The Victorian terraced houses on Aughrim Street’s western side have always been popular because they offer period charm and sizeable southwest-facing gardens. This is what attracted architects Peter Carroll and Philip Crowe to the street where as friends they bought number 46, a neighbouring building, in 2001 with musician Liz McLaren.
That three-bed house with 130sq m/1,399sq ft came to market this time last year seeking €645,000 and sold for €650,000 by December. It too had a southwest facing garden, but about half of it had been used to build a mews house.
This is the benchmark agent Sherry FitzGerald is using to price number 70, also a three-bed, mid-terrace Victorian. Completely modernised it now has an impressive C3 Ber rating after the owners invested in all grants available to insulate its walls, floors and roof – adding underfloor heating throughout the ground floor.
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It was purchased for €455,000 in March 2015, when it was sub-divided into four flats and had an F Ber-rating. Now broad-beam engineered timber, in the style of its Victorian originals, covers the ground floor. Given the cost of getting builders to bring a similar style of house up to this level of finish, the asking price, €695,000 for 140 sq m/1,507sq ft, seems about right.
The entrance hall, with its arch intact, has ceiling heights of more than 3m and sets the tone for the scale of the rooms throughout. There are interconnecting reception rooms to the left where a sofa is used to fill the opening between the two rooms in a novel way. The fireplaces have timber surrounds and cast iron inserts.
The kitchen is in the return and divided into a breakfast area to the fore. An antique table sits well with painted work units and timber countertops set in a u-shape overlooking the back garden.
The garden is notable. It extends 91ft from the back of the original house and is 65ft from the end of the extension to the perimeter wall. Southwest in aspect and about 21ft wide it has access to Lucky Lane to the rear. An Indian sandstone patio steps up to a lawned area. You could install vehicular gates to the rear, or alternatively apply to build a mews house as the architects did, all subject to planning of course.
Upstairs there are three double bedrooms. The one on the return has a shower room adjacent while the main bedroom, to the rear of the first floor, has a hotel-style indulgent en suite, the size of a bedroom with a large shower stall and freestanding clawfoot bath.
