Two extended houses in Dublin for €395,000 and €825,000

Shortage of housing in the capital is not a recent phenomenon, and in 1949 houses in Terenure were constructed to encourage the creation of families.

In 1947 the Guinness Company surveyed its staff and found that single men were being discouraged from marrying due to severe accommodation shortages. As a result, the company purchased a 22-acre site off Mount Tallant Avenue and constructed 238 houses for their employees – on what are now Corrib, Derravaragh and Melvin Roads. Guinness sold all the houses to the tenants between 1969 and 1971.

Number 34 Melvin Road was purchased by architects John Flood and Lisa McVeigh in 2002.

"When we bought the house had not been touched since it was built," says McVeigh, who together with Flood are partners in the award winning DMVF architectural practice.

“There was no bathroom – only an outside loo but these properties are really well constructed and have withstood the test of time”

Initially the couple just rewired and replumbed the property, then in 2006 they gave the entire house an overhaul adding a double height extension to the rear. The space increased from 60sq m to its current standing at 87sq m.

Although not large, the attention to detail is evident throughout.

“Because we lived here before we extended we got a feeling for what needed to be done,” says McVeigh. The interiors are simple and streamlined – with lots of storage in every room. The use of white, on the walls and kitchen, plus a mirrored wall gives the impression of greater space.

The couple moved the kitchen to the centre of the house and the dining area to the front.

“One of the biggest mistakes people make in houses like these, is moving the kitchen to the back, and so not taking advantage of the premium garden space.”

With the living room to the rear, the room opens right into the garden – almost trebling the living space during clement weather.

Upstairs, the couple turned the third bedroom into a generous bathroom and an office – which they have also used as a nursery.  The house now has two bedrooms; the master, which is accessed through the office, overlooks a giant Ceanothus in the westerly facing rear garden.

The property, in turnkey condition is on the market through Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €395,000.

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27 Londonbridge Road has been home to Fiona McGoran and Billy O'Connell since 2004. In 2011, the couple added a two storey extension, designed by O'Connell's sister, architect Celie O'Connell, increasing the space to 128sq m.

The extension amalgamated the existing dining room into one long open plan kitchen-living-dining area. “We sat 28 people here for Christmas dinner this year,” says McGoran of the space, and that’s not including the family dog, or either of the rather large felines.

This is a very open house, and the reason the family are moving. “We have four kids but most Fridays there are about 12 kids here with at least four staying over, so we need more room” says McGoran.

The hub of the home is the duck egg blue kitchen which looks out on the rear garden. Though not large and with AstroTurf, the children of the house have hopped over the back wall for years into Lansdowne Tennis Club which runs parallel to the gardens on this side of the road.

To the front of the property lies a drawing room with its original fireplace and polished floorboards, which looks out onto the front garden with off street parking. All the soft furnishings throughout the property were made by the fabric company Murphy Sheehy.

Upstairs are three fine bedrooms. “We decided three large rooms with plenty of storage was a better option than four smaller rooms, so we changed the two front bedrooms into one large master” says McGoran of her bedroom which now takes up the entire width of the house.

For her rugby mad sons, the view of the AVIVA stadium looming like a mothership from the bedroom window will be missed, and she admits that they will leave the house “with a heavy heart” but space for friends and relatives dictate a larger property.

The property, is in excellent condition and is on the market through estate agent Sherry FitzGerald with an asking price of €825,000. Across the road, Number 12 of a similar size but with an older extension sold in January 2017 for €780,000.