Blink and you’d miss Summer Street North, a quiet cul de sac off the North Circular Road between the Summerhill and Great Charles Street junctions.
Number 32 is on the east side and is a period property that remains true to its roots. Production designer John Hand gave it a starring role in the RTÉ mini-series Rebellion, when its fine livingroom and hall served as the home of an RIC officer.
The current owners have been in situ since 2009 and bought the house with most of the work already done to it.
It opens at hall level, which is painted an offbeat plum colour, one selected by Hand to help give it a period feel, the owner explains. The simple coving here is echoed in the living room, an interconnecting room with an arch leading through to the kitchen.
Built in 1847, this room is now dual aspect and has wide-plank reclaimed pitch-pine polished floorboards underfoot, with exposed timber windows front and back.
While much of the structural work had been done, the owner attended to a lot of cosmetic jobs, including stripping years and layers of paint off internal doors. He estimates he removed more than 30kg of the stuff from the front and internal doors at this level.
The kitchen has old pine units topped with a doorstep thick granite counter. The eat-in kitchen overlooks the backyard where yellow roses have claimed considerable territories; there are vehicular gates on to Thompson Cottages although the yard will really only accommodate a really small car.
It is incredibly private, with lots of creepers adding height. It isn’t directly overlooked, so the back of the house gets a lot more light than you would expect.
The main bathroom is on the return and on the first floor there are three rooms: the main bedroom, a second bedroom and a study. This could become a third bedroom, or these two rooms could be returned to one room, as it originally would have been.
While ceiling heights on these two levels are about 2.7m, the ceilings at basement level are discernibly lower, about 2.2m.
Down there, the owners use the front room as a gym while the back room is a guest room with its own roof-lit ensuite shower room. Although dark, it is also really restful. House guests would love the distance from their hosts.
Where there had been a second kitchen in the hall, the owners have installed a really good-size utility room, which keeps laundry out of the good rooms.
The house has gas-fired heating on the top two floors and electric storage heating in the basement.
Full of charm and with a D1 BER rating, not bad for a house of this vintage, the property, which extends to 178sq m (1,915sq ft) is seeking €575,000 through DNG.
The street is really quiet and has a community garden at the top.
