Extended family home for €1.1m

Carysfort Park, off Carysfort Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin, was the landmark development of Castlethorn Construction in the early 1990s – an upmarket development of detached and semi-detached homes designed by O'Mahony Pike.

The current owners of number 43, John and Jackie Ingram, purchased their home off-plan in 1993, and with the help of Jackie's sister Angela Brady, the architect and past president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), amended the design for a better layout of their house.

In 2000, under the guidance of local architect Paul O’Loughlin, the house was completely overhauled. The existing garage was demolished to accommodate an extra bedroom, television room and living area to the rear, which saw the footprint increase from 121sq m (1,304sq ft) to 194sq m (2088sq ft).

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The house now boasts five bedrooms, two reception rooms, and an open plan kitchen-cum-living-cum-dining area and a large utility. The heart of the Ingrams’ home is the kitchen/living area, which Jackie describes as seasonably interchangeable. “In winter we swap the sofas and the dining table around to take advantage of the stove, and change them back in summer to take advantage of the garden.”

The Shaker-style maple kitchen echoes the flooring throughout the house and features green slate counter tops and a large Smeg hob.

To the rear of the kitchen, in what would have been a tiny under the stairs bathroom, is now a large utility with lots of storage leading on to a shower room.

Upstairs there are five bedrooms, with two en suite masters, a further double and two single bedrooms.

The garden “has been many things over the course of the years”, says Jackie, but now is completely maintenance free, with split level beds, and houses a pine log cabin which Jackie uses as an office “and sometimes as a television room”.

The Ingrams are downsizing, as the nest has been vacated, and have placed their home on the market through estate agent Savills with an asking price of €1.1 million.