On the bank of green between the Church of the Holy Name at the top of Beechwood Avenue and the busy community centre across the road is a stand of newly planted trees. They are a metaphor for the young families who are starting to grow in the area, alongside people who have lived there for generations; this part of Ranelagh is that sort of place.
Beechwood Avenue Upper runs from the church to Beechwood Road, almost beside the Luas stop, and is one-way from south to north. This consideration hardly matters to the owners of number 57, who walk most places, use a bike occasionally and have sold their second car. “Our car goes to Dunnes for the weekly shop and that’s about it,” says Amy who, with her husband David, bought the semi-detached house in 2015 for €1.25 million. So attached are they to the “location, location, location”, she says, that their search for a larger house is confined to a half-mile radius. Their home is now on the market through DNG with an asking price of €1.8 million.
When the couple bought the house, which covers 186sq m (2,007sq ft) it had already been extended to the rear, upstairs and downstairs. The return consisted of a kitchen-diningroom wrapped around an internal courtyard but this did not really work for them. They incorporated the outside space into a new section of the kitchen, with a big Silestone-topped island abutting the supporting pillar and a line of units, including a handsome steel Rangemaster, running along the side wall. In other houses this could be a plain expanse but they have inserted two windows into the side passage, with lights along the old garden wall adding interest. Light comes from the east through a big square picture window by the dining table, a range of roof lights, and French doors to the landscaped, low-maintenance back garden.
The house is a warm blend of old and new with high ceilings, cast-iron fireplaces, tall windows and other features from its 1890s origins soaking up their contemporary colours, modern artwork and clean finishes. The front room opens directly to the surprisingly bright middle reception room, which in turn links through a glass door and down some steps to the kitchen.
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A clever intervention by House of Coolmore, the Cork-based kitchen company they used both here and for the wardrobes upstairs, was the bank of floor-to-ceiling cupboards tucked along the left side of the kitchen. Continuing the line of the understairs bathroom, they store coats, shoes and laundry equipment, and a lot else. A dresser by Global Village is painted a dark blue that complements the hall and pops up elsewhere throughout the home.
Other improvements that helped bring the house to a C2 Ber include the insulation in the new part of the extension; a new boiler; a new front door (and a matching side gate); a stove in the TV room; and David’s pride and joy, the Energlaze treatment of the original sash windows. As well as the benefit of cosiness, Amy notices the lack of noise while working at her desk by an upstairs window: “I used to be able to make out what people were saying while chatting on the road,” she says.
A sweet bedroom shares the return with a hotel-crisp bathroom. There are two big bedrooms on the first floor; one at the back with garden views, and one at the front with a neat walk-in wardrobe and an internal en suite with high-quality finish.
Up another stairs, past a stained-glass square, is a fine attic room from which two Velux windows offer hours of time-wasting panorama, from the mountains to the docklands across acres of rooftops and landmarks. Admiring the interesting extensions in the neighbourhood, Amy and David recall friendly encounters and describe a coincidental familial connection to the house. In an area such as this, teeming with schools, shops and sports clubs, new owners are bound to pick up where they leave off.
