‘We're not great for going to the pub. Our thing is the house' – making a new build a true family home in Maynooth

Irish Independent

7 days ago

Asking price: €1.095m
Agent: Sherry FitzGerald Brady O'Flaherty [phone]
​Just over 34,700 Irish citizens emigrated in the year to April 2024, the highest leaving the country since 2015. Most were aged between 25 and 44, and Australia was the destination of choice. Not being able to buy or rent a house and the rising cost of living were most typically cited as the reasons for leaving.
Maura Geraghty and Mark Nolan, two accountants from Celbridge, Co Kildare, were almost in the same boat in the last economic downturn. But through good luck and hard work, they managed instead to avail of some of the cheapest home prices in a generation after the crash.
Having met as freshman students at DCU, where both were studying accountancy, they had their sights set on moving to Oz after they qualified. 'All of our friends were going and we planned to do the same, but then one day Mark said, 'I don't think it's the right thing to do. I think we should actually buy a house',' recalls Geraghty.
It was 2013, and home prices were affordable if you could get a mortgage. Builders were still having trouble shifting new homes outside Dublin.
'There were ghost estates around the country and everyone thought we were crazy, that the housing market would crash even more. But looking back, I realise just how lucky we were. I don't know how any young people can afford to buy a house now,' she says.
When Geraghty found a new home at the Castlepark Square scheme in Maynooth, it was a real stretch up. 'We had been looking at much cheaper homes initially,' Geraghty says.
But it was around this point in time that the economy started to turn. Both got trainee accountant jobs with blue chip firms, Geraghty with PwC and Nolan with Deloitte. They each moved back with their parents to save on rent, and there was no going out. Geraghty also accepted any offered overtime. 'We really pushed the boat out because I really wanted that house.'
Finally, they purchased their 2,480 sq ft, newly built four-bedroom detached house in Castlepark Square. 'From living with our parents and before that in student accommodation in DCU together, we couldn't get over the amount of space,' she says.
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Today, they know they got in just under the wire. 'The next phase saw the prices rise by €50,000,' Geraghty says. Since then, property prices have more than doubled.
In 2017, they had their first child, Nathan, who is now eight. They've since had three more children, Nina (six), Sam (four), and Lilla (three). 'I used every maternity leave to redecorate the house,' says Geraghty. 'We're not great people for going to the pub. Our thing is the house, and we're constantly repurposing and redecorating it. I'll often wake up and say, 'I'm so bored today, let's change the furniture around,'' she adds, laughing. 'If Mark was going to the shop on a Friday night and wanted to treat me, he would buy me an interiors magazine.'
With the addition of their children, they quickly realised they needed a boot room. It has a drop-down clothes horse that extends down from the ceiling at the press of a button, called a Foxydry, a cupboard for coats and even a drawer for odd socks. 'Storage is the key to our happiness. It's where we dump all the clutter, and it's become the engine of our home.'
In 2017, they extended the kitchen/living/dining space at the back and hired a friend who runs Opus Interior Design to design the kitchen. 'She recommended Crittall–style windows and we painted the kitchen navy and added burnt orange stools at the island. I've gone off navy now because everyone has it, but we were quite ahead of our time.'
The island counter here is nine-foot long and made from a single piece of quartz. It fits six high stools, but originally there were five. 'We planned to have three children originally. When we had the fourth, I had to get another stool.'
Earlier this year, they collaborated with designer Lorna Pringle, who advised on changing the colour of the kitchen units to Portland Stone by Little Greene. This combined well with the gold rims of the stools, which have been reupholstered in cream, and the brass sink tap. The flooring is chevron-style laminate. 'For me, the kitchen is the jewel of the house,' says Geraghty. 'It's great for entertaining.'
There's a separate sitting room at the front, the walls of which have been painted French Gray by Farrow and Ball. 'It's where we go for some peace and quiet. With the kids being young still, I felt we needed that,' she says. On the other side of the hall is the playroom, which was previously an office and before that, a gym.
During the pandemic, the couple found themselves working from home, so they converted the attic to make two offices with storage cupboards under the eaves and an en suite bathroom.
Upstairs are three double bedrooms, two of which have en suite bathrooms and one generously-sized single room. The master bedroom has a laminate floor and a large en suite bathroom. The back garden has been designed as an outside room with a patio area, artificial grass, and foliage.
Maynooth is a 40-minute drive from Dublin city centre. 'It's a really cool place,' she says. 'It's got a number of nice restaurants and coffee shops, and it's a vibrant community.'
Now, they've bought another home five minutes' drive away in the countryside. 'We're looking forward to having more space for the children, and maybe a vegetable patch." Sherry FitzGerald Brady O'Flaherty seeks €1.09m.