Residential

Substance over size: Two-storey redbrick off North Circular Road for €470,000

Three-bed 1930s terrace house lovingly pulled apart and put back together again

Rose Doyle
Wed Feb 17 2016 - 12:00

Owners Jenny and David decided against knocking down a wall to open up the reception rooms in number 57 Ellesmere Avenue. It’s a decision that has added greatly to the house’s intimate comforts and kept the intentions of the original layout intact. Otherwise, over the five years they’ve lived there, they’ve “pulled the house apart” – and done a tasty job of putting it back together.

They are moving to answer the call of the countryside, and a yen for a bigger garden. A small rear patio and raised beds to the side of the kitchen just aren’t enough any longer.

Ellesmere Avenue, a walk through Stoneybatter to the city centre and just down the road from Phoenix Park, was built in the 1930s. Number 57 has its original floors in the hall and front drawingroom, original internal doors, cornicing and centre roses, and a fine marble fireplace in the drawingroom. The floor space, a good 129sq m (1,389sq ft), is divided between three bedrooms, a bathroom and two reception rooms. Agent SherryFitzgerald is asking €470,000 for the private treaty sale.

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The colours are effective and warming, especially in the kitchen, where deep maroon fittings make a statement. Two windows give plenty of light to this rear kitchen/ breakfastroom space, where the kitchen worktops are of hardwood and where, from the dining/breakfast area, a door leads to the patio.

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The reception rooms are squarish and high-ceilinged. The comfortable rear sittingroom overlooks the flower beds and has a stove set into an alcove in the brick chimneybreast.

A front livingroom, painted a dark khaki, has an original, marble-surround fireplace and dramatically dark polished floorboards.

The dado rail in the hallway and along the stairs is new, as is the large family bathroom on the return. Its polished porcelain floor is a mottled grey and there is a very large shower and separate bath. There is a bedroom on the return and two more, including the main, modern-style bedroom, off the main landing.