Comfortable living in ‘grand little’ Wicklow cottage for €225K

Owner Marianne describes the cottage she has put heart, soul and a staggering amount of work into as “a grand little house”. It is all that, and more.

Sumac Cottage was a 0.7 acre site with a “ramshackle” 1904 labourer’s cottage when she bought it for €52,000 four years ago. The home she is selling, for family reasons, has been extended to give it a bright, airy kitchen/living/diningroom, two good-sized bedrooms (one en-suite), family bathroom, utility and reception hallway over a floor area of 117.5sq m (1,264sq ft). Agent Dowling Property is seeking €225,000.

‘Extremely comfortable’

It is, Marianne says, "extremely comfortable to live in, a great party house". A bell tent in the landscaped garden offers bed and shelter to guests staying the night and is, together with all of Sumac Cottage's main spaces, wheelchair accessible. The cottage is within walking distance of Baltinglass with its schools, shopping and direct bus to Dublin. Rear views are of the rolling Wicklow countryside, the front looks to a glorious mountain vista.

The rear extension, added to take advantage of the southwest-facing garden, has a Natural Welsh slate roof and smoked oak floors – all part of Marianne’s decision to put “good stuff” into the cottage’s renovation.

She named it Sumac Cottage when a trio of Sumac trees she planted to the front took off with unexpected vigour. “It was a modest cottage and I’ve tried to keep it modest, in the real sense,” she says. She has also managed to give it a warmly welcoming style.

Breakfast bar

The bedrooms and bathroom are to the front, where Marianne put in a false door, “to keep it looking traditional”. The main entrance hallway, now to the side and with a good cloakroom, has a couple of Velux windows and smoked oak floor.

The living area has a Dru wood-burning stove in a marble hearth, the kitchen has Silestone worktops and a breakfast bar, the main bedroom has a door to a newly built patio and the family bathroom has a cast-iron bath and double, step-in shower.

A detached garage could become a home office. Sumac Cottage has a BER of B2.