The Sunday Business PostJune 12, 2016

Property Plus2 Property

▲ 415A BAllyoulster, CelBridge, Co KildAre Price: €595,000What: at 219 square metres, this spacious detached house sits on a site of 0.43 acres of manicured gardens and has an open-plan living/dining room, a kitchen, utility room and two ground-floor bedrooms, one en suite, with three more bedrooms, two of which are en suite, and a family bathroom upstairs. There is a separate home office at the side of the house and ample off-street parking. Where: just off the Dublin Road, a short stroll from Celbridge village. The nearby N4 motor-way offers easy access to the city centre and to Maynooth. Hazelhatch train station is also a short drive away for commuters connecting to Heuston Station. Agent: DNG Celbridge at 01-6288930.

▲ 46 CAstlePArK roAd, dAlKey, Co duBlin Price: €895,000What: this smart semi-detached spans 118 square metres and has a west facing rear garden of 110ft laid mostly in lawn. Black and white tiled floors line the entrance hall and there’s a bright kitchen/breakfast room with access to the garden, intercon-nected living/dining room, utility room, guest WC, two double bedrooms, two single bedrooms and a family bathroom.Where: close to Sandycove and Glasthule villages and Dalkey’s upmarket specialty shops, bars, restaurants, churches and schools. The number 8 bus stops close to the house and the Glenageary Dart station is a ten-minute walk.Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Dalkey at 01-2751000.

161 the reCtory, ennisKerry roAd, stePAside, Co duBlin Price: €495,000What: at 122 square metres, this well-presented semi has a private, sunny rear garden with two sandstone patios. The house offers a living room, kitchen/dining area, utility room, guest WC and three generous double bedrooms, the main en suite, a single bedroom and a family bathroom. There is off-street parking to the front on the house.Where: a short walk from Stepaside village. Cabinteely and Marlay Park are both nearby, along with a number of sports clubs. The Luas is less than 15 minutes’ walk away and there are a number of buses to and from the city centre.Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Foxrock at 01-2894386.

▲ 15 Priory drive, BlACKroCK, Co duBlin Price: €765,000What: this four-bed semi has a 143 ft long south-facing rear garden, an adjoining garage and a side entrance giving the 118 square metre home piles of potential to extend and transform into a stunning family home, (subject to planning permission). Where: close to Stillorgan and Blackrock vil-lages and minutes from the N11 with regular busses, the Dart in Blackrock and the Luas in Stillorgan, all offering easy access to the city centre. There are a number of good schools in the area. Agent: Beirne & Wise Blackrock at 01-2880900.

22 elm PArK terrACe, terenure, duBlin 6W Price: €295,000What: this bright two-bed cottage measures 55 square metres and has an entrance hall, an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area, two double bedrooms and a family shower room. Where: off Terenure Road North, this house is within walking distance of Terenure, Rathgar and Rathfarnham with a wealth of restaurants, shops, bars and cafés to choose from and Bushy Park is nearby.Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Terenure at 01-4907433.

▲ 2 glenArd hAll, ClonsKeAgh, duBlin 14

Price: €650,000What: this bright terraced four-bed spans 118 square metres and has a south-facing back gar-den. Set in an enclave of 14 houses with a large central green area, the well-presented family home has a kitchen/dining area, utility room, family/dining room, living room, guest WC, four bedrooms and family bathroom.Where: off Roebuck Downs, itself off Goatstown Road and a short stroll from local shops and Clonskeagh Village, Mount Merrion and Dundrum. The Luas is at Windy Arbour, UCD and a number of top schools are in the area. Agent: Lynam Auctioneers and Estate Agents at 01-9014048.

▲ sunCroft, mArt lAne, foxroCK, duBlin 18

Price: €1.95 million What: designed by Sir Richard Orpen in the Arts and Crafts style and set on more than a half acre of south-facing mature grounds, this charming, four-bed detached home of 228 square metres boasts original features, wood panelled ceilings, an ornate carved staircase, feature fireplaces and two detached

garages. It also comes with full planning permission for a detached four-bed home of another 228 square metres on 0.2 acres. Where: off Westminster Road and a short walk to shops, restaurants and bars in Foxrock. It’s also close to Cornelscourt Shopping Centre, the QBC on the N11, the Luas at Carrickmines, a number of schools, churches and leisure facilities, and the M50. Agent: Finnegan Menton at 01-6147900.

On the marketLily Killeen rounds up the best homes currently on offer

from page 1spend most of your daytime in – the kitchen and living spaces – as close to where you will sit outside.

If you have achieved this, you need to look at how the room is laid out. For most of us, the room we spend the major-

ity of time in is the kitchen/dining space. In these spaces, we tend to clutter by lining the external walls with kitchen units, built-in furniture and radiators where there is huge potential for opening and con-necting to the outdoors. There may be a good view from the

kitchen sink but a huge op-portunity missed.

Try to keep as much of the external wall free from built-in items as possible. Perhaps locate kitchens on the oppo-site wall to the external one. And by putting an island in front of it, your main work-space will look back out to-wards the garden if you open up as much of the external wall as possible with sliding, bi-fold or traditional french doors.

If you are stuck for wall space for radiators, perhaps

opt for thinner vertical ver-sions, or if the budget will stretch, perhaps invest in underfloor heating. There is absolutely nothing like the choice of being able to eat and hang out inside or outside a room with the sun stream-ing in.

If the budget isn’t there to put in a large opening on an external wall, perhaps look at enlarging the existing win-dows by dropping them to the ground. That means you are not interfering with the structure but enlarging the

glass area by going down wide enough to facilitate a door, a connection to the outside.

As the sun circumnavi-gates your home, look for areas where you can lower the windows to seat height, then widen out the window board, turning it into a sun-filled window seat. If the window is large enough, you could perhaps put in a small sliding glass door or window, so it may feel as though you are sitting outside when you take a break.

I would love if our relation-ship with our gardens could be reflected in how we design and lay out our homes.

With the right connection forged with the outside of your home, you will use the garden

and patio spaces much more often, not just when the sun is splitting the stones.

Dermot Bannon is an architect and the presenter of RTÉ One’s Room To Improve

A sun salutation to bring more light into your home

glass finishes create a welcome transition to the outdoors