You won't have to change so much as a lightbulb in this polished €825,000 Ovens home

THE risk of financial surprise after signing the dotted line is negligible at a home like 10 Valley View as it’s been renovated and re-decorated to the nth degree. Trying to pin down hard-to-come-by tradesmen is not on the horizon for buyers, nor is extending, as it’s already 327 sq m. Its energy rating is B2, allowing buyers to qualify for more attractive green mortgage rates. In essence, you won’t have to change so much as a light bulb at this Ovens home.

No 10 Valley View, in Grange Manor, is in inordinately fine fettle because the current owners, Emma and Martin Hayes, spent about €100,000 on it when they bought it just five years ago. 

It wasn’t that it was in bad shape – it just wasn’t in the shape that they wanted for themselves and their four-child family.

Emma, who enjoys doing interiors, set about moulding their new home to her own tastes, putting in a brand new kitchen by Kinsale-based Cullen Interiors. 

She was persuaded  to hold onto the kitchen island’s marble countertop – a statement piece with warm veins of colour - but apart from that and the porcelain floor, she went for a complete makeover, putting in new kitchen units with quartz countertops and installing window seats either side of a Rangemaster cooker.

“The kids love them, they often sit there eating breakfast” says Emma. It’s good use of an otherwise redundant space and the window seats have drawers beneath for more storage.

Not that there’s any shortage of storage space at No 10 where the owners installed a new utility room with lots of built-in units. The main bedroom has a terrific walk-in wardrobe. 

Then there’s the small matter of a converted attic, host to two large rooms, with more storage off the bigger of the two. The smaller of the two rooms is a home office.

On the floor below, all four bedrooms are doubles, big, bright rooms, that can easily accommodate homework desks and wardrobes. The main bedroom has a large, fully-refurbished en suite bathroom, as well as the walk-in wardrobe.

 There’s a large family bathroom on the middle floor too. It was one of three refurbished by the owners (they also refurbished the ground-floor guest WC where a shower unit was removed). 

Replacement sanitary ware is high spec.

Along with the kitchen, the triple bathroom refurbishment, the new utility and the attic conversion, Emma and Martin also replaced most of the floors with engineered hardwood. They replaced a glass stair banister with timber and replaced double doors over the entrance door (previous owners had planned to add a balcony, but didn’t) with a large picture window. 

The view is of open countryside and the Lee Valley’s lush green hills.

No 10 Valley View is in a cul-de-sac at the rear of Grange Manor, a large-ish housing development, near the enormous Dell Technologies campus, characterised by different house styles across a number of estates. Those who bought into the Valley View section bought serviced sites instead of completed homes. The result is a more bespoke look in this part of the development, with homeowners opting for different house styles and sizes. They’re the largest homes in Grange Manor, chunky, one-off detacheds.

Norma Healy of Sherry FitzGerald is selling No 10, having sold 12 Valley View at the start of the year for €875,000, €50,000 above the asking price. No 12 appeared in Property too and its owner said at the time that although he was relocating, he so loved the layout at Valley View, that he was bringing the house template with him, to apply it to his new home.

The owners of No 10 love the layout of their home too and the choice of entertainment areas, from the large open-plan living space to the rear, to the front-of-house striking reception room, with its bold dark blue walls and new fireplace, with timber stored in alcoves either side and a new solid oak mantle.

Across the hallway is the smaller family room, a cosy retreat with on-trend panelled wall. Off the kitchen is a brightly-lit sunroom.

Outdoors, the owners made changes too for the sunshine days, including laying Balau Malaysian hardwood decking, the same durable wood used in the Youghal boardwalk, and more recently adding a porcelain tiled seating area in front of a detached 480 sq ft garage (which they also finished out after moving in).

 Even with patio/decking/landscaping and nice planting, there’s still plenty of lawn and room for a lovely Eucalyptus tree and a very large trampoline. There’s even room for a boat in the side driveway (the previous owner had plans for boat repair, there’s a mechanic’s pit in the garage and a wide-span gate to the rear that a boat could fit through).

Renovations will be purely optional for whoever buys this house, which Ms Healy is guiding at €825,000.

She says there’s a shortage of quality trade-ups and that buyers are looking for homes that won’t turn into a building project.

“This property  has everything and it’s on one of the largest sites in the development,” Ms Healy says. Moreover it’s a stone’s throw from Dell/EMC campus and near the Ballincollig bypass. It’s also in the catchment area for well-got Ovens primary school .

VERDICT: Visually attraction, spacious home, likely to resonate with most buyers, particularly people with busy careers and young family.