A little older and with more character than you might think from its conventional exterior, this is a house that has seen a lot of life, and living. It was built just before the war, in 1937, and vendors John and André Sherlock are only its second owners. When they purchased in 1993, they embarked on a refurbishment, brought in architect Paul Joyce and spent a long winter living upstairs with their three toddlers while the house was transformed around them.
“It was in two flats,” John says, “so we started at the gate, gutting and refurbishing.”
It was worth the pain. It is in excellent condition, and the years since have bestowed a sturdy charm on what is an enduring family home. The bespoke kitchen/ breakfast room, with its handmade wooden cabinets, pitch pine ceiling, Velux windows, exposed brick walls and gas-fired Aga, is filled with light from all sides and has great views of the 110ft long rear garden.
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It’s a garden worth looking at too, even at winter’s end, with a magnificent magnolia tree coming into bloom, high evergreens giving privacy and hebe, holly and heather all plumping up for spring activity.
The sitting/diningroom is a long, open-plan space filled with light courtesy of a bow window to the front and French windows onto the rear garden. The graceful statement made by a pair of salvaged marble fireplaces is picked up nicely by a curve between picture rail and ceiling.
On this ground floor too there is a family/TV room and, where the garage used to be, a den/playroom. The garage’s function has been replaced by parking for up to five cars at the front.
Upstairs there are five adequate bedrooms and a single bathroom. One bedroom, together with a toilet and the bathroom, is off a side landing, while the other four – two to the front and two to the rear – are off the top, main landing. The floor overhead is occupied by an attic which, with a couple of Velux windows giving views and light, could become a studio or sixth bedroom.
Sherry FitzGerald is selling 153 Fortfield Road – a good- sized 242sq m (2,600sq ft) – for €1.2m.
The Sherlocks say that houses on this stretch of the road rarely, if ever, come on the market.
