Builder makes his mark with a mews

Ballsbridge: A newly built three-bedroom mews house almost within sight of Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is expected to make in excess of €950,000 when it is auctioned by Gunne estate agents on October 8th.

A modernist must-see, the Pembroke Lane mews is a textbook example of clever design and the very best in contemporary fit-out.

The result is all the more surprising because it is the first ever home developed by a young Dublin builder, Steven Dunne, whose father Sean is a well known Dublin housebuilder.

In his first foray into the property market, he bought a rundown building which had been used for decades as a motor repair garage. The location meant he couldn't go wrong. Pembroke Lane is directly opposite Jury's Hotel and the new house is hardly 50 yards away, set among a nice mixture of old and modern mews houses and apartments. It's a quiet, discreet road with little traffic.

Designed by young architect Lisa McVeigh of the Campbell Conroy Hickey Partnership, the two-storey mews is deceptively larger than the outside suggests, with a floor area of 185 sq m (2,000 sq ft) including a stunning split-level diningroom/living-room.

It is immediately obvious that it has been built with the most expensive materials using traditional skills. Portugese limestone floors run right through the ground floor, which is full of light and space. The dining area has a fitted oak bench seat and matching cabinet and is divided from the livingroom by a low level screen of plate glass.

Off the diningroom there is a convenient galley kitchen with slick wall and floor units, a SILCA marble worktop and a large American-style fridge. There is a double height skylight over the dining area and behind it, a wall studded in white American oak. The livingroom on the lower level has oak doors and windows looking out into a very private south-facing garden with extensive paving, lots of seating and raised flower beds.

Also on the ground floor there is a beautifully furnished guest toilet inside the front entrance and a good-sized study which could be a fourth bedroom.

A solid oak stairs takes you to the second level where there are three fine bedrooms and two bathrooms. All the rooms have large fitted oak wardrobes (like the rest of the carpentry, expertly done by Delgrey Kitchens of Co Wicklow).

The en suite off the main bedroom has a large built-in bath, separate power shower, two wash-hand basins and polished Azulmauca stone on the floor and walls.

Not surprisingly for a house in this class, it has co-ordinated all-singing all-dancing light and sound systems in the bedrooms, livingrooms and bathrooms.

Provision has also been made for the now standard plasma TV screen on a gas-fired livingroom wall lined in Kilkenny marble. It's a high quality, low maintenance home with good security.