A large detached house in Terenure has all the signs of being a comfortable family home, from Lego constructions in the attic to toys in the family room downstairs and, for this time of year, Halloween ghosts in front garden trees and decorations at the front door. It certainly has plenty of space for a family; Homestead at 19 Rathdown Park is a 329sq m (3,541sq ft) four-bed on about 0.26 acres. It’s on a corner site, next to Rathdown Villas.
Previously, Homestead went up for sale in September 2009 with an asking price of €2.5 million; the Property Price Register records it as being sold in 2012 for €1.285 million.
It has been modernised and extended over the past few decades, with the addition of a breakfastroom and family room towards the back. There are wooden triple-glazed Carlson windows throughout and an integrated central vacuum system. The property has a D1 Ber rating. Built in the 1930s by Thomas Stringer, one of Dublin’s most notable builders, it has an impressive exterior with a semicircular driveway with lots of room to park and a part-redbrick/part-granite front, with large bay windows.
A glass front door opens into a red-tiled porch: the original front door, with a leaded glass window inset, opens into a wide hall floored with polished oak. On the right are interconnecting reception rooms running from the front to the back of the house, with double doors in a wide arch between them.
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The livingroom at the front has a wide bay window, a handsome white marble fireplace, a picture rail and ceiling coving. The diningroom at the back opens on to the back garden through double doors.
There is a good-sized study on the left of the front hall, a cloakroom behind it and a downstairs toilet. A step down leads to the kitchen-breakfast-family room, all floored with pale ceramic tiles. The kitchen has a beamed ceiling, white units and black polished granite countertops; there’s a good-sized utility room off it with a black granite countertop, sink and a door to the back garden.
A curved brick arch separates the kitchen from the large breakfastroom, which also has a beamed ceiling and a bay window looking into a small internal courtyard patio at the side of the house. Glazed double doors open from the breakfastroom area into the family room, which has floor-to-ceiling windows and opens into the back garden.
Upstairs, there are four bedrooms opening off a square landing, three doubles and a good-sized single, two of them with fully tiled en suites. The main bedroom at the front has, like the livingroom below it, a wide bay window, built-in wardrobes and a large fully tiled en suite with a bath and shower.
Fourteen steep stairs lead up to a large attic with good under-eaves storage and two Velux windows: currently used as a playroom, it could be used as another bedroom or home office.
Outside, the back garden is private, sheltered by high hedges. It’s mainly in lawn, with a patio next to the house and a small decked seating area nestled into a corner of the garden. There is a garage on one side of the house and side access on the other. A door in the garden wall opens on to Rathdown Villas.
Homestead is now on the market through DNG, seeking €2.295 million.
