Get smart by the Strawberry Beds

Lucan: Showhouses open for the first time this week at Laraghcon, Shannon Homes' smart new development at Lucan village, close to Strawberry Beds.

Forty large three and four-bedroom townhouses clustered around a central courtyard are now for sale through Hooke & MacDonald, priced from €350,000. Ten detached four and five-bedroom houses are also being offered for sale.

This is probably the best new homes scheme to be built in Lucan for some time and upgrading locals have bought strongly. The architecture, by McCrossan O'Rourke Manning, is similar to Shannon Homes' St Gabriel's development in Cabinteely, Dublin 18.

Now on phase three, many of the substantial four and five-bedroom detached houses at Laraghcon are occupied and there is no impression of an untidy construction site. Landscaping is excellent, with front gardens fully planted by the developer. Large communal greens will also be landscaped and 25 acres of parkland adjoining the site will be maintained by the local authority.

Prices are moderate, given the quality of finish and spacious accommodation at Laraghcon. A few townhouses backing onto the park will be the first to go. Three-bedroom houses of 119 sq m (1,280 sq ft) cost from €350,000. These have a bay-windowed front sittingroom with a fireplace with an L-shaped hallway and a huge open-plan kitchen/dining/family room. Kitchen units are limed pear and internal doors are ash. A half-wall separates the working/dining end, with a square-shaped aperture looking through to the sky-lit sitting area. A bank of windows and French doors open to a good-sized fenced back garden. Upstairs (note the chunky solid oak banister) the main bedroom includes an en suite shower room; there is another double, a single bedroom and the family bathroom. Wardrobes are fitted in all bedrooms.

Four-bedroom end houses of 132 sq m (1,420 sq ft) are priced from €395,000. There is a large front sittingroom with fireplace, linking through double doors to a formal diningroom. Double doors with leaded glass panels open to a spacious kitchen/family room with limed units, a sunroom area and doors to the garden. Italian wall tiling is included and there is a utility room under the stairwell.

Two of the bedrooms are doubles, a third could just fit a double bed and there is a fourth single bedroom, all with fitted wardrobes. A good-sized en suite shower room is installed off the main bedroom and the family bathroom has white wall tiling. The back garden is fenced, with a lawn and a flagged terrace.

Three-storey four/five-bedroom townhouses have a large main bedroom suite and home/office under the eaves. Prices start at €460,000 for 172 sq m (1,850 sq ft) of living space. Upstairs, there are one single and two double bedrooms on the first floor, the largest of these en suite.

Spanning the top floor are a spacious main bedroom with an en suite shower room and small vanity area under the eaves. A study or fifth bedroom next door could also be used as a large dressingroom.

Ten four and five-bedroom detached houses are also for sale in this phase. Four-bedroom detached houses of 177 sq m (1,900 sq ft) cost from €620,000 and five-bedroom detached houses of 260 sq m (2,800 sq ft) start at €760,000. Two parking spaces are allocated for four and five-bedroom houses and one for three-bedroom houses. This phase should be ready from the end of this year to early 2005. Viewing is today, Friday and over the weekend.