Dartry three-bed with bespoke back-garden office for €675,000

In an ideal location beside Palmerston Park, equidistant to the Luas at Cowper and Milltown, the quiet leafy setting of Temple Square is one of Dartry’s most exclusive and secluded residential estates.

Number 10 has been in the same family since the development was first constructed: “My mum was pregnant with me when my family bought the place in 1987, and all of [the children in the family] stayed here for college, but I suppose being the youngest I never left,” says the current owner, who first moved in to the 87 sq m (936 sq ft) house in 2006 and purchased it from family in 2020.

It appears on the Property Price Register in 2020 for a sum of €300,000, a price that reflects an intra-family transfer.

The owner did the property up in stages. The kitchen and ground floor were tackled in 2018, while bathrooms were completed in 2015.

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Now in turnkey condition, its simple all-white palette allows contemporary art and furniture to shine through.

On the ground floor, a livingroom with a stove set into a lovely hearth lies inside the front door, and this in turn opens into the living/dining area to the back. Upstairs are three bedrooms, and the principal, which is en suite, lies adjacent to a dusky-pink family loo.

During the winter of the first lockdown, the owner says, he needed a project, and it was decided a home office in the back garden was the trick. Brother-in-law and architect Alan Hilliard helped with design ideas as the third bedroom, which become a makeshift office, was needed for visiting family members.

Everything had to be carried through the house by hand as there is no rear or side access. Family and friends were there to help once Covid-19 restrictions permitted, and they carried through all the supplies, helped lay sandstone paving and dug out drainage.

All timber cladding came from Ideal Woodcrafts in Co Waterford, where the owner is originally from, and where he and his young family are now returning to be closer to family.

Ideal Woodcrafts, run by a small group of Amish Mennonite families in Dunmore East, began in a small garage, and has since grown into a substantial business — the company moved to a larger workshop in 2007 to keep up with demand. “The community are known locally for the amazing furniture they produce, and also for the standard of wood they import. It’s so strong it has a 20-year guarantee,” says the owner.

The home office, clad in yellow American pine which will mellow over time, took almost three months to construct. It has parquet flooring and a covered space to the side to give shelter for bicycles, a barbecue and a pizza oven that the family use year round.

In turnkey condition, the property which has a Ber of D1, is now on the market through DNG, seeking €675,000.