Annaville Park is a quiet cul de sac secreted off the Dundrum village end of Dundrum Road. The owner of number 22 bought the property in 2005 when it measured about 106sq m (1,150sq ft) and remodelled it in 2009, during the dark days of the recession when labour was readily available.
“The six-month job took 4½ months to complete and at one point there were 27 contractors on site,” he says.
The fact that his sister-in-law, Aoife Kelly, is an architect and that her father is a retired structural engineer also helped push the project forward.
The bay-windowed 1930s residence is now double-fronted with a second bay creating a symmetrical exterior that opens into a smart hall with black and white tiles laid out in a checkerboard pattern and a soft, sage green runner on the stairs.
The sittingroom is to the front where timber floors have patinated to a gorgeously warm honey shade. The room has a corner fireplace and added pocket sliding interconnecting doors to the diningroom to the rear.
What was the garage to the right of the hall is now the kids’ playroom. The conversion gave Kelly scope to install a really good-sized guest toilet under the stairs.
She added a two-storey extension to the rear that spans the width of the plot – about 29m (95ft) wide. The kitchen, by Moate-based Joe McHugh, has Corian countertops and the island includes a clever open drawer set under its counter where you can throw keys, hats, scarves and other stuff that clutters up the worktop.
This room has limestone flooring that has also been carried out to the exterior patio creating a lovely sense of balance between the inside and out.
In lieu of a wall of glass to the rear, there are full-height aluminium sliding doors on the living area side as well as a small corner window, creating a natural place for the kitchen table, and a back door opening directly from the kitchen.
The garden is gorgeous. While northeast facing, at 13.7m (45ft) long it is big enough to get sun all day and has a strawberry tree at its centre. Set out in a raised lawn, two mature trees – a maple and an apple – are used by the owners’ young boys as a set of “natural” goalposts for football.
The extension allowed the family to add two bedrooms to the first floor, a double to the front and a single to the rear, in addition to the house’s original two fine doubles. There is a large and light-filled family bathroom.
In the main bedroom, set to the rear, the original bathroom has been converted into a bright, windowed shower en suite. There is also an attic room flooded in light thanks to three large-format Velux windows.
The property, which now measures 175sq m (1,880sq ft) ex attic space, and with a C1 Ber rating, is seeking €850,000 through agent Lisney.
Number 6 sold in June last year for €720,000 while number 2 sold in July 2017 for €675,500, according to the property price register.
