At number 1 Cunningham Road, a short walk from the sparkly Dalkey seashore, Sheemore is a huge bright house in need of a family to move in and fill it with colour, clamour and clobber. With 279sq m (3,003sq ft) on a plot of almost half an acre, there's no shortage of space and when new owners get tired of working or playing in the lovely gardens they can admire the view over the village and across the bay from Ringsend to Howth.
The front garden has a driveway with room for at least two cars, a lawn big enough for football and lots of mature shrubs, as well as a tree that impedes the view somewhat.
Inside, through a glass porch, is a wide, bright hall off which, to the right, is a long lounge with dual aspect. It looks out to sea at the front, and leads to the back garden through glass doors and a kind of lobby. This links through to a second living room, which has the same access to the garden, a door back out to the hall and another through to the square dining room; presumably some great open-plan parties happened in these rooms over the years.
The kitchen, extended at some point, opens into the hall and out to the back garden. It is also connected to the dining room and new owners may explore opening these up to make a wide L-shaped kitchen-dining-family room. For now, the old units have been painted a hazy sky blue and the sink is at the front window so it’s much easier to focus on the sea than on the saucepans.
Outside, past a garage, utility and boiler house at one side and a bin store at the other, the well-stocked garden slopes up southwards towards the quarry, with a two-tier pond, a pergola and lots of hiding places; a flat area at the top would be ideal for a vegetable plot.
Off the hall to the front is a guest toilet with porthole window and a cosy burrow for anyone working from home; it could also work as a fifth bedroom.
A tall window lights the stairs and again it’s easy to be distracted by the view; there is space for a reading nook on the landing. A big bathroom serves three bedrooms; one is a decent single at the front, and two are large doubles at the back, with plenty of space to add an en suite. At the end is a ballroom-sized bedroom with windows at each end; off this is a dressing space leading to the en suite.
The house needs redecoration – it could even be further extended over the kitchen, subject to planning – and the BER of E1 will need to be addressed. None of this detracts from the light inside and the green and the blue views outside, the proximity to Dalkey village and its Dart station, and the huge choice of nearby schools and sports facilities. Sheemore is for sale through Vincent Finnegan, seeking €1.75 million.
