Just minutes from Ranelagh village, 21 Elmwood Avenue is a pretty turn of the century redbrick home that has two reception rooms, two bedrooms and a walled back garden. Fully restored in recent times, the mid-terrace house should make in excess of Gunne's £190,000 guide at auction on May 20th.
The present owners, who bought it six years ago, gutted and re-roofed the house - ripping out floors and, in the case of the kitchen, lowering the level to give extra space. Where floor timbers couldn't be re-laid they were put to other use throughout the house.
Original doors were stripped and re-hung and the original windows were Ventrolla draught-proofed. The colours everywhere are bright oranges and yellows that create a cosy mood.
The front door opens directly from the street and the hallway is high-ceilinged and bright, with a period reproduction radiator in ornate cast-iron set into an alcove. There are a couple of up-lighting lamps on the wall and the fuse box (neat detail this) has been boxed in with pine and given brushed steel handles. The stairway is straight ahead and there are two doors to the right. The first of these leads into the sitting room where the fireplace, stripped back to the original brick opening, has a polished railway sleeper as a mantel.
The second door leads to the breakfast/dining room and kitchen. The former has the original cast-iron fireplace though the wooden mantelpiece is an addition. The alcoves on either side have up-lighting, there is a window on to the rear garden and under-stairs storage fronted with an original tongue-and-groove door. The hand-built kitchen is a couple of steps lower and has beech presses and shelving at both floor and wall level. There is a Belfast sink, the floor tiles are glazed terracotta with hand-painted insets, the colours of which are further picked out in the hand-painted Mexican wall tiles.
Lighting is recessed and light comes from a window and glass-paned door overlooking the garden and patio. The stairs, which have a wooden banister, lead to a bathroom on the return. Originally a third bedroom, it now has a mosaic-tiled floor in blue and yellow walls which are part tiled and part panelled in blue wood. The mirror too has a decorative tile surround and there is a pine built hot-press.
The bedrooms are up a few steps with the main one to the front of the house. Here, the original floor has been sanded and varnished, and has wooden windows and blue-painted walls. The cast-iron fireplace is painted white and there is plumbing for a wash-hand basin. Overhead, the attic has been floored; a trapdoor in a bedroom ceiling has steps which drop down to give access. The second bedroom has another white, cast-iron fireplace with a hearth of blue tiles. A window overlooks the rear and there is recessed lighting. There is recessed lighting too on the landing, as well as a Velux window.
The rear garden has a patio, and is surrounded by an eight ft. high brick wall. Laid out in gravel and grass, railway sleepers have been used to give it a split level. A door leads to a pedestrian lane-way, there is a brick-built barbecue and, where the outside lavatory was, a utility room which also houses the boiler for the gas central heating.
