“We came here as two and we now leave as five,” says the owner of 43 Oaklands Park in Sandymount. The family have been here for 26 years and their home, a fine Edwardian mid-terrace house, has changed with them as the family grew both in size and stature.
Extending to 168sq m (1,808sq ft), it has your typical Edwardian layout with two interconnecting rooms at hall level and benefits from an additional livingroom midway to the kitchen, which opens to the back garden. “It’s a fabulous house – first for us as a couple and then as our three babies became adults,” says the owner. “The three boys went to the Star of the Sea school which they walked to every day. They were always out playing with their friends, who are still their best friends years later.”
Then, in 2018, the family added a Shomera garden room at the end of their astro turf-lined garden: “It really saved us during lockdown as both myself and my husband work, and it gave me a really quiet space to work, especially once the children came home from school or in from the beach,” says the owner. Now it is used as a teenagers’ den.
The owners also added a mezzanine to a third bedroom on the first floor return. “While the bedroom was fine when our son was younger, he then needed a study area, so we went up into the attic space overhead [in the return] to add a mezzanine where his bed now is. He calls it his nest.”
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The main attic was also converted and is now used as a fine bedroom. Of interest is the exposed brick on a gable wall which, now sealed, is exposed and adds texture and contrast to the striking blue walls. Three additional bedrooms lie on the first floor, and the principal has its own walk-in wardrobe and en suite.
Its Ber is D1, which new owners may want to address, but its location between the villages of Sandymount and Ballsbridge is its major selling point. “One thing I will miss, though we are upsizing locally, are the neighbours,” says the owner. “If anyone on our road is sick or bereaved, we organise a dinner rota to drop in something to the family. I really think that this sense of community is why people go crazy for Sandymount.”
Having off-street parking is another bonus, especially on match days at the Aviva Stadium when the hum of excitement is palpable, but parking can be a nightmare. The 2km lockdown limit during the pandemic allowed the family to reach Sandymount Strand or Herbert Park daily, and it is just a 40-minute walk from College Green. The Dart is within walking distance and the area is served by the number 4 bus at the end of Serpentine Avenue.
Houses here tend to be homes for life, with families moving due to empty nests or, in the case of number 43, when they need more space for five adults. It is now on the market through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty, seeking €1.1 million.
