On the pig’s back at Churchtown cottage for €695,000

The pleasant cottage-style houses lining part of Upper Churchtown Road were originally the homes of local pig farmers when Churchtown was farming countryside.

All of them had large gardens and a consequential advantage for vendors Susan and John, when they bought number 42 in 2004, was its good-sized rear garden. They put this to good use when they used the space to add a large, L-shaped extension with a high, vaulted, velux-windowed, kitchen/diningroom and livingroom.

Susan and John wanted, above all, to have a home with “light, space and height”; they got all three in architect Niall Browne’s design, including 13ft high ceilings in the extension.

“We gutted and totally renovated and didn’t move in until 2006,” Susan says. “We redesigned the front and put in a double, en suite bedroom. Then we added the L-shaped extension to the back and, since it’s south-facing, a suntrap patio/garden.”

They paid “somewhere in the mid-€400,000s” for number 42 and put a “huge renovation budget” into the redesign. All “worth it”, Susan assures. “We’ve been very happy here. It’s on one level, which we found a plus, for both young and old people. We had no children when we arrived, now we’ve three and need somewhere bigger so are moving on.”

For sale for €695,000 through agent DNG, number 42 has three bedrooms (one en suite), a family bathroom, kitchen/diningroom, livingroom and utility over a 129sq m (1,390sq ft) floor area.

Vaulted ceiling heights in the extension are impressively close to 20ft high, with beams and Velux windows creating a great feeling of space. Lighting hangs from a beam over the dining area, glass doors and windows (all Rationel) are wood framed, walls everywhere (and throughout the rest of the house too) are a relaxing off-white with feature walls in other colours.  Susan, a proud Wicklow woman, chose kitchen fittings by Wicklow company Remo and a floor of Wicklow sandstone.

Accessed through double doors, the livingroom, in the stem of the L, has an oak floor, two large windows onto the patio and a Sandstone surround open fireplace which is, Susan assures, “used a lot.”

The main bedroom has sliding, mirrored wardrobes and an en suite with walk-in shower and mosaic tiling. The family bathroom is also to the front and both other bedrooms have windows. There is attic storage over the wide, bright hallway.

No 42 shares access to a useful side laneway. The patio is floored in Liscannor slate, has high sheltering walls and a healthy plant life. There is parking to the front as well as a lawn, lavender and rosemary bushes.