Ready to add your finishing touches

Houses that come on the market in Drumcondra’s Iona area tend not to hang around for very long. For househunters looking for solid and substantial period red bricks in a quiet leafy residential area, within walking distance of the city centre, they tend to offer a whole lot more house for the money than can be found on the southside of the river.

The sale this time last year of 1 Iona Park is a good example. It came on the market for €875,000 in need of top-to-bottom renovation and sold for €955,000. It is now surrounded by builder’s hoardings and extensive renovation work looks to be in progress.

A house new to the market at 33 Lindsay Road won’t need that level of work. It, too, was built by Alexander Strain, who developed the surrounding roads and lined them with fine family-sized redbrick houses filled with attractive period features. With its stripped pine woodwork throughout, it looks as though the semi-detached house, built around 1910, was last renovated in the mid-1990s when that style was very popular, as were the muted greens and beige paint colours. An extension was added to the return at the rear to make room for an eat-in kitchen. Other improvements at the time included updating the bathroom and adding a guest toilet under the stairs.

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The house, with 155sq m, would originally have had three bedrooms, now there are four (all doubles) as the bedroom to the front has been divided in two. There are interconnecting reception rooms and at the rear, the original breakfast room which opens into that kitchen extension. The back garden is around 25m long – including a large sandstone patio area to the side of the return – and there is a side entrance.

Original features include white marble fireplaces in the reception rooms and cast iron fireplaces, some with attractive tiled insets, in the bedrooms.

However, new owners will do some work. A new coat of paint throughout the house would make a huge difference. They will also probably update the kitchen, taking out the 20-year-old units and replacing them with something more modern. With such a potentially attractive garden, putting glazed doors at the rear to improve access from the kitchen would probably make sense. Going up into the attic looks another possibility.

The owner, who is downsizing, has already moved out and the house is being shown unfurnished. But it’s easy to see past the tired paintwork and all that pine.

Local agent Kelly Bradshaw Dalton is selling 33 Lindsay Road, with an asking price of €895,000.