A house with views of Galway Bay in one of the city's most exclusive suburbs has a heart of oak. Built in 2003, there is about 232sq m (2,500sq ft) of oak flooring in the 410sq m (4,413sq ft) house built by the current owners. One half of the couple who built it had lived in California and wanted a house with lots of space and light.

They built Hazelbrook House on a site of one-third of an acre high on Taylor’s Hill. The five-bedroom house is now for sale for €1.25 million through DNG Maxwell Heaslip Leonard in Galway.

Hazelbrook is certainly open-plan: the front door opens into a large space in which the porcelain-tiled entrance hall and oak-floored sittingroom and dining area are separated by oak columns.

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The ceiling is 20ft high; an oak staircase winds up to a galleried landing overlooking the space. There’s a separate reception room to the left of the hall at the front of the house.

There’s also a large bedroom with a fully-tiled en suite bathroom on the ground floor.

The kitchen is fitted with chestnut units and has a big American fridge-freezer, a Rangemaster oven and granite worktops. Double doors open onto the patio at the back. The utility room has an American-style washer and dryer.

The house has four bedrooms upstairs, two with en suite bathrooms.

The main bedroom has walk-in Sliderobes and a door onto a balcony. Its fully-tiled en suite has a Jacuzzi bath and a double shower.

There’s also a fully-tiled family bathroom with double sinks and a raised bath sunk into a tiled surround.

Attic windows

The attic has been converted and has two dormer windows at the front and three Velux windows at the back.

This is a family-friendly house: in the garden, wooden steps lead to a large timber playhouse raised above the patio running the width of the house. There’s also a timber doghouse and gazebo.

The double garage has remote-controlled roller doors and rear access to the garden.

The house has underfloor heating on the ground floor, central vacuuming and a B3 energy rating.