Number 64 Ranelagh Road last came on the market at a time when nobody was much interested in buying a B&B, even a well-located one in a double-fronted period house. It took about two years and several steep price drops for it to be sold in 2012 for €565,000. And just as the price has now significantly changed – it is for sale for €1.6 million through Lisney – the house, called Tavistock, is a very different proposition.
Then, it had eight en-suite bedrooms and was very much an old-fashioned, comfortable B&B. Now, the Victorian house is a family home with four bedrooms, a floor space of 260sq m (2,798sq ft) and a finish that mixes modernity with many original period features. Its owner, interior designer Jennifer Deysel is selling up, with an eye to taking on another top-to-bottom renovation.
Inside, off the hall, with its decorative ceiling plasterwork, are two interconnecting reception rooms on one side and a large study on the other. All the original features, such as the window shutters, the floorboards, the marble fireplaces and any spots of missing plaster cornices, have been restored.
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Upstairs, the first of the four double bedrooms is in the return beside the smartly fitted out family bathroom. Moving on up again, there are two bedrooms to the front, each with two sash windows, an unusual and attractive feature.
The house could easily be a five-bed, but the owners went for a luxurious bedroom suite so one of the bedrooms to the front is linked by a dressingroom to its en-suite bathroom at the rear.
The fourth bedroom is at the top of the house to the rear and has an en-suite shower room.
All the bathrooms have been fitted with high-end fixtures. For example, the pebble-shaped freestanding bath in the main en suite is an import from the Victoria and Albert range and there are custom-built storage units in every bathroom. The kitchen is in the back return and is fitted with painted Shalford timber units and a pewter-coloured Aga. There is space for a family table. A head-height cellar provides plenty of storage.
The house has a paved town garden, relatively small because, at some stage in the past, what would have been a much larger garden must have been sold off to the builders of Dexter Terrace, the townhouse development to the rear.
A further compromise, especially in this price range, is the parking. There is off-street parking for one car, but it is in the townhouse development at the rear, with pedestrian access into the garden. The current owners did, though, secure planning permission for off-street parking to the front, so while new owners will probably not change a thing inside this house, they will probably seek to put in a drive-in.
