Many houses grow along with their owners. For the residents of 2 Botanic Park it began in 2005 after they purchased the semi-detached four-bedroom house. “At the time we had just got married and had a limited budget, so we did a light refurbishment and a bit of updating,” they say.
In 2007, the couple replaced what was an old glass conservatory to the rear and refurbished downstairs with the addition of travertine flooring, which now runs throughout the ground floor – with the exception of a formal livingroom off the hall, which is floored in solid wood.
In 2018 and 2019 a larger undertaking saw a new extension to the front, whereby an old bay window was removed and replaced with a glass-box extension to a design by architect Aengus Meade, and a new contemporary kitchen by Eco Kitchens was installed. The property also has planning permission – granted this year – for a new storey over the existing rear extension, should new owners want more space; but at 195sq m (2,099sq ft) it is already a generous size for a semi-detached house.
Another large outlay “to the tune of €30,000” was in 2020, when landscaping company KHS was engaged to revamp the rear garden. “To be honest, neither of us is green-fingered, so the brief was we wanted a modern garden that required very little maintenance,” says the owner. Now completed and with almost two years of growth, it is one of the highlights of the home, and has a water feature, Acer palmatum and Dicksonia tree ferns along with lots of shrubs that add seasonal colour.
Number 2 is located in a quiet cul-de-sac opposite the popular Griffith Park and it's just a short stroll to the National Botanic Gardens, which make for very pleasant walks at any time of year. Also in the vicinity are Scoil Chaitríona, Scoil Mobhi and Corpus Christi schools in addition to Dublin City University and St Patrick's College.
Now with four children, the owners are "in need of a bigger boat" for their family and have placed their home, which has a much-improved Ber of C2, on the market through DNG seeking €775,000.
