€350k upside-down house on Friar Street is flippin' lovely & so are the views

MILES of cityscape, panning across rooftops and treetops, are visible from the main living space at No 45 Ardfallen Terrace.

 In a compact little cul-de-sac tucked away to the side of Friars St, the views from No 45 have key city landmarks in their crosshairs: the former Bruce College high up on St Patrick’s Hill, Holy Trinity Church across on Fr Mathew Quay, the Elysian, still Cork city’s highest building, Apple’s expanding tech headquarters up on Hollyhill – and everything in between. Most people living on the row only glimpse this vista when turning in for the night in their upstairs bedrooms as the view from downstairs is largely obscured by an old stone wall that separates the terrace from the rear gardens of the homes below it, on Evergreen St.

The sensible thing to do when there’s a view worth looking at is to find a way to maximise the enjoyment. This is what the owners of No 45 did.

“I made the decision to flip it on a sunny day,” one of them says, and it was as simple as that.

Turning it into an upside-down house wasn’t quite as straightforward – it took about 10 months from the time the couple bought it in 2011. No 45 wasn’t in a state of disrepair, but the best thing it had going for it – apart from city convenience – was barely noticeable.

By turning the house on its head, the views were laid bare for the couple to enjoy all day every day, from the open-plan living/dining/kitchen area that they created upstairs.

Much of the work was done by one of the couple who grew up in a household that recognised the value of instilling a can-do DIY attitude in the kids.

“My family did a load of DIY when we were growing up,” he says, adding that he did much of the heavy lifting himself.

The heavy lifting included replacing downstairs daytime accommodation – all open-plan - with two bedrooms, (front and rear), and between them, a clever utility (which replaced a dark dining space), and a generous bathroom.

The original bathroom is now a storage area from where a glazed back door opens into a miniature courtyard, surrounded by high stone walls. “Even though the walls are high, it gets the sunlight,” the owner says.

The rear bedroom, with an open-plan home office space, has a window overlooking the courtyard.

 Back inside, an open-tread staircase that replaced closed risers is highly effective in letting light filter through.

It comes in through the full-length fluted glass panel of the tall front door (custom-made by Southwood in Ovens) and through the glazed back door and through a coloured-glass window (the red in the window is picked up in the red walls) high above the staircase, at the back of the hallway.

 Like the house, the stairs was flipped too and faces in the opposite direction to the original. It leads to the open-plan living space. Banisters at the top are striking. Spindles have jaunty angles, inspired by a similar design in the café at Cork Opera House.

A friend of the family who was a carpenter did a good bit of the woodwork. A chap with a joinery outside Ballyvourney fitted the solid wood kitchen.

Appliances like the oven and dishwasher are just two years old and are there to stay. A new boiler is currently being fitted; the BER is a D2. There’s a Stira to the attic which has storage space.

Grady Joinery fitted new windows and a new back door. Oak flooring, 3mm thick, was laid upstairs.

 One of four old fireplaces was uncovered and is now fitted with a casette wood-burning stove in the upstairs living space.

 Windows at both ends of the upstairs room ensure a bright outlook. The front windows (there are two upstairs) soak up those amazing city views, a window on the back wall, by the kitchen, overlooks Tyrone Place which “most people don’t even know is there, it’s part of a warren of little streets in this part of the city”, the owner says.

This inner part of the city has been on the up-and-up for more than a decade, greatly accelerated by the €10.5m regeneration of Nano Nagle Place on nearby Douglas St, where visionary nuns came up with a plan to replace a closed-down secondary school with an award-winning tourist destination. Traders along the street have been pro-active too, improving shop-fronts and organising community events. Just two weeks ago, TV architect Hugh Wallace showcased Douglas St and the home and studio of artist Cora Murphy on RTÉ’s Great House Revival.

The owners of No 45 have witnessed the great positive change in their area and have enjoyed the great restaurant and gardens at Nano Nagle Place.

“The plan was always to move to West Cork though,” says one of the owners, adding that his husband “has a farming background”.

“It’s a bigger house with more land and we are up for the challenge,” he says.

Having spent some time “living between the two houses”, they decided to sell their city pad.

Johanna Murphy of Johanna Murphy & Sons is guiding the cosy two-bed at €350,000.

She believes a young couple would love No 45.

“The owners have done a tremendous job and thought of everything. And it’s right in the city centre, walkable to everywhere,” Ms Murphy says.

VERDICT: It would be a lovely first home for a young couple, but given the location, it’s likely to also attract investors.