When architect Thomas O’Connor bought 44 Reuben Street, a Victorian redbrick in Rialto, in 2003 it was in need of a lot of love.
The original windows had to be repaired, and the associate in Shaffrey Architects, a Grade 1 conservation practice, could hardly open the front door because the original lime plaster had fallen off the walls and was blocking the aluminium framed entrance.
He rewired and replumbed it, repaired the original sash windows, re-cording and reweighting them, and measured the last remaining original door on the street for size and had a joiner make one in its likeness.
That original has disappeared and now, with its replica front door, No 44 is the only property on the street to look like it would have when it was constructed in 1899.
However, inside it has been modernised. The midterrace redbrick has a small west-facing garden and opens into a hall of a good ceiling height.
The front room, which has a tiled fireplace, has been turned into a bedroom, with the kitchen installed in the room to its rear. A small courtyard is big enough to set up a barbecue station.
The long return has also been glazed bringing natural light in. This throughway has been turned into a workstation with storage built in under the stairs.
To the rear of the house he added about 20sq m of sitting room space that is dual-aspect; it has glass doors opening out to the east-facing back garden and another glazed door leading back to the barbecue terrace.
The garden is overgrown in a gorgeous wild way with lots of amber and russet tones giving the room an autumnal vista.
Upstairs are two double bedrooms and a family bathroom on the return.
The next owner might like to reconfigure the downstairs space by moving the kitchen to the rear, where you might better enjoy the morning light and perhaps open up the two rooms to become one bigger living room where you could enjoy the open fire, but such a move will reduce the accommodation from three to two bedrooms.
The house needs minor refreshing. The floorboards need repolishing, some of the carpets could be replaced and the external walls could also be brightened with paint.
The property, which measures 95sq m (1,022sq ft), and a BER rating of D1 is asking €425,000 through agent DNG.
No 29, which sold last month for €388,000, according to the property price register, came to market as a two-bedroom property with a D1 BER asking €395,000. No 26 sold last year for €350,000, according to the register.
Reuben Street is minutes from Cork Street and has good bus connectivity and the Luas red line Fatima stop at one end.
