island with solid walnut countertop, clever corner fridge unit that makes smart use of an awkward angle, and, in pride of place, the oil-burning AGA with gas hob.

“We love our kitchen. The AGA is not just about physical warmth, the kids used to fall asleep by it when they were young, it’s about comfort and it’s always been a focal point.”

While the open plan kitchen/ lounge/ conservatory-cum-dining room is where most of the living was done, there are also three reception rooms.

 The most striking is the split-level living room, where the roof rises into such a vault that there was room for a balcony/ mezzanine to accommodate a home office. The owner says when the stove is on in the living room, it’s toasty as can be, as the heat rises up to the mezzanine. It’s a warm house anyway, with a solid B2 energy rating.

There’s lots more accommodation at c 3,000sq ft Paje, including a ground floor double bedroom with walk-in wardrobe and en suite. The three overhead bedrooms are doubles too, two with en suites, one with a walk-in wardrobe.

Adjoining — and therefore qualifying as a rent-a-room, which entitles the renter to €14,000 tax free in rental income — is a one-bed granny flat, or in this case, “a grandad flat” with open plan living/ dining/ kitchen.

Paje is a strong value proposition bolstered by scope to build a second home on that 1.8a landscaped site, with planning permission, says selling agent Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties.

She points out also that while it feels very rural, it is in fact just a six-minute drive to Midleton, and a half-hour drive from Cork City.

The guide price for Paje is €695,000.

VERDICT: No compromises in the build quality of this home which is why it has aged well. Interesting design, great indoor and outdoor space, bonus of grandad flat, ball alley, large garage, and south-facing patio