Open plan living is large as life and twice as handsome at €630k Midleton home 

EVEN though many of the standards governing estate design had yet to be enshrined in planning guidelines when Rose Hill was built in Midleton towards the early noughties, it matches up to much of what’s currently expected by those overseeing the direction of travel for sustainable residential communities.Today’s planners look for things like provision for children’s play activities; the avoidance of long, straight roads to combat speeding; a mix of house types and sizes to accommodate a greater diversity of population; adequate private open space for residents; proper provision of parking.Rose Hill delivers on all of those criteria and is particularly spoilt for choice when it comes to public open space.18 Rose Hill West, Midleton“If you look at it on Google Maps, you’d think there are more greens than space given over to housing,” says the owner of No 18 Rose Hill West, adding that it was “fantastic for the children”.“There are four to five huge greens and with lots of families in the estate, our kids always had kids of their own age to play with.“It was a very safe environment and there was no danger of a car going flying by,” the owner says.The couple that bought No 18 originally lived in Brookdale, at the opposite end of Midleton, but sold up after 10 years in 2009. Having relocated to Rose Hill, they rented in the estate for a couple of years.“We were living at No 16, two doors down from the house we eventually bought, for three or four years. We’d been bidding on another house, but lost out. The estate agent tipped us off that No 18 was about to go on the market, so we did a deal there and then,” the owner says.Having bought it in 2012 – the price register says for €260,000 – they got the builders in and set about remodeling it into an entirely different property. All that’s left in common with the original house is basically its Rose Hill location.“There were three elements to what we did: We added two bedrooms and a bathroom over the garage room; we converted the attic and we went out about 6m at the back with the kitchen; and out about 3m with the utility. We extended not only the length, but the width of the house,” the owner says.Open plan living, dining, kitchenConverted attic/home officeOnce the build work was done, the tradesmen came in and fitted “the best of everything”. There are multiple examples to boost this claim, from the Munster Joinery EcoClad floor-to-ceiling triple-glazed sliding doors in the family room area of the extended open-plan kitchen/dining room, to the array of PVC windows in the same space including a corner window in the kitchen, to the bespoke oak kitchen units with worktops by stone specialists, Hickeys Stone of Ballincollig, who also did the island countertop.Kitchen countertop with corner window to the rearEcoclad sliding doors Then there’s the deluxe family bathroom with its Travertino wall and floor tiles and underfloor heating; the oak banisters from ground to attic level and the internal oak doors and engineered oak flooring in much of the downstairs living space. Truly, no expense was spared.“The oak flooring, from O’Flynns in Douglas, gives a smooth finish throughout, with the exception of natural stone tiling by Tommy Lynch in the kitchen,” the owner says.The extended open plan area is a great, big, bright space (a piano and several musical instruments are easily accommodated), with easy access, at the garden end, to a sandstone patio. The expertly planted garden with an abundance of mature shrubbery includes an attractive, raised, circular timber platform, tailor-made by a family friend for outdoor dining, under the decorative shade of a pergola.Sleepers create the impression of a raised bed. Fans of outdoor entertaining will love the set-up.The owner says the garden was “sloping from top to bottom” when they bought the house, but they had it largely levelled out. O’Connell Stone from Kilumney laid the curved patio. Much of the garden is lawn. Tall trees outside the boundary walls aid and abet in maintaining privacy.It’s been a terrific family home and a good one for remote working. At more than 2,700 sq ft, a home office was easily accommodated. “I’ve been using the converted attic as a home office for years,” the owner says, adding that there’s a bathroom off it, as well as a storage room. Light flows in through velux windows.The owner could just as easily have had a downstairs home office as there are two reception rooms in addition to that fine big living space. One is open to the living area, the other is in what is called the “garage room” and has good playroom potential. Behind it is the added-on utility, with floor-to-ceiling cabinetry.Bedrooms, all five, are on the middle floor. The biggest is two knocked into one, created when the owners did away with a box room. The other two bedrooms are over the garage, so unlike other homes in Rose Hill West, you can turn left or right at the top of the staircase.Built out at Ballinacurra around the turn of the Millennium by Coleman Brothers , the now mature Rose Hill development remains popular with families. Adrianna Hegarty of Hegarty Properties, who is selling No 18, points out that both Midleton town centre and the N25 are easily reached. The owner says cycleways and walkways have also been recently completed, linking the area to the town centre.Their house is at the centre of a quiet cul-de-sac, he adds, “so we are not getting the sounds of traffic from the main road”.The family at No 18 are relocating because the woman of the house has a site in the countryside and the opportunity for a custom-built home. “It’s where my wife is from, so that’s where we are off to,” the owner says.Ms Hegarty says houses “rarely come up for sale in Rose Hill and this one is beautifully done, with all the extras that so many families have on their wishlists, like additional bedrooms, scope for a playroom, a large back garden, off-street parking, plenty of daytime space and so on.” Moreover, the B3 energy rating - helped by a new €4,000 boiler - qualifies buyers for green mortgage rates.Ms Hegarty, who is guiding the property at €630,000, is due to start viewings this weekend and is already seeing “quite a bit of interest”. VERDICT: Rosey outlook for family buyers of this handsomely re-worked Rose Hill home.

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