At first glance Uisce Solais is a house that looks like it has been in situ for generations. The double-fronted dormer house sits low on a one-acre site, hidden from view behind two sets of high electronic gates, one an entrance, the other an exit.
Painted a soft sage green with its sash windows and sills picked out in cream, it has a welcoming porticoed front that opens into a classically square entrance hall. But the house was only built in 2001.
The tiled hall has decorative cornicing, an open fireplace with an Adams-style surround that will really welcome guests in winter and is painted an intense Canton blue.
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The rooms flow around the hall in a clockwise fashion starting with the formal drawing room, at about nine on the clock, which has double doors opening into a dual-aspect room with warm wood flooring that chimes with the putty-coloured walls.
Centred in the room is a white marble fireplace – it matches the one in the hall – that sits between two fine windows and is bookended by a pair of matching sofas.
A set of interconnecting doors lead through to the formal dining room, another dual-aspect room painted a cooler mid-grey colour.
A door opens outside to the westerly side of the house where foundations have been poured for an extension and there is planning to build a granny flat. But in a house already 348sq m (3,750sq ft) in size does one need more living room? The light and aspect in these rooms is wonderful and warm. They feel as if they have been here a lot longer than 14 years.
A door to the right takes you through to the kitchen where the atmosphere is less period and more early noughties.
Shaker-style units have black polished granite countertops. Arched French windows frame two sides of the room. You’re looking out at the rolling lawn, a waterfall feature and pond with an embarrassment of lily pads. It’s a cracking view, private and pastoral with the boughs of a weeping willow washing in the pond thanks to a light summer breeze. You can sit outside on a deck that faces east and gets the morning sun.
But the kitchen is literally hiding much of its potential light under a bushel. Behind a wall hung with units is one of the best-aspected utility rooms this writer has seen. Arched windows, the same as on the two sides of the kitchen, pour westerly light into it, light that crucially does not penetrate the kitchen. A simple reconfigurement that would remove this dividing wall and move the kitchen units to an island would open this room up to light on three sides.
Off the kitchen is a family room. It leads through to a square-shaped uPVC conservatory, a great place to read the weekend papers. As you follow the flow of the house round to the front you pass another formal room, currently used as a study.
Upstairs there are five dormer-style bedrooms. The master is to the front and has a large ensuite with a separate Jacuzzi-style bath and shower.
Throughout the grounds there are huge lumps of basalt rock that lie as if hurled there by giants. Several of them frame the pond and man-made waterfall. This is a very peaceful setting for a home that off-peak is only a 10 minute drive from Blackrock. The property is asking €1.85 million through agents Savills.
