Large period houses have immense appeal, but often have complicated plumbing systems and hidden problems. The owners of 31 Sydney Parade Avenue, a Victorian semi-detached house in Dublin 4, have re-plumbed, re-wired and completely restored the 3,150 sq ft five-bedroom house since they moved here 15 years ago.
Lisney is expecting the early Victorian redbrick house to fetch in excess of £1.3 million (€1.65 million) at auction on 26th April next. Number 31 is a two-storey over garden house opposite the junction with Park Avenue, a few yards from Sydney Parade DART station, and with Sandymount Strand at the end of the road.
By most standards, this is a substantial family house with plenty of room for entertaining. The restoration work was carried out with care to preserve the fine period features, at the same time creating space for modern family living. A flight of granite steps leads to the front door, while the garden level is as bright as any ground floor level.
The hub of the house is this flexible lower area - mostly open-plan, but with sliding doors separating off the fitted study section if necessary. A big country-style kitchen has been connected with a family sittingroom and both have studded rubber floors polished to a high sheen.
White kitchen units sport solid ash worktops. There are also separate laundry and utility areas, a shower room and the study, where sliding timber doors open to the garden.
On the return there is a small bedroom currently in use as an extra study. The main reception rooms and front hallway are spacious, with stripped pine floors in both inner and outer hall and magnificent ceiling plasterwork. Ceilings in the drawing and diningroom are equally fine and there are original marble fireplaces. Shuttered sash windows make the drawingroom especially bright.
The family bathroom on the first floor return is an indulgent room, painted deep green, with a period marble fireplace and polished pine floor. Of the four bedrooms on the first floor, three are good-sized doubles and there is one generous single room. The main bedroom and a second room have fine marble fireplaces. A single bedroom with polished wood floor was probably a maid's room in days gone by.
The house is set well back from the road behind a laurel hedge supported by a low brick wall. The gravel driveway would accommodate several cars. A covered side passageway leads to the large walled back garden. This faces south-west and has a lawn with crowded herbaceous borders, while there are also rowan, silver birch and lilac trees. Two wood pigeons have taken up residence at the bottom of the garden.
