Family-friendly five-bed in Rathmines

The next family to move into 29 Cowper Road in Rathmines will only be the third in the redbrick house’s history. Since it was built in the 1880s, that’s unusual, but the present owner took over ownership from his grandparents in the 1990s, and now that the children are grown he and his wife are downsizing, and so it will be going out of his family for the first time since 1942.

The home is semi-detached and double-fronted, one of several similar two-storey houses built at the same time at this end of Cowper Road and around the corner on Temple Villas. At the time they must have seemed more modern, certainly more practical than the two over-basement styles. Also, they are more family-friendly, having more bedrooms – this one has five double bedrooms and 287sq m (3,088sq ft). It is for sale through Sherry FizGerald for €2.55 million.

Large kitchen

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There are three reception rooms (two interconnecting on one side of the hall, a third on the other side), all good-sized square rooms with original fireplaces, high ceilings and sash windows. A kitchen wasn’t a priority in the original Victorian design; it was usually in one of several small rooms at the back where the live-in maid lived and worked.

Ten years ago these rooms were knocked through to create a larger eat-in kitchen with well-planned, cream-coloured contemporary units topped with granite and with glazed patio doors out to the garden. They also carved out a space for a utility room in the side passage.

Even larger kitchens

However, a peek over the wall on either side and it’s clear that other owners of similar houses have been more ambitious in their plans by adding large single storey kitchen extensions. And it’s likely, given the size of the garden, that whoever buys number 29 will seek to do something similar.

The upstairs rooms also have high ceilings and period details. Work done by these owners include redoing the small bathroom and giving the main bedroom a small en suite. That room also opens into a small single room – originally designed as a nursery but here used as a dressing room. In other similar-style houses, that small room has been turned with great effect into a good- sized family bathroom or a luxurious ensuite. That’s probably what’s going to happen here as part of an overall updating of the bathrooms and redecoration. Unusually for a period redbrick in Dublin 6, number 29 is not a protected structure.

The 84ft-long back garden is north facing and bordered by tall granite walls. The front, along with lawn and trees, has space for off-street parking for four cars. The Cowper Luas stop is a few minutes walk away, so car ownership might not be a necessity.