A midterrace two-storey-over-basement house on Burdett Avenue in Sandycove is a few minutes’ walk from the sea – and the couple who bought it in 2007 have revamped it to maximise its sea views. In particular, the glazed return they built at the back of the house reaches from the garden to the top floor, offering views to Dún Laoghaire East Pier and to Sandycove Point, as well as filling the front hall with light.
For a Victorian built in the late 1830s, it’s a particularly bright, modern house but with period features that include large multi-paned sash windows with shutters in most of the rooms. Unlike some of its neighbours, it’s not a protected structure. Now Seafield, 8 Burdett Avenue, Sandycove, Co Dublin – a 310.3sq m (3,340sq ft) five-bed with a C3 Ber – is for sale for €3.5 million through Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty. The house comes with an adjoining annex, which has a separate entrance from the front garden.
The house made more than €3 million when it was sold at auction in 2007, near the tail end of the Celtic Tiger. Seafield’s new owners waited a year, then began a big revamp. The changes included moving the kitchen from the basement to the first floor to get the light, building an open-tread cantilever staircase with a glass balustrade and taking out a bedroom on the second floor to create a very large main bedroom that runs from the front to the back of the house.
Seafield is a double-fronted house, one of the taller houses on a road that was almost fully developed by the 1840s. Steep granite steps lead to the front door, which opens into the bright front hall, floored with wide-plank oak. On the left is the kitchen/family room running from the front to the back of the house with wide-plank limed oak floors.
The family room has a large sash window with working shutters overlooking the front. The minimalist kitchen at the back has simple white units, a very small timber-topped island unit in the middle and French doors opening on to steps down into the back garden.
The diningroom and drawingroom are on the right of the front hall, connecting through a very wide arch. Like the rooms on the other side of the hall, they’re both bright, with large sash windows, and have original stripped timber floors. The diningroom at the front has a large white marble fireplace with tiles inset and a large multi-paned sash window. The drawingroom at the back has a matching tall window and a raised hearth with a timber-effect gas fireplace with a glazed front.
The small sunroom at the end of the front hall opens on to the back garden through a floor-to-ceiling sliding door and has views over neighbouring gardens to Scotsman’s Bay.
Upstairs, there’s a reading area/sunroom on the first-floor return with frosted glass on two sides but clear glass on a third with good views of the sea.
There are three double bedrooms, all with fitted wardrobes, and a smart family bathroom on the first floor. The main bedroom – formed from two bedrooms – runs from the front to the back of the house. A seating area looks over the sea towards Howth from one window and across Sandycove Point from the other. There’s a matching pair of windows at the other end of the room. New owners could create an en suite with a view if they really wanted another bathroom.
Downstairs, at basement level, is a long livingroom and a fourth double bedroom, cloakroom and a large tiled bathroom with bath, shower and a glazed door opening on to the garden. The livingroom has built-in bookcases, a raised log-effect gas fire and French doors at the end, opening on to the back of the house. There is understairs storage at the front of the downstairs hall.
A few steep steps lead up from the back of the livingroom to a utility room. There’s access from here – as well as separate access from the front garden – to the annex. Originally a shed/storeroom, this has been converted to accommodation that would suit an au pair or a teenager or could be used as a guest room or home office. At one level is a kitchenette/sittingroom and up a spiral staircase, a bedroom with a window overlooking the front, a Velux skylight and a shower room.
The back garden is wide, with a patio area from where there are sea views and an artificial lawn. A gate in the back wall opens on to a narrow pedestrian lane accessed from Ballygihen Avenue, the next street to Burdett. There’s room to park two cars in the landscaped front garden.
