Heating expert turned this 90s-built house into a hot property – a large home with a dream energy rating

Asking price: €1.359m

Agent: DNG Lucan (01) 628 0400​

Tom Fox has a wealth of experience to pass on to the next generation.

Having built more than one house in his lifetime, he has been able to impart plenty of fabricator wisdom to his now aged 30-something children, who recently created their own homes in Naas and Tipperary.

Fox's own expertly constructed property is Somerton, the family home he built on a site in the centre of Newcastle Village in west Co Dublin in the mid-1990s.

The urban-but-rural-home is something of a showpiece for his own expertise in plumbing and heating, from which he made his living until his recent retirement.

For a building of its size, it is a surprisingly energy-efficient home with a B2 BER. It has a state-of-the-art zonal central heating system and gets all of its water from solar.

"Being in the trade, I was able to put the heating and plumbing system in myself," Fox says. "So whatever controls were to go in, we weren't going to be shy about putting in whatever we thought was necessary, including the highest efficiency central heating boiler available at the time."

A recent revamp saw the installation of a Gasco fire in the living room, among other improvements.

"The solar power heats 400 litres of water in stainless steel cylinders and that basically means you don't have to turn on the immersion. You don't have to turn on the oil because even at the worst time of year, you get 38C temperature in the cylinder.

"That needs very, very little. A glance at the screen in the en suite bathroom, which is the solar screen, and I see 38C on the coldest day of the year and I thought 'fine, there's loads and loads of hot water'."

Fox and his wife Eilish moved to Newcastle for educational reasons. Darren and Michelle, their two children, were enrolled in nearby Newbridge College, which ran a private bus for its students from the village.

"We were in Celbridge before that," he says. "We bought the site in Newcastle in '95 and we had the house finished by 1996. It was a pretty quiet place back then, but not anymore.

"There are restaurants and lots of shops and other conveniences, like the new Lidl that opened recently, their largest and most sophisticated outlet. You've got footpaths and street lighting just outside the gates and the pub is literally 70 metres away. I'll definitely miss that about the area."

The Georgian-style house with a two-bay front was designed by Wicklow-based architect Paul C Mealy and is well hidden from sight by mature trees and accessed via electric gates.

The building was revamped in 2019 when much of the interior got a facelift and the energy infrastructure of the house was further updated.

This is not a small home, coming in at around 3,300 sq ft of living accommodation. That's a lot of vacuuming for a couple in their 60s, who would rather spend their time swinging golf clubs than Dysons.

Both are keen golfers and Eithne won the captain's prize two years ago. The owners would also prefer to be closer to grandchildren Poppy, Darcy, Phoebe and Leo.

"This is the main reason we want to sell up here," says Fox. "Michelle and her husband Mark have built a house in Tipperary and Darren and his wife Christine are in Naas.

"So we are kind of looking for somewhere in that area, which I have to say has not been easy.

"There is not a lot of the kind of property we are after in that neck of the woods and we definitely don't want to live in an apartment."

The couple also have a house by the sea in Duncannon, Co Wexford, where they can hole-up while they try to find suitable accommodation in and around Naas, Co Kildare.

In terms of creature comforts, the Foxes have some matching-up to do though. At Somerton, a partially ivy-covered entrance leads to a large hallway lit by a fanlight with a herringbone pattern floor, a grand, L-shaped stairs, wainscoting and a full-height ceiling.

To the left of this is a formal living room looking out over the front and side of the house with a marble fireplace.

On the opposite side of the hallway is a less-formal sitting room with cast-iron fireplace and reclaimed pitch-pine floorboards.

Off the living room is a large open-plan living/dining/kitchen space, the latter featuring granite worktops and an island unit, and there is a sunroom off this, as well as a large home office and utility area with plenty of storage, and a guest bathroom.

All four bedrooms are doubles and three have en suite bathrooms. In the master bedroom, there is an attic gym accessed from the en suite via a spiral stairs. The main family bathroom has a whirlpool bath.

The circa half an acre of gardens is a mixture of lawns, formal hedges, rockeries and a large patio area.

There is also a separate garage space with an additional 700 sq ft of accommodation, including a bathroom and store room, and there is a separate covered gardening/storage area.

There may be scope to convert the garage for further living accommodation subject to the requisite permissions.

"I see the person that pays the money for this house as someone who will be looking for a family home, but also a house where you can have a party," Fox says.

"We spend a lot of time out on the patio in the summer entertaining, but also the fact that all of the rooms interconnect: It is an ideal party house.

"It is also very handy for the city. During the week, we would go into town regularly, so we just have to drive up to CityWest car park and get the Luas in."

Newcastle is situated on the border with Kildare, not far from CityWest Business Campus and close to Casement Aerodrome, Peamount Hospital and the N7.

Historically, it has been settled since Neolithic times, indicated by the existence of, among other things, a number of fulacht fiadh, those mysterious archaeological artefacts with fancy plumbing of their own.

DNG Lucan is seeking offers in the region of €1.359m.