Care and a great deal of thoughtful imagination have gone into making 37 Old Cabra Road the seductively pleasant and comfortable family home it is today. Feature fireplaces in the formal reception rooms make a particular impact: dark marble and slate with decorative tile insets, they have a dramatic chic about them. A bit like the house as a whole.
Number 37 and its adjoining terrace houses were built c1908/9. A repointing job on the redbrick façade gives number 37’s exterior a healthy new/old look, another theme you’ll find internally.
"We did the work in stages," the vendor says, "and had a remodel done in 2007/8, mostly to the rear where we built an extension. We wanted to make better use of the downstairs and to bring in more light. Almost all of the original part of the house is as it was, or is restored." The architect was Malcolm Hickson of Clontarf.
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The vendor paid IR£92,000 for number 37 in 1997. “We moved in,” he says, “started a family. The house is now finished, and the family educated, so we’re moving again.”
Family bathroom
This time around agent Sherry FitzGerald is asking €675,000 for a house with a floor space of 155sq m (1,667sq ft), four bedrooms, two reception rooms, a reading niche, kitchen/breakfast room, ground-floor shower room and first-floor family bathroom. The landscaped rear garden has a touch of lush Edwardiana about it with bamboo, fuchsia, laurel and montbretia alongside ripening vine tomatoes.
Curving redbrick walls, made using bricks salvaged from a removed chimney, and steps add to the effect. A clever patio courtyard creates an extra dimension as well as a link between the kitchen, garden and early part of the house. A reading area in between is a continuum of this design feature.
Entrance hallway
The kitchen/breakfast room has a porcelain-tiled floor and sliding, mahogany frame windows made by FitzPatrick and Henry. The worktops are of a soft-gold wood and Silestone, there is a centre island and large velux. The entrance hallway has original, wide plank flooring and a front door with stained glass panels made in Francis Street.
Another stained glass door inset, this time of a fish, welcomes into the family bathroom. On the first-floor return, this is next to a bedroom with rear window and fitted wardrobes.
All of the original rooms have fireplaces; these are cast-iron and painted white in the bedrooms. The main, front-facing bedroom has a high ceiling and windows to the side and front. The remaining two bedrooms have large windows and cornicing. A Stira gives access to an attic storage space.
The front garden is landscaped with bushes, hedging and specimen grasses alongside granite steps and a tiled pathway.
