The owner of 30 Ulverton Road, a redbrick terraced house in Dalkey, Co Dublin, embarked on a major renovation after acquiring it in an intrafamily sale eight years ago.
It had been an investment property for about 40 years and was laid out in three flats: the owner hired Dalkey architect Johnny Bennett of Extend Architects to design the revamp and now it is a home that combines original period details – elaborate plasterwork, large fireplaces, high ceilings – with modern comforts. It has been well insulated and has a B1 Ber, quite an achievement in a house built around 1860.
The Property Price Register shows the house was bought for €715,000 in 2017, indicating that that was not the market price, which would likely have been about €1.5 million-€1.7 million thinks the owner; he spent about €750,000 on the refurb. Number 30 Ulverton Road, a 250 sq m (2,700 sq ft) two-storey, over garden level, three/four-bedroom terraced redbrick in walk-in condition, is now for sale for €2.85 million through Daphne Kaye.
The owner mainly uses the garden and ground floor levels of the house, which they’ve decided is too big for them. There is a formal drawingroom and a bedroom on the ground floor, but the heart of the house is the smart open-plan space at garden level which includes a livingroom, diningroom and kitchen.
The main front door is up wide granite steps but the couple mostly use the garden-level entrance, which is a few steps down on the left of the front steps, beside a small granite patio sheltered by a small hedge. The door here opens into a hall that serves as a boot room, with a bench under a coat rack. It is next to a small downstairs toilet and an understairs store room.
A door from here opens into the open-plan livingroom/diningroom/kitchen, which runs from the front to the back of the house. It has a wide plank oak floor and is smartly fitted out: all the cabinetry in the house is by Newcastle Design. There is a wood-burning stove in a marble fireplace in the livingroom at the front, a dining area, then the large kitchen/breakfastroom. A 175m-wide fitted bookcase/display unit lines one wall facing the kitchen island and kitchen units on the opposite side of the room.
The long pale Corian-topped island has seating at one end and incorporates a Belfast sink, dishwasher, electric oven and a microwave. A white four-door Aga with a gas hob is inset into the counter with a large mirrored splashback. It is a bright space with a large arched skylight over the kitchen and a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows/doors spanning the width of the house at the back, opening into the back garden. There is a good-sized walk-in pantry off the kitchen and a utility room off the diningroom area.
A timber staircase leads up to the ground floor. The front hall at this level has rich decorative cornicing and walls panelled to dado level. Like most of the house, it is decorated in various shades of light and dark grey. A large bay window in the drawingroom looks over Ulverton, the last stretch of the main Dún Laoghaire-Dalkey road: like all the windows in the house, it is new and double-glazed, and has a large window seat that conceals storage underneath. A log-effect gas fireplace has a marble mantelpiece; there is rich cornice work in the ceiling and a large centre rose. Daphne Kaye points out some discreetly placed, barely noticeable insulation panels on the inside of the front wall. (The front and back walls of the terraced house have been insulated, and the back wall has been “wrapped”.)
The room behind the drawingroom would probably have been a diningroom originally: now it’s a good-sized double bedroom with a timber fireplace with cast-iron inset and a small but smart en suite shower room with attractive grey tiles and underfloor heating. A room fitted out as a study at the back of the ground floor could be another bedroom.
Upstairs, there is a modest-sized double bedroom on the first floor return with an en suite shower room. A large window over the return with coloured panels sheds light on the stairs and top landing leading to the main bedroom. This is a grand room that spans the width of the house overlooking Ulverton Road: it has elaborate ceiling plasterwork, two large sash windows and a period fireplace. It opens into a good-sized walk-in dressingroom with wardrobes, a full-length mirror and racks containing not just shoes but wine bottles as well. A smart en suite has a shower and an oval bath.
There is a good-sized granite patio at the back of the house, with steps leading up to a neat stone-walled garden: a lawn is bordered by a granite path with herbaceous borders, a pergola and a small gazebo with seats for two. A garage at the bottom of the garden has a floored attic, and an up and over electronic door opening on to a rear lane that runs from Carysfort Road behind the Ulverton Road terrace. There is also a separate pedestrian entrance from the garden into the lane. There is room to park four cars in the wide gravelled front garden behind electronic gates.
