Dublin 7: €775,000Felicity Fox is handling the private treaty sale of comic Deirdre O'Kane's home at 8 Ellesmere Avenue off the North Circular Road. The agent is seeking offers of €775,000 for the three-bedroom terraced house of 130sq m (1,400sq ft). O'Kane is planning a move to London with her husband, writer Stephen Bradley, hence the sale.
Ellesmere is a cul-de-sac near Hanlon's Corner, a landmark close to the Phoenix Park. It is a 20-minute walk from the city centre. The couple bought the house four years ago but O'Kane says most of the refurbishment was done by the previous owners (who left a book behind detailing poet Francis Ledwich's weekly literary soirées at the house around the turn of the last century).
What O'Kane has chosen are colours, finishes and materials that have brought tenderness to the house. First impressions aren't always accurate but the happy feeling one gets on entering only increases as it unfolds. The view from the front door looks through a wide hall to the old stove in the kitchen at the back of the house. "It was one of the first things I loved," says O'Kane. "There's a sense of peace here."
The real coup de théâtre, however, is the interconnecting living and dining rooms. Both are wider, longer and taller than most of this style. Virtually all the decorative elements - stained glass panels in doors, stripped timber floors and the usual cornicing - are immaculate. New timber windows were added some years ago.
The cosy kitchen has the original black and red terracotta tiles and sweet traditional units. Behind it is what O'Kane describes as a "brilliant utility room - almost another kitchen. It could be knocked into the actual kitchen to make it bigger, but I'd never change it."
Outside, the yard runs along the side of the house and to the rear. While by no means large, it is south-west facing so it gets sun in the evening and is big enough to entertain a small group. "If you want a bigger garden the Phoenix Park is five minutes away. I take the child to the zoo twice a week." It is beautifully planted and includes an apple tree. There are two sheds and access to a pedestrian laneway behind the house.
Upstairs there is a bedroom off the half landing, and a bathroom, tiled by O'Kane in smart turquoise mosaic.
The windows at the rear are not overlooked. There are two further bedrooms upstairs. The largest, running the width of the house to the front, is painted a soft pink with the iron chimneypiece painted white, as it is throughout the house.
O'Kane points out that, were she to stay in Dublin, she would convert the large attic to create another bedroom and en suite.
A 24-hour supermarket is around the corner and Stoneybatter is a stroll away.