Traditonal values in Sandymount

It has been at least five years since a house on Gilford Park or Gilford Road made over €1 million so the sale of 40 Gilford Park in Sandymount, a semi-detached four-bedroom house with an asking price of €1.25 million, from Sherry FitzGerald will test prices in this popular residential area.

In any case, houses don’t change hands too often on these roads where people tend to put down roots. The owners of number 40 are moving after 30 years, downsizing from the 151sq m (1,625sq ft) house to something smaller, hopefully in the area.

When they bought it, the brick and pebble-dash house was rental; they first refurbished it then, making it into a comfortable family home. In 2007 they did major work, adding a bright, modern kitchen extension that runs the width of the house at the rear and updating the utility room which is where the garage would have originally been.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 4

Built in the 1930s, the house has features of that time, including fine stained glass in the front door and reinstated into the replacement windows, as well as panelled interior doors. Its traditional layout at hall level has been changed – there’s that utility room to the front. The owners kept the timber garage doors to the front and what was once a small breakfast room on the way out to the rear kitchen is now a home office.

The interconnecting reception rooms open directly into the rear extension, a bright modern space with a very smart, well thought-out custom-built kitchen on one side and a dining area on the other. Glazed double doors open out on the back garden which was landscaped when the extension was built to include a paved patio and a lawned area. There is a also a side entrance.

Upstairs, off the good-sized hall, there are two double bedrooms and two singles and, as was the style when the house was built, the toilet and bathroom are separate. There is off-street parking at the front for one car.