A refurbished twobedroom Edwardian house on a quiet road in Drumcondra, Dublin 9, is to be auctioned by Sherry FitzGerald, which provides a guide price of £210,000, on September 21st. The guide price is low, given the walk-in condition of the house and its proximity to town. One of the last houses to be sold on this popular road made £175,000 two years ago, and that needed some refurbishment.
Lyndale, at 59 Church Avenue, is a redbrick terraced house, triple-fronted and positioned on a curve in the road. It faces the cutstone walls and entrance gates of St John the Baptist church, where James Gandon is buried. Adjoining the church is the boundary wall of All Hallows College.
Church Avenue runs between Gracepark Road and Drumcondra Road, a short walk from good bus routes and 15 minutes from O'Connell Street by car in rush-hour traffic. Because of its unusual three-cornered shape, and rooms that stretch from front to back, the entire 1,100 sq ft house benefits from morning and evening sunshine. Floors, original doors and sash windows have been stripped by hand and the ground-floor rooms have been opened up to create a good flow of space and light.
Living, diningroom and kitchen all lead out to a south-west facing stone terrace with well-stocked flowerbeds. The front door opens into an angled hallway, from which doors open to all the downstairs rooms. To the right, the diningroom is painted a dramatic raspberry, with polished floorboards and an original marble fireplace with tiled inset. French doors open into the garden.
The sittingroom, breakfast room and kitchen are incorporated in one L-shaped area which also opens to the garden. Yellow walls, polished floors and an oak period fireplace with a copper canopy continue the traditional theme.
The breakfastroom and kitchen are at the garden end.
The kitchen is a compact work area with Tuscan orange walls and red alder units. The built-in washing machine, dishwasher and de Deitrich oven and hob are to be included in the sale.
Upstairs, there are two double bedrooms, an enormous bathroom and a tiny third room currently used as a study.
Both bedrooms have two large windows and original cast-iron fireplaces.
The carpeted bathroom is spacious, with a centrally positioned claw-foot bath and a curved glass-block window gives lots of diffused light. There is also a separate shower cubicle.
The study, which has just enough room for a desk and chair, is wired for telephone and computer connections and the hot-press is accessed from here.
The gardens are easy-care and small, but beautifully planted. A railed front garden has hydrangea, cotoneaster and a purple clematis growing by the front door.
The brick courtyard to the rear, which catches the evening sun, is furnished with railway-sleeper seating areas and flower beds packed with colourful shrubs and climbers.
