When Argyle, an art deco house on Station Road in Glenageary, came up for sale, “I told my wife Sonia, who was pregnant at the time, ‘That’s where we’re going to live.’ But she cried when I told her and said the place looked like a public toilet.”Treacy describes the house at that time as “a modest enough three-up three-down in its original condition” with a twin property next door. “As far as we can make out, it was developed by a local man who lived on nearby Albert Road.
The twin houses appear to have been owned by the same individuals since the 1940s: “We found out that a brother and sister owned each of the houses shortly after they were built in 1936, and they appear to have been the only owners until we bought it.” He describes Argyle as being “totally unlivable” at the time of purchase in 2007 “so we stripped it right back and basically replaced everything”.
He extended across two floors, which gave a kitchen and dining space in addition to a principal bedroom to the back. A further extension “as we kept having children” added another two-storey addition to what it is now an impressive 235sq m home. It is in turnkey condition with five bedrooms and five reception rooms, including a media room, family room, sittingroom, kitchen-dining space and study.
Particular attention was paid to the windows. Treacy was adamant that they try for an exact match to the metal horizontal-pane originals. “We found that Carlson Windows do them, who also do Crittall style [after the English company who pioneered and standardised the steel window industry] and they’re still in really good condition.” The Ber rating is C3.