A house on Grosvenor Road close to Rathmines and Rathgar has been put up for sale just a week after its neighbour appeared on the market – and is a good example of how such an 1860s Victorian Gothic can be restored.
The owners of No 59 bought the mid-terrace property in 2005 for €1.925 million, and spent just under €1 million converting it from a house in four flats back to a modern family home. The 304sq m (3,272sq ft) three-storey over-basement five-bed is now for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €2.2 million.
It comes with a very large garage at the bottom of the garden that new owners might, subject to planning permission, want to convert to a mews house – many other mews have been built along Spire View Lane, accessed from Rathgar Road.
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Its neighbour, No 58, a 304sq m (3,272sq ft) property laid out in four flats and requiring total renovation, is for sale through Lisney seeking €1.7 million, and could cost at least €300,000 to €450,000 to renovate.
The owners of No 59 spent about nine months renovating, and at the time they did everything, says one of them. They didn’t extend but opened up the basement as a large open-plan kitchen/breakfast/family room with underfloor heating; replaced all the sash windows with replica windows; repointed the brickwork; insulated the property; installed a sound system with speakers in most rooms and restored rich plasterwork in upstairs rooms. The house is painted in mostly neutral shades of cream, and decorated with colourful artwork from top to bottom.
Polished granite
The slightly L-shaped basement is obviously the hub of the house: it’s bright, with a bay window next to the breakfast table at the front and several sets of glazed floor-to-ceiling doors opening onto a sandstone patio at the rear. Floored with beige tiles, the counters and island unit in the kitchen are topped with black polished granite, and the units are white.
There are bookshelves and a large coal-effect fireplace in the family room, and a bright study off it. There’s also a downstairs toilet, and a large utility room off the kitchen near the understairs front door: the family come and go via this entrance, down a few steps from the neat front lawn, rather than through the main front door.
Upstairs an interconnecting drawing room and dining room open to the right off the black-and-white-tiled front hall; these are grand high-ceilinged rooms with matching marble white fireplaces and rich cornicing and centre roses. A tall bay window looks onto Grosvenor Road from the drawing room at the front; two tall sash windows in the dining room overlook the rear garden.
A handsomely carved Victorian Gothic staircase leads to the first floor, where there are two bedrooms, both doubles: the large main bedroom, like the drawingroom below, has a white marble fireplace and a bay window. A dressingroom leads into a smart beige-tiled en suite which has a large shower, bath and double sinks.
Third floor
A steep flight of stairs – with a glass safety panel at its foot, overlooking the stairwell – leads to the third floor, where there are three bedrooms and a large family bathroom: two bedrooms are doubles, the third a large single.
A few steps up from the back patio lead to the rear lawn, bordered by well-stocked beds – apple and pear trees are rich with fruit at this time of year. A pergola at the end covered in red leaves just about conceals the entrance into the large garage. The family has residents’ on-street parking on Grosvenor Road, a surprisingly quiet address considering how close it is to Rathmines village, a short walk away.
