Houses in Ardilea estate don’t come up for sale very often. Built in the 1960s and inspired by housing in the US, in Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, the development, of mostly A-line-roofed houses, was Clonskeagh’s first.
The owner of 2 Heidelberg, Rory Cafolla, grew up on the estate and moved into number two, then a five-bed detached house, in 1987, three years after he got married. Together with his wife, Fíona, he ran Nostromo, a restaurant and function room on Lower Leeson Street on the site of Suzy Street, a boîte of some repute in the 1980s and 1990s. The premises closed last year.
The house has a small hall that opens into a large, open-plan living-cum-diningroom. The dual aspect room has plaster niches framing an 1860s marble fireplace that came from a house in Glenageary.
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An arch leads to the Amtico-floored diningroom. Down the hall is a private study and a smaller sittingroom with a raised Le Droff open fireplace overlooking the back garden. The large L-shaped kitchen is floored with unhoned Crema Marfil and has acres of counter space (a tip Cafolla picked up from his catering days) and a Rangemaster Toledo double oven and five-ring gas hob. French doors open out to a patio area.
Upstairs are four roomy double bedrooms. The master has a large pale pink en suite in what was once a fifth bedroom.
A staircase leads to the attic room, which provides 37sq m (400sq ft) of additional space.
The house is set on a mature private plot, and has a cobblelock front with a carport. Theback garden faces north but its generous size means it gets evening sun, especially a raised deck area to the rear.
The 287sq m (3,000sq ft) house is asking €1.095 million through agents Hunters. Last November, number 4 Princeton, a similar-sized four-bedroom detached house nearby, was asking €995,000; it sold for €900,000 in February. Number 8 Ardilea Wood, a five-bed built in 2000 in a gated development, came to the market in March asking €1.25 million; it is still for sale with a reduced asking price of €1.15 million.
