Rialto Cottages is a series of pretty single-storey artisan homes that are part of the original fabric of the area and are situated within a minute’s walk of the red line Luas Rialto stop.
Set in three crescents, each looks onto a small communal green. The one housing number 47, a one-bed, mid-terrace property, looks out on a Marian shrine housed in a glass box.
When the current owners, former chef turned food entrepreneur Eamon Leahy and his partner bought the house in 2014, paying €60,000 (not the full market value, according to the property price register), it measured 47sq m (505 sq ft).
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With the help of an architect they reconfigured the property, adding 7sq m to its size, bringing it to 54sq m (581sq ft). Leahy worked as head chef at Brother Hubbard for several years and prior to that at Michelin-starred L’Écrivain before setting up Piply, a healthy food delivery service. He installed a very smart, minimalist chef’s kitchen that opens out to a very small north-facing yard.
Pared-back
Aside from the dual fuel five-burner Rangemaster professional, the space is low on storage and shows just how pared-back this engine room can be. It has a Belfast-style sink and laminate worktops with two contrasting colours used on the presses: a slate grey on the below-counter units and a robin’s egg blue on those under the stairs. These cleverly conceal a dishwasher and washing machine.
What the room doesn’t have is space for Leahy’s vast collection of cookbooks, which stretches to over 100 titles. It is one of the reasons the couple is trading up.
The pair invested in triple-glazed windows and optimised the hidden additional space in the roof by creating a very smart attic room, accessed via a steep set of plywood stairs connected to the exterior wall.
Patio doors
The couple use this upstairs space as a lounge and added patio doors to bring light in and to access a small but perfectly formed roof terrace that, while north-facing, gets morning and evening light.
The property is seeking €300,000 and the couple have opted to sell it themselves in a bid to avoid estate agent fees.
Within the same group of cottages and on the same side of the street, number 54, another one-bed house, this one end-of-terrace, and 38sq m (409sq ft) in size, is also for sale. It is seeking €220,000 through agent SherryFitzGerald, who is also selling number 12 – a far larger property of 68sq m (731sq ft) with nine additional metres of attic room space – seeking €325,000.
In 2018 six of these properties sold, with prices on the property price register ranging from €120,000 to €316,000.
