RathminesNo expense was spared to completely renovate a €2.7m redbrick. With houses in walk-in condition now fetching significant premiums, it's no surprise that the owners of 5 Palmerston Villas, a six-bedroom Victorian house in Rathmines, are including a list of restoration work in the estate agent's details. Orna Mulcahy reports
New roof, repointing, new metal guttering, original windows repaired and draughtproofed, ground floor excavated and a damp course laid, rewiring, replumbing and plasterwork refurbished are just some of the jobs that had to be carried out after they bought it in 1999.
Then came a new large scale extension that spans the back of the house, and the transformation of the garden from a builder's yard into a delightful water garden.
The house is now finished, redecorated in sympathetic style and beautifully furnished. It is back on the market with a guide price of €2.7 million prior to auction through Sherry FitzGerald on October 1st. Geralyn Byrne is handling the sale.
Palmerston Villas is a quiet cul-de-sac off Upper Rathmines Road with houses on just one side, overlooking the courts of Brookfield Tennis Club. It's houses are very large and several seem to be undergoing refurbishment.
Number 5 is one of a pair of handsome redbricks set back from the road with good-sized front gardens. Granite steps lead up to the front door though there is also an entrance at garden level. Go in the front door and you can walk out again almost immediately onto a roof garden, through glazed double doors that throw a lot of extra light into the hallway which is otherwise traditionally decorated and furnished.
Leading off the hall are two very fine interconnecting drawingrooms, both of which had their doorways widened to take solid mahogany doors salvaged from a house in Co Westmeath. Salvage materials are used throughout the house with the Georgian fireplaces in the interconnecting drawingrooms coming from grand houses in Dublin and Cork and the wide oak floorboards on the ground floor from a building in Chicago.
The drawingrooms are extremely elegant, with elaborate cornicing and restful colour schemes drawn from the Farrow & Ball range of period colours.
There is also a large study with fitted painted cupboards that date from the 1800s and were salvaged from the Loreto Convent on the green. A cloakroom and toilet at the end of the hall are decorated in Victorian style.
While the hall level is predictable enough, the ground floor is a revelation; its original rooms open up, and the new extension provides a superb kitchen, dining and family area with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the garden with its linear pond. There is also a formal diningroom with wine-red walls and floorboards painted in a chequerboard effect by specialist Christopher Moore.
The kitchen has hand-made beech units topped in granite and lit by track lighting that spans the entire cooking and preparation area. The ground floor also has two bedrooms, one of them en suite, and excellent storage and utility space.
The principal bedrooms are on the top floor and in keeping with the rest of the house, have been decorated in a period style with a great sense of style and colour.
The main bedroom has an en suite shower room, while the family bathroom has Victorian-style terracotta tiling but up-to-the-minute fittings.
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