Woodview on Gordon Avenue, Foxrock is a 1930s detached family house with a third of an acre of beautifully tended gardens. The four-bedroom property, which includes a garage suitable for conversion, will be auctioned on May 27th, when selling agent Robin Palmer expects a price in the region of £650,000.
The guide price seems relatively good value compared with the £1 million-plus paid last week for several newly-built houses with bare gardens in nearby Carrickmines. Gordon Avenue, off Westminster Road, is in the heart of Foxrock, just minutes from the dual carriageway, and close to the shops of Foxrock village. It is a quiet tree-lined avenue where the houses are set back from the road, nestling in well-kept grounds.
Woodview is a pretty Tudor style two-storey, smothered in creeper and with parking space for three or four cars. The current owners have lived here for 18 years, and they added a large extension at the back of the house to create a larger kitchen and a new drawingroom.
They then tackled the garden, which previously had been left to its own devices for many years. Now it is a showpiece garden, bounded by high dense hedging, with a large area of velvety lawn edged by semi-circular beds, measured out using a skipping rope. Below the main garden is another sheltered area with a summer house, a potting shed and a series of compost beds.
The couple do all the work themselves but it is now simply too big for them so they are moving to a smaller property. Inside, the 2,400-sq ft house is extremely comfortable and meticulously maintained. However, buyers at this level will generally plan to completely renovate an old property to suit their own needs. At present there are four reception rooms, the largest of which is the drawingroom overlooking the garden. There is also a formal diningroom, a small sittingroom and a study which houses the central heating boiler in a built-in cupboard.
The rooms are arranged off a wide central hall that also has good storage space in floor-to-ceiling pantry cupboards and a cute walk-in closet that the owner uses as a sewingroom.
The kitchen has a small dining area with patio doors to the garden. Off the kitchen is a utility area and a door leading to the garage at the side of the house.
Upstairs, the main bedroom has an en suite shower room and built-in wardrobes, while the remaining three bedrooms share an attractive and pristine bathroom decorated in a fresh blue and white scheme. Even the grouting between the tiles is a matching shade of blue - an indication of how much care has gone into decorating and maintaining this house. The attic has been floored and insulated and could provide extra accommodation, subject to the necessary planning permission.
