€2.5 MILLION:This modern trophy home, built during the boom, comes with geothermal heating and a rainwater harvester, writes EDEL MORGAN
WHEN THE plans for Number 1 Richview Park in Dartry in Dublin 6 were first conceived, the property boom was in full swing, and people were prepared to pay a big premium to live in D6. The thinking was that it would be a one-off house with a lavish spec that would appeal to someone looking for a trophy home.
More than five years later, what has been built, despite more straitened times and a very different property market, is exactly what was originally planned – a no-expense- spared, three-storey-over-basement house that is a bit of an anomaly in this market.
From the front, it’s massive but not unattractive, with a part-red brick, part-cedar-clad exterior. Everything is super-sized including the pair of solid front doors , the three-storey expanse of glass in the atrium at the entrance hall, and a pair of red brick chimneys. The positioning of the house at the end of the road saves it from looking too incongruous beside the modest red- brick semis on the road, and it is partially hidden behind a high wall and gate.
The asking price for the six-bed, 5,800sq ft house, which backs onto the gardens of houses on Temple Road, is €2.5 million through Owen Reilly. It stands on the plot of a more modest house that Kensington Building Services bought and demolished some years ago.
What the builder and the estate agent might be praying for is a dot.commillionaire who is looking for something modern and suitably exclusive. According to the agent, the house has an A energy rating. It has a geothermal heating system, solar panels, and a mechanical ventilation system. As well as being smart-wired, it has a rainwater harvesting storage system that holds enough for six weeks supply in the event of a drought. There's also an outdoor irrigation system.
When you walk into the double- height entrance hall past a slightly redundant-looking stone fireplace, there are a number of impressive rooms.
The kitchen is as high-tech as you’d expect with attractive, contemporary, dark wood units and high-end appliances and a gleaming marble floor. There’s also a utility room with a sink and plenty of storage. Off the kitchen there’s a vast family room that opens out onto a rear courtyard garden that has a central, keyhole-shaped deck flanked on either side by patio areas. A railed deck area on one side of the garden looks a bit like the outdoor smoking area of a pub. An impressive looking chrome-and- glass staircase leads from the garden down to the basement.
There is another very large reception room at ground-floor level, with a walnut floor and a stone fireplace. An area behind the chimney breast wall could be used as a den or study.
The basement has another large, walnut-floored living room with doors out to small basement patios on two sides. The view of the grey brick of the outer basement walls through the floor-to-ceiling windows and doors should be oppressive but somehow isn’t.
There’s also a basement kitchen, and a good-sized, luxurious, brown- flecked marble bathroom plus another smallish room that could be used for a variety of things.
On the first- and second-floor landings there are glass balustrades overlooking the hall. The main bedroom has a stone fireplace, a walk-in dark wood dressing room and a bathroom that’s luxurious, with brown-flecked marble, a bath, a walk-in-shower, two bowl sinks perched on a plinth and a half-frosted-glass, full-length window. Sliding doors open from the bedroom to a large balcony overlooking the back garden.
There are three further bedrooms and a main bathroom with cream tiling that looks positively plain in comparison to the other bathrooms.
At the top level, there’s a room with velux windows and a fireplace that could be a study, two storage rooms, two bedrooms and yet another luxurious bathroom. Four of the six bedrooms are en suite.
1 Richview Park, Dartry, Dublin 6W
Description: Three-storey-over- basement house with six bedrooms
Agent: Owen Reilly
