Stately Victorian in Sandycove for €1.525m

Lisanode, a detached double-fronted Victorian house at 21 Sandycove Road is for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €1.525 million. It’s currently a rental but it has been owned by the same family for 40 years. They have been holding off putting it on the market but now feel it’s time to sell.

Demand for large family houses in the seaside suburb is strong and at approximately 240sq m (2,583 sq ft), with four bedrooms, this is a large house.

It has a south-facing back garden and, as the detached house is set well back there is off-street parking for three or four cars.

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The owners carried out a major refurbishment when they bought, reorganising the interior and changing the exterior of the house by demolishing the Edwardian glass porch that ran nearly the width of the front – the red encaustic floor tiles are still there – and building an imposing looking entrance porch.

Inside, the ground floor layout is very different from the original with the exception of the livingroom on the right hand side which runs from front to back and features a fine original white marble fireplace and access to the back garden.

What would have been two rooms on the other side of the front door is now one open- plan room with an arched dividing wall and the repositioned staircase opening into it. The space, which also has a fine original fireplace, is used as a diningroom. A door at the back opens into the kitchen and then beyond an exposed brick wall into a bright informal living room that looks out onto the garden.

Upstairs there are four bedrooms, two with ensuites, as well as a family bathroom. There are glimpses of the distant sea over the rooftops.

There is a sizeable patio area to the side and a walled back garden and the attractive landscaping includes mature trees and shrubs.

New owners might wish to return the ground floor layout to its original configuration, although that is purely a matter of taste – the house is bright and feels very spacious with this more modern layout.

They may also consider extending to the side.

This would create a much larger eat-in kitchen and also, in the hands of a talented architect, help deal with one of the house’s few drawbacks: the back return is overlooked on one side by the apartment block next door.

When the owners bought, the detached coach house was part of the property. That is now a separate house with its own entrance gates.