In September 2008, Gurteen, a 1930s detached house on Dalkey Avenue, came to market asking €3.5 million but the property market had already turned around. The house failed to sell.
The owner rented it and now, six years later, the property is back on the market at €1.95million, a price drop of 35 per cent, through agents SherryFitzGerald.
The double-fronted house was bought by its current owner in 2004, when he set about improving the structure under the watchful eye of architect Jim Horan, director at Design Strategies and a retired professor of architecture at the Dublin School of Architecture, at DIT Bolton Street.
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He added a copper-clad porch and cast-iron columns to the front, and raised most of the ceiling heights, bringing additional light into the rooms by adding windows that sit flush with the ceiling. He also extended the rear, cladding that addition in copper also.
The kitchen has a great breakfast area, SieMatic built-in units, unhoned granite countertops and a gas-fired cream Aga. From the breakfast room, double doors lead to a suntrap deck and bridge over a water feature that leads round to the front of the house. A second set of doors lead to the rear where there is a tiered granite patio with planting that includes young olive trees and that most Celtic Tiger of outdoor must-haves – a hot tub.
The formal drawingroom has two distinct areas: a sittingroom with feature stained glass wall panels to the front and a more casual family room to the rear with a stone-clad raised fireplace, fuel-burning stove and doors leading directly out to the garden. There is another sittingroom to the front on the other side of the hall, preferred by the children.
The house is spacious, at 215sq m (2,315sq ft) and it is set on approximately one third of an acre with a raised lawn to the front offering sea views.
Upstairs there are four good-sized bedrooms. You can see the sea from one of the master bedroom’s dual-aspect windows. It has a bright and roomy en suite shower room with double sinks.
The house is very well finished throughout and has other boom-era add-ons including under-floor heating throughout and a central vacuum system.
A separate home office or studio is currently used by the children as a playroom. There is a car port and off-street parking for several cars.
