A two-bedroom Victorian cottage located in a quiet little cul-de-sac behind the Schoolhouse Hotel on Northumberland Road is one of a dozen terraced redbrick homes built by the Herbert family in the 1890s for labourers of the Pembroke Estate.
Number 4 Estate Cottages was purchased by its current owners for €456,000 in 2013, according to the Property Price Register. “We took a bit of a risk on it back then as you could have bought a four-bed with a garden in Rathfarnham for that,” says the owner, “but it was a brilliant starter home for us. Everything, including our jobs, is within a five-minute walk.” They are now upsizing for family reasons and have placed their home on the market through Owen Reilly, seeking €750,000.
When they first bought the house, “we had a bucket inside the front hall as there was water coming in from broken slates on the roof”, the owner says, so in 2016 they began a complete refurbishment with the addition of an extension and a new attic conversion.
Engaging architect Shane Traynor, the owners wanted to address the issue of storage by opening up to a double height in the main living spaces. Now the converted attic (10sq m/101sq ft) offers lots of storage to the property that now measures 88sq m (950sq ft), plus the attic, thanks to an extension to the rear.
Downstairs is a livingroom beside a duck-egg blue kitchen and dining area, with two bedrooms upstairs, one of which is an en suite. A staircase in the main bedroom leads to a finely converted attic space that would work well as a home office.
All the Blue Bangor slates from the roof were salvaged during renovations: “As the house is protected we had to make sure to keep the front facade as it was. We also had to dig the floors out and it has now been insulated and has new underfloor heating,” the owner says. Window shutters have been salvaged and the exterior brick facade has been repointed using a lime plaster, so the house continues to breathe.
As it is a protected structure, it technically does not need an energy rating system like other residential properties do. But the couple were curious how it would fare given all the insulation gone in to the house. They called an assessor who gave the house a B3 rating, which is good, considering its 133 years old and cannot be hermetically sealed, given its thick walls that need to breathe.
The property attracted the current owners because it is located at the edge of the city where most amenities are within walking distance. And that very reason will be why the next owner chooses this charming home, which is a good deal larger than it was when it last sold.
There is also an outdoor space in the form of courtyard out the back, giving this house an advantage over a city-centre apartment.
