A Limerick couple bought their house in Ballsbridge in 2017 for €1.5 million, had a baby in 2018, then decided to renovate in 2019 when he was three months old — and they’re selling it now because they’re looking for another project. They clearly enjoy renovation: their end-of-terrace 1880s redbrick, sumptuously decorated in keeping with its Victorian period, is in walk-in condition.
“We came to see it when there was a rugby match on in the Aviva nearby,” one of them says. “An older couple had reared their family here, and it had a very comfortable feeling.”
The previous owners had already done a lot of work on the house and kept it in good condition: period features like the elaborate plasterwork in the hall, the drawingroom and livingroom were in good order, and the bedrooms had been fitted with fully-tiled en suites. It has a C3 Ber rating.
The revamp, which cost more than €300,000, involved painting and decorating, updating sanitary ware, triple-glazing sash windows and sanding the original oak floors. But the main change that the couple made to the house was to create a new kitchen. They ate into the back garden to do so, “but we’re not really gardeners”, says one of them, an aviation leasing executive. Now it’s effectively an outdoor room.
The Young Offenders Christmas Special review: Where’s Jock? Without him, Conor’s firearm foxer isn’t quite a cracker
Restaurant of the year, best value and Michelin predictions: Our reviewer’s top picks of 2024
When Claire Byrne confronts Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary on RTÉ, the atmosphere is seriously tetchy
Our restaurant reviewer’s top takeaway picks of 2024
The house stands at the end of a terrace nearly opposite the entrance to Facebook parent company Meta’s new offices in Dublin, between the Merrion Road and the rail line.
A neatly-railed front garden, with space to park two cars, leads to a red-and-black tiled porch. Inside, the front hall, like most of the downstairs rooms, is floored with oak, has elaborate plasterwork and an arch in front of the stairs.
On the left are the bright interconnecting drawingroom and sittingroom, with wide folding double doors between them.
These are formal but comfortable rooms: both have deep sash windows (triple-glazed and effective at keeping out noise, they say), matching white marble fireplaces and coal-effect gas fireplaces and matching chandeliers hanging from centre roses. They’re furnished in keeping with the period, with some period furniture, floor-to-ceiling golden drapes framing the windows and matching gilt mirrors over the fireplaces.
The hall leads to a downstairs toilet where, the owners say, the went a “bit wild” with the decor — vivid tiger wallpaper covers its walls. A few steps down lead into the gleaming new Andrew Ryan-designed kitchen/breakfastroom/livingroom, floored with pale high-gloss tiles, it has a large island with a pale stone top that incorporates a wine fridge and ends in a breakfast bar. There is a utility room off the kitchen.
The whole area is bright, with a lantern skylight over the livingroom and two sets of floor-to-ceiling glazed French doors, opening on to the patio garden. It’s a long space running beside the extension with pale tiles, a high wall, raised flower bed and a concealed space for bins and a barbecue. A door opens into a lane that provides side access.
Upstairs, there is a double bedroom on the return with a wall of wardrobes and a fully-tiled en suite with a step-in shower and bath — from here, you can glimpse the Poolbeg towers and the Pembroke hockey pitch nearby.
Up a few more stairs are three more bedrooms, all with built-in wardrobes: one is set out as a home office with an en suite and one decorated as a child’s room, with bunk beds and a neat shelf of teddies — it also has an en suite. The double guest bedroom at the front of the house also has a fully-tiled en suite shower room.
Number 25 Serpentine Avenue is for sale through Bennetts for €1.95 million; call 01-2602520 for more details.
