Estate agent Owen Reilly always maintained that once he’d secured a house on Albert Place East that he would never move from its docklands location, as everything he needed would be within walking distance.
And while for the main that remains true, life loves to throw a curveball into even the best-laid plans. Six years after buying the three-bedroom property for €820,000, according to the Property Price Register, he is now a father to two small boys and the family wants a larger house so that grandparents can come and stay.
“We need another bedroom,” he admits. So it is with a heavy heart that he’s putting his family’s period redbrick up for sale and moving out to a new home just beyond the Grand Canal.
Situated in the west corner of a period cul-de-sac, the photogenic house has many original features within its contemporised layout.
Reilly recognised the value of buying a period property that had already been refurbished. The D2 Ber-rated home had been re-roofed, re-wired and re-plumbed by its previous owners who also upgraded all its bathrooms and kitchen.
Extending to 137sq m (1,475sq ft) there are now two distinct spaces at hall level. To the front is a double-sized lounge that runs the depth of the house. Dual-aspect it has hooded cast-iron fireplaces in what would originally have been two separate rooms.
Now there is a TV room to the front where there is a large L-shaped sofa big enough to fit the whole family. The room overlooking the garden is set up as a playroom.
The eat-in kitchen in the return overlooks the garden. Here a baby-blue gas-fired Aga has pride of place and its integrated units include a laundry cupboard. French doors open out to a lovely south-west facing flagstone terrace with steps leading up to a raised area laid in artificial lawn. This is a real suntrap.
Upstairs on the return is the first of the property’s three double bedrooms. Adjoining it is a large walk-in linen cupboard where there is scope to install a window and turn it into a shower-equipped en suite bathroom.
A small family might also look at the bedroom on the return as a great location for a home office. You could bring in more light with the installation of roof lights.
The main bedroom is to the front where it spans the width of the house. It has an en suite, divided into two separate cubicles; one for the WC and the other for the shower.
This set up gives anyone looking for an income stream the option to take in a lodger in one of these two rooms under the rent-a-room tax-break scheme. The twin room to the rear is another fine double.
Size wise the house has a good balance of accommodation and living space while its location could not be more convenient. It’s a short stroll to several of the major tech companies’ respective headquarters and Grand Canal Street Lower has a strip of shops and cafes that includes 3fe coffee and a convenience store. Food trucks Dosa Dosa, serving southern Indian street food, and Griolladh, purveyors of some of the nation’s better toasties, have set up home in an empty lot adjacent to Becky Morgan’s pub, which has been recently sold.
The house is being sold by Owen Reilly’s namesake agency but Reilly is not managing the sale. The agent is seeking €950,000 for the property.
