That Paddock Wood on Killiney Hill Road has a large, outdoor infinity swimming pool but that that pool is now surrounded by ugly-looking security fencing and filled with green swampy water says a lot about this extraordinary 930sq m (8,000sq ft) modern house and what’s happened to it.
Built for Payzone's former chief executive John Nagle and his wife Joan, the house, which has magnificent sea views from each of its three, super-cool glazed storeys, was completed in 2007 and has in subsequent years been mentioned in court proceedings. It's now being sold by the bank, through Lisney, with an auction on October 23rd. The AMV on the property is €2 million.
It’s a difficult house to value because, with its curved shape designed to fit into the steeply sloping hillside, glazed walls to take maximum advantage of the spectacular sea views, its high-spec finish and vast square footage, it truly is one of a kind. But the AMV does seem on the low side.
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The house that once stood on the Paddock Wood site was described as "unremarkable" but with "stunning uninterrupted views" in 2004 when it went to auction and sold – to the Nagles – for €4.85 million. It was demolished to make way for this contemporary home, designed by architects Conroy Crowe Kelly, which could easily be a neighbour of the modernist, sea view mansions in Miami or California.
Glazed walls
The principal rooms are on the top floor, separated internally by frameless glazed walls. Up here, where each room has access out on to the curved balcony, are the livingroom, diningroom, sleek modern kitchen and the main bedroom with a glazed wall en suite. On the level below are three large bedrooms each with an en suite, a vast bathroom and a walk-in dressing room for the main bedroom upstairs and a large family room. At ground level there are two more bedrooms with en suites and a utility room.
Internally the layout is not as streamlined as the house looks from the outside. There are four staircases. The hall door opens in front of the main, central staircase and it leads up to the top floor; there are two staircases on either side of the house – one connects the kitchen to the family room , the other connects the vast main bedroom with its equally enormous bathroom. Then there’s a glass spiral stairs leading up onto a small roof terrace and finally an exterior staircase from the top floor right down to the swimming pool.
Furnished, this house must look like something straight out of a design magazine.
There’s a tennis court, a garage that looks to have space for two cars but has an internal parking lift making room for four cars and a room designed to store a vast collection of wine. There’s also a detached gym built on one of the garden’s lower levels in the style of the house.
It’s clear that the grounds were once landscaped to perfection but now look tatty – as does the interior of the house with holes in some ceilings and a general air of abandonment.
