The current owner acquired 16 Princeton in Clonskeagh unexpectedly. He thought it would go for above the price he had in mind when his father went to the auction, and he was right, but his dad got carried away and bought it anyway. It has proved a fortuitous “mistake” – the spacious but secluded family house has been “a happy home”.
The 315sq m (3,390sq ft) house, for sale at €1,495,000 through DNG, is on the Ardilea estate next to University College Dublin, and the fact that it is in an area road named after an American university is no coincidence (the parallel road is called Yale). The estate was inspired by American house-design trends of the 1960s, with each home detached.
Refurbished
The house was 24 years old when the owners moved in and they set about refurbishing it with the help of architect Alfred Jones of Jones and Kelly: rewiring, replumbing, replacing windows (from wood to PVC), reconfiguring rooms and adding en suites, knocking the walls between the livingroom and diningroom, and making one of the windows in this room larger.
Many of the windows and patio doors were already large, and that is the beauty of this house: it is bright with all windows facing on to greenery. The house sits on its own land of about half an acre, with a drive to the front and a large southeast-facing garden to the back.
The owners encouraged natural light by replacing internal doors with etched glass and commissioned stained-glass windows at the front of the house. They also had a glass-and-steel balustrade put in. Another craftsman commissioned was Christopher O’Neill, who made the fireplace.
On the ground floor is the dual-aspect, L-shaped living/din- ingroom. This has proved a great space for entertaining, says the owner, not only because of the large internal space but the way it spills out into the garden.
Beyond this room, also facing the back garden and opening on to a raised patio, is an eat-in kitchen with SieMatic units in amber maple, black granite worktops and a tiled floor. There is a utility area beside this. A TV/family room to the front has windows on three sides and an ash floor.
There is plenty of storage throughout the house, including in hallways and the five bedrooms upstairs, three of which have en suites. The bedrooms at either end of the house are huge. There is also a family bathroom, a WC downstairs and a floored attic. The BER is E1.
“Lots of good times were had here,” says the owner.
