Co Dublin: €775,000A period villa originally built as a summer house in Sandycove, Co Dublin has been reinvented as a stunning modern home. Frances O'Rourke reports
Imagination and energy count for everything when you decide to tackle a major renovation. Without them, artist Gerry Byrne and his wife Fiona would hardly have contemplated the task of re-creating 5 Summerhill Parade, a 240 sq m (2,600 sq ft) three/four-bedroom late Georgian house in Sandycove, Co Dublin.
The house, which is on a short lane directly opposite Sandycove DART station, has a guide of €775,000 prior to auction on June 16th through agent Lisney.
The couple had already restored a period redbrick in Phibsborough when they bought this house a few years ago. The challenge at number 5 however was more to rebuild than to renovate. The Byrnes decided to keep the external granite shell of the 1830s house as well as the front door and original shuttered windows at the front - but everything else is new.
The house is now a completely modern home which still has a period feel: it has a new roof, new mostly limestone floors, Velux windows in most of the rooms and masses of recessed lighting everywhere which highlight Gerry Byrne's vivid paintings which hang all over the house. And the bathrooms have a major wow effect.
Up-to-the-minute modern highlights include a fitted kitchen with a six-ring Smeg range and an American-style Neff fridge and dishwasher (included in the sale); underfloor heating in the large family room/studio; zoned heating controlled from the utility room downstairs and smart convector radiators; energy efficient insulation and extra tanks which make the showers very powerful, says Fiona.
The limestone-floored entrance hall opens on the right into a comfortable sittingroom with a new brushed stainless steel fireplace. On the left is the diningroom which opens into a simple and beautiful modern kitchen.
The design was inspired by two antique cabinets the couple had bought at auction which have curved glass fronts. More glass display cabinets were added and they built the cream-painted mahogany floor units themselves. The kitchen has stainless steel saucepan drawers, polished granite worktops, and of course the hi tech fridge and Smeg range. There is a study and a small toilet off the front hall, which leads to stairs going down to the main bedroom/family room area. The attention to detail is evident even on the stairs: glass paperweights were used to make the finials.
The main family room/studio is an airy double-height (the ceiling is 20 ft high) room with windows set into the double roof to shed light into it.
This room and the main bedroom next to it both open through large glass doors onto the wide narrow decked yard at the back of the house. A dressing area fitted with wardrobes links the main bedroom with a large en suite.
This has a marble-tiled cannon-like double shower, a cast-iron roll top bath and stunning German-imported sanitary ware which they decided they had to have even though it cost the price of a small car. The second bathroom used by their two daughters is equally knockout: it is a large room with two white wash-hand basins set into a long counter with a huge (8 ft wide by 4 ft deep) glass mirror over it, stainless steel cabinets, another power shower and a press at the back of the room. The girls' two bedrooms are at this level too, which has an entrance into a passageway at the side of the house.
The house has no garden, but the decked yard is attractive and sheltered by high granite walls. It has access to a laneway that leads onto Islington Avenue, a road that runs parallel to the laneway that is Summerhill Parade. There is offstreet parking for two cars at the side of the house.
Summerhill Parade is a short fairly private laneway-like road off the main Sandycove Road running along one side of the DART line at Sandycove opposite Sandycove DART.
At the front, its view is of the backs of houses on the far side of the DART line. But its lack of views (except from the roof, where you see the sea at Scotsman's Bay)and lack of garden are compensated for by its highly convenient location: it is a few minutes walk to the nearby People's Park, and has access down another laneway to the seafront near Teddy's landmark ice cream shop.
