A terraced bay-windowed 1930s house in Dún Laoghaire has been smartly renovated by the couple who bought it in 2015 to make the most of its space: walls upstairs and down are painted white, a wall between the livingroom and kitchen/diningroom was removed, floors downstairs are oak laminate throughout.
Period details, mainly several tiled fireplaces, have been retained and the attic has been converted: it’s used as the main bedroom, has a smart en suite shower room and a large window giving wide views across to the sea and up to the obelisk on Killiney Hill. With a gas combi boiler and insulation in the attic and under the ground floor, it has a C3 Ber.
Now 7 Glenageary Terrace, Glenageary Road Lower, a 113sq m (1,216sq ft) three-/four-bed is for sale through DNG seeking €950,000. The price, more than double the €456,500 the owners paid for it in 2015 (according to the Property Price Register), reflects the renovation as well as the rise in prices in the area.
The house is a little more than halfway up Glenageary Road Lower between George’s Street Upper and Corrig Road, a short walk from the People’s Park and Sandycove Dart station. There’s space in the back garden to extend and the property comes with full planning permission for a single-storey rear extension which lasts until June 2028. It’s one of a terrace of some 20 houses, with no rear access.
The front door of number 7, painted a glossy teal blue, opens into a hall floored like the rest of the ground floor with oak laminate; an understairs cupboard has storage in shelves that slide out. A door on the right opens into the livingroom: its bay window was replaced in the style of the original, but it’s a triple-glazed Rationel Aluclad window, which effectively cuts the sound from busy Glenageary Road Lower outside. A 1930s period fireplace has bluey-green tiles inset and a white mantelpiece.
A wide arch opens into the kitchen/diningroom and sliding glass double doors open from the diningroom space on to granite steps leading down to a patio and the garden. A timber-topped breakfast bar divides the dining area from the kitchen, a long space well-fitted with pale units and a pale quartzite countertop behind which is a splashback of turquoise subway tiles. Utilities are concealed in tall cupboards next to a floor-to-ceiling window that looks over the back garden.
The grey-carpeted stairs to the second floor are painted white. A small double bedroom at the back of the house has good views over the sea across rooftops towards the Kish lighthouse: when the couple’s two sons were small, they got them to sleep counting the seconds between the flashes of light. A second larger double at the front has a bay window which, like the one below in the livingroom, is triple glazed. A box room is currently used as a small study/home office. A smart family bathroom has striking blue/green tiles beside the bath.
Steep steps lead up to the converted attic which the couple use as their bedroom: it has a high ceiling and striking views from the dormer window. One of the owners, a swimmer, says she can see from here when the tide is in at Sandycove and can get easily down for a swim in Dún Laoghaire. An en suite shower room is floored with striking blue and white tiles.
The large back garden is mainly in lawn and is quite private and quiet, the owners say. There’s a parking space at the front of the house that can accommodate up to three cars. And since ramps have been installed on Glenageary Road Lower, slowing traffic, it has been easier to get in and out of the space – and safer for the family getting on to the road on their bikes.
