SANDYCOVE: €1.5M:IN THE year since they bought number 61 Albert Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin, the owners have turned a house needing modernisation, with a "warren of little rooms", into an elegant, stylish home.
The transformation, which has left only the front façade and a rear wall of the original 1840 house in place, has created a 209sq m (2,249sq ft) single-storey home with four bedrooms, a formal reception room and an open-plan kitchen/dining/living area. There is a courtyard and garden to the rear.
It is for sale by private treaty through Savills with an asking price of €1.5 million. The house changed hands a number of times in previous years; the people who bought it before the current vendors bought number 61 for €1.6 million in 2007.
The owners worked from a blueprint and with “a very good builder. Everything we used is Irish. We searched the internet and got every doorknob, every lock, even building supplies and bespoke aluminium guttering. It’s all out there if you look, competitively priced and good quality too.”
The house was smaller, and the rear garden larger, when a bank clerk and his wife lived there in 1911.
The vendors have reversed that order, to most stunning effect in the Velux-lit, 22m-long-hallway running from the front to rear doors, the latter perfectly framing a tree in the garden.
A glazed “privacy door” halfway along gives the choice of closing off the rear of the house.
The formal drawingroom is to the front. Originally three rooms, it’s distinguished by a tall, highly ornate and completely restored cast-iron fireplace, Canadian oak flooring and double doors to the courtyard.
A study/bedroom at this front part of the house matches it in style. The kitchen/dining/living area fills a curving sweep of space to the rear.
The hallway’s Travertine flooring continues into this part of the house, worktops are of black galaxy marble and the dining area has a glass door to the courtyard.
A plus for new owners will be the full-sized Viking “professional wine fridge” and separate champagne fridge; alcove seating on either side of the wine fridge is a fun and comfortable touch.
The main bedroom sits into the rear curved wall too, and has long windows overlooking the garden. A couple of bedrooms with an adjoining en suite open off the hallway, as does the family bathroom with its roll-top Victorian bath.
Number 61 has solar panels, zoned heating and off-street parking for three cars to the gravelled front.
61 Albert Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin
209sq m (2,249sq ft) four-bed has open-plan kitchen/dining/living area and courtyard and garden at the rear.
Agent: Savills
