A five-bedroom house has come on the market at 8 Chesterfield Copse, Castleknock, close to the entrance to the Phoenix Park in Dublin 15. The detached house, with a guide price of £500,000, is scheduled for auction through Lisney on April 28th. The location is one of the best in the city, 10 minutes in off-peak traffic from O'Connell Street and with a good selection of schools and shopping centres within easy reach - and the Phoenix Park is on the doorstep. Chesterfield was built by Cosgrave Brothers in 1991 in a cul-de-sac design with a large, green at the centre.
Lisney says this particular house is a "oneoff", designed by builder and developer Brian Gahan for his own use. It is on a corner site facing the green and has an impressively high standard of finish. The houses are of Northumbrian brick and tile with leaded windows and deep tiled rooflines. Number 8 is clad entirely with rustic brick, unlike other houses on the estate, which are brick to the front only.
A stained-glass panelled front door leads to the hallway, which has a guest cloakroom. Double doors open on to the sittingroom, which has a deep bay window, a white marble fireplace and the ornamental ceiling coving. Across the hall, the diningroom is large enough to comfortably seat a dozen for dinner. To the rear of the house, there is a good-sized family room with an oak fireplace and sliding doors to the garden. The big kitchen/breakfastroom is the heart of this house and is particularly well-designed. It has a comprehensive range of French oak cupboards and display units, a farmhouse-style beamed ceiling and a tiled floor. There is a utility room off this, plumbed for laundry equipment and with shelves and storage cupboards.
There are five bedrooms upstairs, four of these doubles, with one good-sized single room. All the bedrooms have polished timber floors. The bedroom overlooks the green to the front and has an unusual raised seating area in the bay window alcove. Fitted mahogany wardrobes run the length of one wall and there is a shower room en suite.
Three further double bedrooms and one single room also have fitted wardrobes and dressing table/desks. Pulldown steps give access to a floored attic, which could be converted to a sixth bedroom or study/playroom. The family bathroom has a corner bath and matching hand-painted units and tiles by bathroom design specialists Elegant John.
There is a cobblelock driveway to the front with parking for several cars, softened by a couple of silver birch trees and evergreen shrubs. The back garden is laid out for low maintenance, with Liscannor and Donegal stone, timber decking and gravel, a flower-covered pergola and an attractive water feature.
A detached garage, which is covered in variegated ivy, is accessed from the side of the house with a pedestrian entrance to the garden.