The Birches – a cul-de-sac off Torquay Road in Foxrock – was built in the 1980s when large sites were sold with the stipulation that buyers build large executive-style houses.
The owners of Rosebrook, who bought a site near the entrance to the road, did just that. For their detached two-storey redbrick house they went for a Tudor style – a design that is not unusual in Foxrock, and their five-bedroom house of 277sq m (2,982 sq ft) was ideal for their large family. Now the owner is downsizing and Rosebrook is for sale through Lisney for €1.695 million.
The front door is to the side and opens into a double-height entrance hall. Off this are three reception rooms, a study and a breakfast room that leads into the kitchen. Beyond that is a rear porch and utility room.
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Upstairs there are five bedrooms, one with a large en suite, and a bathroom. Like the kitchen downstairs, the bathroom was updated 14 years ago but otherwise the interiors are now dated.
While the house is a comfortable family home, new owners will do a great deal of decorative work to bring it up to date, certainly inside but possibly outside too if they are to do away with the Tudor-inspired timber beams. But that’s not unusual when a house sells in this cul-de-sac given that some of the houses are now only changing hands for the first time. The first floor layout in Rosebrook works but the ground floor, particularly the positioning of the bulky staircase in the centre of the hall – which was once very fashionable to highlight the double-height space – now seems a poor use of space.
Outside there is a detached garage and parking for several cars on a gravelled sweep around the house. For low maintenance much of the rear garden has been paved over, something that buyers who are likely to be a young family, given the location and the size of the house, will probably want to soften. Like so many houses in the southside suburb, access both pedestrian and vehicular is via electric gates.
There will be building activity on the road, and the first major change to The Birches since the 1980s when the plans for a modest bungalow at the further end of cul-de-sac are pinned down.
Rockall, a house on 1.59 acres was bought last year by Targeted Investment Opportunities for €3.39m for development. The original plans, lodged with the planners, last year were objected to by many nearby residents and a new, scaled down plan includes 35 apartments.
