One of the best things about 12 Hawthorn Terrace in Dublin 3 for owner Paul McGrath is the convenience. It is just a 10-minute walk from the IFSC, where he works as a solicitor. McGrath says: “It’s hard to believe that you are just a 15-minute stroll to O’Connell Street when you sit out in the back garden, as it is so quiet.”
He bought the house in 2016 for €250,000 according to the Property Price Register, when it was a two-bedroom unit with a BER of F: “I had seen a renovated house that sold around the corner so I contacted the architect who had designed that property, as I felt an open-plan layout would work well here, too.”
Its previous incarnation was a 70sq m (753sq ft) cottage with small rooms — where a small sofa dwarfed the living room to the front. The design by local architect John Flynn was executed by local builder Coaction Construction, which had the entire project completed within four months. The house now measures 97sq m (1,044sq ft).
It has two double bedrooms and a bathroom to the front of the property, while a principal en-suite bedroom now lies at the top of the stairs.
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An extension added a large open-plan space to the rear of the house, which is bright and airy thanks to two sets of patio doors: one to the rear that opens out to the back garden and a second off the kitchen.
Though McGrath had sketched out his ideas, Flynn “altered it to make it easier to secure planning”.
It is now a lovely space. An added bonus, besides the much improved BER of C3, is the size of the rear garden. This is not your average courtyard space that so many units of this size have in the streets so close to the city. It extends to 10m (33ft) after the build, allowing for lawn, a patio area and a shed for storage.
Of further interest is the fact there is off-street parking.
“I had rented here for five years before I purchased the house,” says McGrath. “And it’s a really quiet area, as the street is one-way so there is very little traffic”.
He is off to Ranelagh, to move in with his girlfriend, and has placed his three-bedroom home, in turn-key condition on the market through Owen Reilly seeking €495,000.
