Look up! More than meets the eye with glorious grandeur at Waterfall’s Greybrook

There is peace of mind, from the roof and deep ornate plasterwork ceilings down to the top quality hardwood floors at this initially-seeming modestly facaded Waterfall Cork family home — it was built by “a man very much in the know,” with skills providers he could truss, and trust.

Built around 2001 to an exceptional interior standard, where money and materials were not scrimped upon, the 3,000 sq ft house was built by Tom and Abbie Dorgan, a tight-knit couple on a mature half-acre wooded site at Greybrook: they’d first built an earlier home alongside, having bought an acre which they later split into two more manageably kept gardens and grounds.

It was all grist to the mill of ‘self-taught engineer’ Tom Dorgan who for decades had owned and operated the long-established Barry’s Timber Yard business on Cork’s city’s Water Street.

One of Barry’s core businesses was roof trusses, and, ahead of its time, timber framing: Tom was secretary of the Irish Roof Truss Fabricators Association for 25 years, dealing with imported Scandinavian timbers in the main and aligned to larger UK operators too. 

The business was later taken over by the McMahon family from Limerick, and the Water Street store by the railway bridge of Lower Glanmire Road continues to be a trove of builders’ providers and DIY outlet right on Leeside.

When it came to building here, second time around, Tom and Abbie drafted in the skillset of their friend Cork builder Jerry O’Driscoll, who was an early pioneer in Munster in timber frame construction with an expertise likely going back 50 years, and with a top reputation for quality.

He more than delivered here to the Dorgans’ own design and specification, with deep-set stepped classical architectural coved ceilings in a number of key rooms — kickstarted by the elaborate work in the main core entrance hallway and hub of the home, complete with twin Corinthian columns with square tops and where lightwells up to the roof have been created for an exceptionally bright interior.

Without being too ornate, there’s exceptional quality in the plasterwork/coving, more or less stepped up in two deep recesses for a maximum interior ceiling height of 10’, along with simple stucco ceiling roses too for lights: there’s aren’t too many Irish homes where you can comfortably have cut glass chandeliers with enough breathing space and height to allow them be admired and not bumped into.

Here, chandeliers feature in the 27’ by 19’ living room/dining room, in the hall, and in the en suite main bedroom also, which along with the overall décor theme more than contributes to the feel of being inside an older era, grander and more gracious home than in a place only built in the early 2000.

Older era feel, or timeless? It’s a place that can go in several directions — even more period era in feel or taken way more contemporary with a contrasting twist, as the bones are just so good of this expansive, c 2,200 sq ft single storey one-off four-bed, four en suite home.

It’s got an unstinting level of finish — just consider long-life solid timber flooring that include boards in teak, mahogany and walnut — and is tailor-made for entertaining, inside and outside. It has a top-end kitchen and elaborate outdoor cooking area also, one much appreciate by visiting chefs, friends of one of Dorgan sons, Rob, himself a chef with vast hospitality experience in Canada, now back home in Cork and one of the key team at the stellar seafood eaterie Goldie on Oliver Plunkett Street.

With family reared, and a number of years after Abbie (nee O’Donovan) passed away in 2019, it’s handover time for this Waterfall one-off: it comes for sale this July with impressed agent Barry Smith of James G Coughlan Associates who launches at a guide of €925,000.

Mr Smith previously sold Greybrook Mark I for the Dorgans as they ‘hopped the ditch’ to build once more, so he knows the area here very well, and for the past 25 years or so it’s been much in demand as a trade-up location for the city’s medical fraternity as it’s within a 10-15 minute drive of Bishopstown, the CUH, the N41 south link, rural living made light, and easy.

It’s just a mile or so from the landmark Waterfall O’Shea’s pub and from the cheek-by-jowl developments of large detacheds at Heatherfield and Earls Well which added to choice in the location.

Those two schemes, first started by Fleming Construction, account for the vast majority of the 29 €800k+ plus sales with a Waterfall address recorded on the Property Price Register (and the six that sold for over €1m are soon set to be joined by a strong sale of No 38 Heatherfield.)

The roads around Waterfall/Greybrook are noted for the number of sizeable family homes, dormers in the main with a number too of very contemporary builds of late, some ‘in your face,’ others more restrained or screened by mature boundary trees, with a long lineof very old beeches in the section near this new-to-market €925k offer.

The front garden, inside the boundary green-screen, is the most verdant half of the c 0.5 acre of gently sloping private grounds, while behind are very extensive patios and easily maintained outdoor seating and entertainment areas on either end, complete with feature outdoor cooking are with BBQ and stone-faced pizza oven built by Tom and which has, in its day, even done a full turkey for a Christmas day dinner.

There’s also lots of space for cars/parking/turning, as well as storage sheds, plus a run of five dog kennels, well-built and which can be repurposed for other uses too, from livestock to lifestyle hobby equipment storage.

Back indoors, all’s full-on creature comforts, with all four double bedrooms having fully tiled en suites (the main bedroom has a corner Jacuzzi bath, Villeroy and Boch sanitary ware and also has a walk-in robe/ dressing room: several of the bedrooms have patio/sliding door access the grounds.

There’s also that very large coffered ceilinged living room/dining room, with bay window and home bar (with curated whiskey connoisseur collection,) the hall is almost a feature room in its own right and off the kitchen is a 15’ by 11’ family room/sun room, with pitched ceiling and extra apex window.

Second is size only to the main reception room is the 18’ by 13’ kitchen, classic country style with solid timber units, bull-nosed black granite tops, with island, ceramic sinks and wide Rangemaster oven, with a good lighting mix of task lighting, overhead pendants and spotlights, plus overhead Veluxes set up into the bungalow roof profile, by a man who knows his rafters from his joists and purlins.