You can get more space for your money in the country but there is a catch, says Edel Morgan
A month ago I wrote how my husband reminds me every time I curse the size of our house - as I'm skidding across the floor on miscellaneous toy - that "families of 12 were reared in these houses" and smaller. I finally resolved to quit complaining, learn to appreciate our modest space and implement a range of clever storage solutions. That was until last week.
I finally got to live the dream - albeit for a week - when we rented a house in Carlingford, Co Louth, that was so vast, you would need to pack a flask and sandwiches for the expedition from the sittingroom to the kitchen.
Apart from the enormous reception areas, there was a corridor with rooms for storage, rooms for laundry, and rooms for the sake of having rooms. The designer kitchen incorporated enough cupboard space for the Von Trapps and their extended family. A glass-fronted press the size of a wardrobe was devoted to plates and cups and there was an intriguing array of carousels, pull-out and pop-up drawers and a food preparation island that was more like a food preparation continent.
"Yippee - Daddy's house" was my toddler's initial reaction as he tore around the rooms before trying to launch himself off each of the three huge leather corner sofas in the sittingroom. For once there was no fear of him being "cooped up" indoors if the weather turned nasty.
It got me thinking that, for the price of a three-bed identikit home in a large estate in Dublin, we could conceivably be rattling around elsewhere in an architect-designed house with fancy double height ceilings and/or a mezzanine on up to an acre of land. Of course with that thought comes other cautionary ones, like the environmental toll of one-off houses in the countryside, the carbon emitted into the atmosphere when driving back and forth to Dublin, and the wisdom (or not) of trying to sell up in the current market. And the one that really keeps me awake at night - the cost of trying to heat this theoretical house with the mezzanine and high ceilings.
For €530,000 - the same asking price as a two-bed terraced house at Stella Gardens in Irishtown or a three-bed semi on Woodbine Drive in Raheny, Dublin - you can get an imposing 207sq m (2,234sq ft) period-style house in Ballynagool in Adare, Co Limerick on 0.6 of an acre with four bedrooms (one with walk-in wardrobes, two with power shower en suites), four suitably vast reception rooms, a high frills kitchen, utility, sweeping gravelled driveway, planning permission for detached garage, not to mention "beautiful views of the surrounding countryside", according to the agent O'Connor Murphy Gubbins.
In Clooneen, Dromore West, Co Sligo a stone front property with only three beds but 263sq m (2,836sq ft) of living space on 1.2 acres with landscaped gardens is priced €475,000. A pretty five-bed stone house beside Cleggan beach in Co Galway has high vaulted ceilings, a gallery, an office and 236sq m (2,540sq ft) for €585,000.
For €280,000, the price of a one-bed flat in Rialto Court, Dublin 8, you can buy a four-bedroom house with an adjoining self-contained three-bedroom apartment in Woodlawn, Stranorlar, Co Donegal, while an eight-bedroom three-storey period house on Tirconnaill Street in Donegal town is €380,000 through Anderson Auctioneers and estate agents.
For those with a bit more to spend - say €1.45 million, the asking price of a four-bed house on Carlisle Avenue in Donnybrook - you can trade up to Highlake House in Ballinaheglish, Co Roscommon, a former Franciscan monastery accessed via a long avenue on an elevated site of 23.7 acres. The catch when you buy the rambling abode outside Dublin is that, while it might be great having all those extra rooms to live in, someone ultimately has to clean them.
