An early Victorian villa-style house in Rathgar needs complete renovation to become a single family home. One family has lived here for the past 30 years or so, but the house has been split into separate living quarters, with three bedrooms upstairs, and three down. It's a comfortable and well-cared for home – a new boiler was installed recently and a new roof seven years ago – but new owners will almost certainly want to revamp it completely.
The double-fronted 238sq m (2,562sq ft) property on Garville Road was built in 1836 and is now for sale through DNG seeking €1.2 million. It comes with a large rear garden and a one-bed self-contained annexe. There is off-street parking in the front garden, crucial on this narrow Dublin 6 street tucked between busy Rathmines and Rathgar roads.
A wide flight of steep granite steps leads to the front door, with a fanlight over it. There are two bedrooms on the right and a lounge on the left overlooking the front garden. The wall dividing it from the small kitchen behind is a partition wall, says the agent, which could probably be easily removed. There’s another bedroom and bathroom in a 1970s extension at the end of the hall. Steep outdoor steps from a small sun porch off the kitchen lead down into the garden.
There’s no access to the basement accommodation from upstairs, but stairs could be replaced in the hall, says the agent. There are three more bedrooms downstairs and a livingroom, kitchen, bathroom and wetroom.
Architect Jonathan Bennett, of residential architecture practice Extend, reckons it could cost about €500,000 to do a major job on the house. He suggests taking down the annexe and 1970s extension, getting back to the original core of the house, then building a whole new extension – single storey at the side of the house, double height at the back. He suggests digging out the bottom floor, putting in insulation and a new floor, which would also create more ceiling height.
He estimates that it might cost about €140,000 to insulate, rewire, re-plumb the original house and another €250,000-plus to create a modern extension, with a kitchen/livingroom either at ground or first floor level. Utilities and a mudroom could work in the side entrance (where the annexe is now), with the extension wrapping around the back – and it needn’t take up too much of the garden space.
The owner’s late father was a keen gardener, and filled the 18.2m by 13.7m (60ft by 45ft) back garden with old roses, hydrangeas, helleborus and a wide variety of plants and shrubs. It will need lots of TLC to restore it to former glory.
