Full marks at former Sandycove school for €2.25m

A Victorian house in Sandycove, Co Dublin, familiar to generations of pre-schoolers who attended Eileen Sinnott’s playschool there, has been extended and renovated since new owners bought the property in 2002.

Number 1 Cliff Terrace, Breffni Road, Sandycove, Co Dublin, a 278sq m (2,992sq ft) two-storey-over-basement four-bed house – one of three on a terrace built around 1850 – is now for sale for €2.25 million through Sherry FitzGerald. Located on the main Sandycove to Dalkey road close to the junction with Castlepark Road, the house has views of the sea from the rear of the property.

The current vendor – a regular swimmer at the nearby Forty Foot who had always wanted to live in Sandycove – bought the house from the late Eileen Sinnott’s family (who had lived there for 50 years) in 2002 and set about renovating it in 2006.

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The kitchen opens at the end into a bright conservatory – described as an orangery – which operates as the diningroom

The house was extended to the rear, creating space for a livingroom at basement level and a conservatory above it. The entire basement area is a modern space with a beige-tiled floor opening onto a patio that wraps around the house at the back.

Original features

Rooms on the ground and first floor have original features, such as elaborate plasterwork in the front hall and stripped and polished floorboards. Walls are freshly painted in soft, neutral shades, and the entire property has been staged for sale by FitOut Interiors. The overall impression is of a house in walk-in condition.

Interconnecting reception rooms to the left of the front hall, connected by double doors, showcase matching marble fireplaces. The reception room on the right now accommodates a long Chalon design kitchen with a Travertine-tiled floor. This in turn opens at the end into a bright conservatory – described as an orangery – which operates as the diningroom.

The kitchen is smart, with a timber-topped island unit, marble fireplace, cream Aga and cream kitchen units. The dining room/orangery opens onto a glazed balcony from which stairs lead down to the garden.

On the first floor, past a tall, arched landing window, there are three bedrooms. The large main bedroom runs from the front to the rear of the house. It has polished timber floors, a large fireplace and views of the sea: some will fondly remember this as the room at the heart of Eileen’s playschool. Now it has a very smart ensuite with a step-in rainwater shower and stone wash-hand basin. There’s another smart shower room off the main landing.

French windows

The two other bedrooms off the landing are, unusually, connected by glazed French windows; the room at the front could potentially be reconfigured as a dressingroom or study. The bedroom at the back has views of the sea.

Accommodation in the substantial basement space includes a utility room, a large smart family bathroom with shower and freestanding clawfoot bath, a double bedroom with French windows opening onto the patio, a large home office and a further two livingrooms connected through a deep arch.

The smaller of the two is described as a cinema room – it has a large wall-mounted TV – while the larger is described as the dayroom. It has been attractively decorated with a feature wall of black-and-white wallpaper depicting varieties of Irish trees, and French doors leading out to the paved patio.

Outside, there’s room for a large dining table on the patio, and garden lighting illuminates the steps leading up to the lawn. The granite-walled back garden is private and bountiful with apple, pear and plum trees.

There is room to park a couple of cars in the gravelled front garden.