Having already been renovated when the owner bought 26 Sandycove Road in 2019, he had little to do apart from personalising his home; he arranged his modern art on the walls of the interconnected reception rooms, installed his vivid-coloured furniture and figured out the problem of parking as the end-of-terrace four-bed did not come with any.
He solved this by buying land to the rear of the property and creating two car parking spaces, accessible through the garden and exiting on to a lane behind the house. He had lived in the area more than 20 years earlier and was delighted to return. “I love being by the sea,” he says. “My favourite thing to do is put the Dryrobe on, go down to the Forty Foot, have a swim and walk back up to the house.”
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After buying the house for €1.065 million, according to the Property Price Register, the owner added insulation in the attic (the Ber is D1) and set about enjoying it. The house, which is more than 150 years old, has an area of 158sq m (1,700sq ft). “With all the new windows and doors, you have all the benefits of modern life but it’s sympathetic to the older style and the Edwardian elegance, which completely lends itself to colours that you’d struggle to use in other houses,” he says. The floors in the reception rooms and the hall are French oak, dark and beautiful, with matching cast-iron fireplaces.
The owner was happy to leave the kitchen as it was, initially thinking about extending it before deciding against it. The kitchen consists of hand-painted units by the Victorian Kitchen Company. There is no utility room, which might prove a downside to busy families. He enjoyed spending time in the kitchen with the windows thrown open, the south-facing garden alive with birdsong. Sandycove Tennis Club is to the rear of the house and summer evenings are still.
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Up the stairs on the return is a bedroom fitted out as a handsome study, and the family bathroom. Continuing up the stairs are three more bedrooms and a decent bank of storage. The principal bedroom has built-in wardrobes either side of the fireplace and a view from the window out over Killiney Hill. The en suite is stylish, with good sanitary ware.
The front garden is in gravel, with planted hydrangeas that provide vibrant colour during the summer. The back garden has sandstone paving, a built-in bench for entertaining, olive and pear trees and a small but adequate lawn. A shed at the back of the garden is roofed, electrified, has generous shelving, and could, with some insulation, be used as a home office.
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The owner loved living in Sandycove during lockdown and started using an electric bike to get into town, getting to meetings in Fitzwilliam Square within half an hour. It’s also a six-minute walk to the Dart station at Glasthule. “We did a lot of outdoor living – we would light the barbecue, go for a kayak and come back.” He is selling the house to move to the west of the country. Number 26 Sandycove Road is now on the market through DNG Dún Laoghaire, seeking €1.395 million.
