‘We combined two cottages into one and split them up again’

Address: Seville Place, Dublin 1

Asking price: €325,000/€350,000

Agent: Movehome (01) 8844690

​In the traditional Dublin waterfront communities of old and before containerisation killed off the profession of docker in the 1980s, the port often provided housing for its dedicated shipping workers.

In one part of the docklands, it is said there was a pecking order of sorts when it came to providing living accommodation and this was denoted by the street names.

Around Seville Place, young dock worker couples with the smallest families got small cottages on Fourth Avenue. When they added a few more children, they were bumped up to Third Avenue to slightly larger abodes. Those producing epic Waltons-sized broods were moved again into the much larger houses of Second Avenue and First Avenue.

On the slight side thankfully there is no Fifth Avenue in the Docklands.

The local lore is something that John Shaw finds amusing today when he considers that his own family of three have two houses on Third Avenue for their modern-day living needs.

“The census of 1911 showed there was a family of six children at No49, which I bought in 2005. I had been renting a room at First Avenue from a friend and I liked the area. Not only is it so central, but you can go for a run along the waterfront, and depending on which direction, you can be at Clontarf Promenade or Sandymount Strand in 15 minutes.

“I bought No49 Third Street in poor condition. My brother came on board to help and we took everything down but the front wall and completely rebuilt it. We used the height of the roof space to open up another floor. Back then, this was a really quiet area before the Beckett Bridge was built and the docklands got going.”

The following year, he met his husband Derek, a teacher, and a year later again Derek moved in.

“I couldn’t get John to move to the southside where I had been living, so there was nothing for it but to cross the river and move in with him,” says Derek.

In tangent with constitutional change in Ireland, the couple became civil partners and later, as the law progressed, got married. After many years together at Third Avenue, they decided it was time to expand their family. “We availed of surrogacy and in April 2014 Rachel was born,” says John.

So it was time for the couple to think about a bigger and more child-friendly home. It was around this time that their valued neighbour, Tommy, passed away.

“Tommy was one of the local characters born and bred here. A single man, he devoted himself to helping at the local St Laurence O’Toole Church. When he passed away, his family said they’d be delighted if we had an interest in his house, so that’s how we bought the house next door,” says John, who works for a charitable organisation.

What followed was a concerted effort to marry the two houses into one functional modern private residence. “We added two doors downstairs, one towards the front of the houses and one at the back. John had extended his to create an upstairs so we did the same thing at No51 and linked the two upper levels via a corridor. We went for a big open-plan kitchen and living room space with Rachel’s arrival in mind,” says Derek.

However, for her part, Rachel is insistent that the very best part of their home/s is her bedroom. “I have my own bathroom which saves me having to walk down the hall to brush my teeth, and when I lie down I can see all the rooftops and the church tower. And I can walk to school from here.” (Georgian Montessori Primary is nearby).

“We did have the en suite room but decided when Rachel was born that it would be practical to have it as her room. I reckon she’s the only girl at school to have her own en suite,” says John. “She always says that view of rooftops and the spire looks like the scene from Mary Poppins, which she loves.”

Recently, the couple have decided to move to be nearer to Derek’s parents in Clontarf. “We’re looking at doing up another house near Marino,” says Derek. But when the Shaws went to place the double cottage home on the market, their agent advised them that it would be much wiser to sell the two as separate homes both from the point of view of demand (a double cottage might be more difficult to sell) and price achievable (two homes will always make more than one). And they needed to maximise their sales in order to put the best foot forward on their planned new project.

So, having spent large to join the two cottages together in 2015, now the Shaws would have to split them up again.

This wasn’t as easy as it first seemed. “With function, each home has to have its own zones and the stuff that went with the larger house couldn’t go with two smaller ones. For example, we had a great big head-height fridge which worked well in a large open-plan kitchen and living space but was much too big for the smaller kitchen each home would need,” says John. “How would we reinstate the larger kitchen into a smaller space? Where would we put the stairs in the second house?”

They were, however, extremely lucky to get good help. “We called in a spatial expert who was a great help in defining the functional zones that each house needed and exactly what fittings were required for each. And we got a really good builder with John Walsh Construction. He did the work, and it was extensive, in six weeks,” says John.

Now that the cottages are separate again, both have been placed on the market for sale through Movehome Estate Agents. No49 measures 560 sq ft and comes with a modern ground-floor open-plan design which flows on to the kitchen. The double bedroom and bathroom are upstairs on the first floor where there is also more storage space.

There’s a big picture window and glass door to the rear patio which also comes with a brightly-coloured storage shed to the side. The asking price is €325,000.

Next door is No51 which is the larger of the two at 645 sq ft. It also has a brightly-lit open-plan living, dining and kitchen space at ground-floor level along with a recently-fitted kitchen as per renovations. There are two double bedrooms, one on the ground floor and near the second bathroom, with the master en suite upstairs on the first floor, where there is also more storage space available.

The rear patio garden also has a spiral staircase running up to a decking balcony above which can also be accessed from the master bedroom.

The price is €350,000, also through Movehome or a buyer can have both for €675,000 and start that blending cycle all over again.