When the owners of a house in Glenageary saw it in the summer of 1975 “it was love at first sight”. It cost €16,000 – expensive at the time – and needed work but they knew instinctively it was the house for them. After 44 happy years, they’re ready to move on and are selling their home in Spencer Villas, a quiet street off Adelaide Road in Glenageary, and a short walk from Glasthule village and the sea.
The 189sq m (2,034sq ft) three-bed semi, built in the 1920s, is well maintained, simply but prettily decorated and retains period details, like the large marble fireplace in a reception room at the front, white cast-iron fireplaces in bedrooms and original timber floorboards upstairs. Rooms are mostly painted white and staged with artistic flair by the owner. Number 23 has been placed for sale through DNG at €1.375 million.
New owners are likely to want to revamp the house, especially at the back, possibly extending into the 95ft-long back garden, converting a galley kitchen and separate breakfast room into a single larger space. There’s also potential in the third floor/attic where there are two rooms, one of which has views – past a seafront apartment block – of the sea and Howth. The attic rooms have always been part of the house say the owners.
A bright entrance porch opens into a square front hall with a fireplace. A drawing room at the left has a bay window looking over the front garden and a large grey marble fireplace – still with a bell beside it, presumably from the days when even modest Glenageary homes had staff. A second reception room alongside has a timber mantelpiece, sash window, fitted bookshelves and a single door into the back garden.
There’s a very narrow toilet at the end of the hall and a step down into the breakfast room, where the original fireplace is fitted with a wood-burning stove. The galley kitchen beside it is long and narrow but well appointed, with timber countertops, a Belfast sink and white-tiled splashback. A door from here opens into a covered side passage, another door into the back garden.
Upstairs, there are three bedrooms with fitted wardrobes and a striking family bathroom with a black-and-white tiled floor and large free-standing bath painted red as well as a shower.
The attic rooms are a surprise: 16 steep timber steps are concealed behind a single door on the landing, leading up to two rooms and a shower room. One, fitted out with a kitchen sink and table behind a screen, is the room with a view of the sea and also of the large new park on nearby Hudson Road. The second attic room has two wide Velux windows.
The gardens front and back are lovely: a path leads on one side of a stand of mature trees and a lawn past a glasshouse down to a wicker fence that opens into a good-sized vegetable garden. A door from here opens into a grassy rear lane accessed by four doors down from Spencer Villas. A small sitting area in the front garden is well screened by lush planting. Parking is on the street.
