The couple who bought a Victorian redbrick on a terrace in Glenageary at the height of the boom in 2007 stripped it back to the brick and revamped it completely over the following two years; architect Suzanne MacDonald of MacDonald Vagge oversaw the renovation in which just about everything was replaced. “It’s really a new house,” says its owner, who is particularly proud it has a B3 energy rating, rarely achieved in a house built in the 1870s. The house had been owned for 70 years by the previous family.
Number 13 Spencer Villas still has original period details, such as centre roses in the hall and reception rooms, and is meticulously maintained and decorated – but the large, bright modern extension at the back is the star turn. It has a large atrium roof light and a wall of floor-to-ceiling glazed doors which fold back to open directly on to the back patio, with lots of storage and utilities cleverly concealed in floor-to-ceiling cupboards; it’s far from a standard glazed extension.
Number 13 Spencer Villas, a 269 sq m (2,895 sq ft) four-bed off Adelaide Road in Glenageary, Co Dublin, is now for sale through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty for €2.25 million. Its neighbour, 12 Spencer Villas, which had an equally dramatic rear extension, sold for €2.05 million last year.
The pale-green front door of number 13 opens into a bright front hall, which is floored like all the downstairs rooms with limed oak. It has an original centre rose and ornate plasterwork in an arch halfway down. On the right are the interconnecting drawingroom and diningroom; the original Victorian glass was retained in the drawingroom’s deep bay windows at the front of the house. Both rooms have matching marble fireplaces, the one in the drawingroom original, that in the diningroom made to match. Doors in the wide arch that separates the rooms have parliament hinges, so the doors fold flat to the walls.
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A few steps lead down through another wide arch from the diningroom into the open-plan kitchen/diningroom/livingroom. There is a roof light over the steps, a feature the architect has used throughout the house, making the Victorian home bright.
The kitchen/diningroom/livingroom is partly divided by a wall that separates the livingroom area from part of the kitchen before opening out into the main kitchen/diningroom. The extension is also accessed from the hall (past a small, attractively wallpapered understairs toilet) through a glass door; the owner wanted to be able to see the extension and garden from the front door.
What could have been a simple corridor has been cleverly designed to accommodate utilities concealed behind doors; doors on the right fold neatly back to reveal a countertop with a sink and freezer underneath and floor-to-ceiling birch ply doors on the left open to reveal the washer and dryer, pull-out larder and storage space.
Beyond the dividing wall is the open-plan kitchen/diningroom, where a Silestone-topped island unit faces a cream gas-fired Aga. Floor-to-ceiling doors the length of much of the kitchen provide lots of storage – another design feature throughout the house, where most bedrooms have built-in wardrobes. A long table on the dining/livingroom side of the space seats eight – but the owners say they have hosted up to 35-40 people for meals at family parties.
The concertina glass doors at the end of the kitchen open on to a good-sized tiled patio, making it effectively an outdoor room, at least in good weather. Six steps lead up from here to a Damien Costello-designed garden; a neat lawn fringed by trees/bushes that include a Canadian maple cyanotis and flowering pink camellia. A shed at the bottom of the garden is faced with granite and used to store items such as bikes and is also the plant room, housing the gas-fired boiler. It opens into a lane that runs behind the houses, accessed from further down Spencer Villas. The shed has potential as a home office, suggests the owner.
The attention to detail on the ground floor is matched on upper floors. Stairs from the hall lead up to a small double bedroom on the first return with a pretty cast-iron fireplace; next to it is a smart, fully-tiled bathroom with a bath. There are two more bedrooms on the first floor, a double at the back with pretty pink Laura Ashley wallpaper and at the front of the house, the main bedroom. Like the drawingroom below, it has a deep bay window; its large en suite is mostly fully-tiled with crema marfil tiles.
The first floor landing is bright, with another roof light. A few more stairs up lead to the fourth bedroom, a small double. Next to it is a mosaic-tiled shower room.
There is residents’ permit on-street parking on Spencer Villas. Number 13 is a short walk to Glasthule village and is close to amenities such as Hudson Park, around the corner on Hudson Road.
