A solid mid-1960s suburban house in a cul-de-sac near the village of Dalkey has been updated since Róisín and Gerald Cunningham bought it 25 years ago. “We put in maple floors, a new kitchen and a sun lounge,” she says, adding that there’s still potential for new owners to revamp the house again.
Changes could include enclosing the 1960s-style balcony at the front of the house, or build a bedroom on it, as some neighbours have done. New owners might also link the sunroom and breakfastroom at the rear of the house which now face each other across a decked passage opening into the back garden.
The 165sq m (1,776sq ft) four-bed semi is now for sale through DNG for €1.25 million. Many locals may already know the house: artist Róisín has been giving art classes in the sunroom for the past 10 years and she currently teaches art online.
The front porch opens to a timber-floored entrance hall. On the right is a study/family room, on the left, a long open-plan living-dining room opening through double doors to the sunroom at the rear of the house. This has a vaulted timber ceiling and door to the rear garden.
The kitchen-breakfast room is a large L-shaped space with a terracotta-tiled floor and a Stanley range set into a tiled chimneybreast. A glazed floor-to-ceiling window in the breakfast room – looking across to the sunroom – opens to the garden.
Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a family bathroom, and steep stairs leading to the attic with Velux windows, which is used as a bedroom. The long main bedroom runs from the front to the back of the house, and has fitted wardrobes and a shower en suite. Róisín thinks new owners might want to divide the large main bedroom back into two bedrooms per its original layout. One of the other two bedrooms opens to the balcony.
Outside, there’s room for several cars to park in the gravelled front garden. There’s a garden shed in the back garden, where a good-sized deck steps down to lawn. Barnhill Grove is a short walk to Dalkey village off Barnhill Road.