Clever makeover in D4 for €1.4m

If the walls of number 68 Haddington Road could talk, they would probably tell tales of troops and volunteers and the action seen in the battle for Mount Street Bridge, when stray bullets must have nicked the brickwork, for the house is situated just a few doors from the junction with Northumberland Road.

When the owners purchased it, it was in seven bedsits, but the house is now an oasis of calm having been completely renovated in 2009. They installed a cream painted timber kitchen with polished black granite worktops in the large open plan space at garden level. A four-door dual fuel Aga, with a gas hob, is the room’s main focus. Hidden behind closed cupboard doors is plenty of storage, including a large hot press, and there is a utility room and guest wc installed under the granite front steps.

To its rear, there is a sizeable family room with lots of glazing that looks on to a small city garden with pedestrian rear access on to Percy Lane. On one side, a bank of glass doors can fold back to open the entire wall up to the outside. This part of the house faces northeast.

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Extension

The familyroom is part of a two-storey cedarwood-clad extension designed by SSA Architects and added in 2009. As you climb the stairs to hall level the staircase splits with one set of steps leading up to the property’s fourth bedroom, a dual aspect room overlooking the

rear. Its second window is set low, at eye level when in bed, and runs the width of the room, adding an interesting architectural accent to this already bright room.

A spacious bathroom adjoins it, where leather-effect tiles on the floor and walls make it a masculine space. There is a rainwater showerhead in the bath.

A criticism of some of these period homes that have undergone refurbishments is that the family ends up doing all its living at garden level, relegating the gorgeously proportioned reception rooms to special occasion use only.

Not so this clan. Every room in this property gets used. The parents watch TV in the formal drawing room while the kids do their homework at the table in the interconnecting diningroom. Both have black fire surrounds, open fireplaces, plain ceiling roses and working shutters.

On the first floor there are three bedrooms. The master, to the rear, has a wall of wardrobes and a shower en suite bathroom.

The front of the house gets afternoon sun and has a very smart herb garden planted.

The property, which measures 228sq m (2,454sq ft), is asking €1.4 million though agents Lisney. Across the road, number 57 is a four-bedroom terraced house asking €950,000 through Drogheda agent Ray White and Co. Parking is on street.