Twenty years ago, Colin and Teresa Pielow ran Curtlestown House restaurant in Co Wicklow along with a wine shop in Enniskerry village. In 2005, they bought a house near the village before setting out on travels that brought them to Cobh, then South Africa, where they ran a restaurant in the Cape winelands. In 2011, they came home and set up Pielow's restaurant in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, where they serve wines from the Cape vineyard they once owned – and went back to live in their Enniskerry home.
Now they're selling 2 Coogan's Cottages, a semi-detached two-bed – but they're not leaving again, says Colin, just moving house. Their 69sq m (745sq ft) cut-stone cottage, built as a gardener's cottage on the Powerscourt estate in the mid-1800s, is for sale for €440,000 through Sherry FitzGerald. The cottages are situated close to Powerscourt Golf Club.
The house, laid out over one level, is small, with high ceilings, a bright modern kitchen and a conservatory opening on to a long rear garden that offers potential for expansion. The house is one of four cottages, and the other three have all been extended, says Colin. The Pielows added the conservatory, wet room, store room – and a wine cellar.
Accommodation includes a relatively large livingroom and a small double bedroom at the front of the house. The kitchen/diningroom is bright, with cream countertops, beige-tiled floor and timber units – and there’s room for a six-seat dining table.
Patio
A study off it with a skylight could accommodate a double bed if new owners want it as a second bedroom, say the Pielows . There’s a fully-tiled wetroom off the kitchen, with a toilet and power shower. The conservatory also has a tiled floor and double doors at the end leading on to a patio.
The patio looks down the sloping back lawn, a sheltered one-tenth acre of garden that’s well-stocked with apple and pear trees, plants, hedging – and unsurprisingly – a mature grapevine.
There’s a Barna shed at the end of the garden, rear access and room for private parking at the rear for three cars.
Coogan’s Cottages are down a lane but near a bus stop and are close to new housing developments on Kilgarron Hill.