In the airy Andrew Ryan-fitted kitchen of Gordon and Erna Lennox's house in Delgany, Co Wicklow, early autumn sun shines in. The French windows are open to the patio, where bamboos, trees and shrubs create a lovely enclave, and the sound of water splashes in a rockery.
Their five-bedroom (all en suite) house is on the market with Sherry FitzGerald for €1.265 million. There's also a sixth bedroom, currently used as a study.
Gordon Lennox should know all about finding the best features of houses – he's been selling them for more years than he cares to remember as a director with Sherry FitzGerald. But it's trickier when it comes to your own home, as family memories come crowding in.
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There’s the Hampton conservatory and Versace-tiled diningroom, where they sat 69 people for a family birthday; there’s the cantilevered ash staircase that rises three floors, and which for the past 14 years signalled the comings and goings of the couple’s three children, who are now grown up.
Landscaped patios
Outside are three patios, landscaped by Jonathan Wallis of Exhibition Landscapes, where the family dog suns himself; and then there's the bar, which came from a renovation of the Cherrylane gallery, just down the road. In all, there is more than 345sq m (3,700sq ft) of living accommodation in the house, which was built along with the rest of the Elsinore development in 2000.
Local area
Since then, planting has matured and there’s a settled atmosphere.
Families are well catered for, but the adults also manage to have some fun too. In practice, this means there are excellent local schools, plus golf , rugby and GAA clubs, horse-riding, a marina in nearby Greystones, and nice walks in the area. The Delgany, in the village, has a great selection of artisan foods.
And what about those neighbours? The Lennoxes themselves have played their part. Westlife’s Brian McFadden bought the showhouse at Elsinore, wanting to have a home ready to move into – and to host the afterparty for the band’s homecoming Dublin gig. All went well until they realised that, while the house was well built and well fitted out to the last, it happened to lack a kettle. Somewhere in Westlife’s possessions, probably now scattered around the world, still resides Gordon and Erna’s kettle.
