Handsome family home with period details

Dublin 4: €3.2m A Sandymount semi is fine tuned to a family's needs, writes Rose Doyle

Charles Robert Dunbar built a pair of handsome houses on Sydney Parade Avenue, Sandymount, Dublin 4 in 1915.

The fifth family to live in one of them is now selling a house that is fine tuned to family needs, has been cared for through the years and is elegant to boot. Impressively large too, with 322 sq m (3,465 sq ft) of space, it accommodates six bedrooms, three reception rooms and a kitchen/breakfastroom.

For sale through HOK Residential by auction on March 10th, number 25 carries a guide price of €3.2 million.

The original fireplaces, cornicing, bannisters, picture rails, floor boards and most of the windows are intact. So too is the shining brass of fingerplates on many doors and fireplace canopies.

The entrance hallway has tall ceilings, cornicing and a dramatic gallery atop a sweeping staircase. Long windows to the left of the door and another halfway up the stairs make for much light.

There is a walk-in cloakroom and a guest toilet under the stairs. An outer porch with double, glass-panelled doors and tiled floor sets the period mood.

The kitchen has been modernised and reconfigured so that what was probably the original pantry is now the breakfastroom.

The working part of the kitchen has a ceramic tiled floor, extensive oak fittings and windows to the side and rear.

A family sun room at this end of the house, with parquet flooring, wood panelled ceiling and gas stove, could be part of the garden into which a door opens.

The drawing and dining rooms have high ceilings, polished floorboards, cornicing and a pair of fireplaces with hardwood surrounds and marble insets.

In the drawingroom, to the front of the house, there is a wide bay window. A sliding door between the rooms reaches almost to the ceiling.

On the first return there is a small bedroom as well as a beige-tiled family bathroom. The toilet is separate.

The bedroom, now used as a study, has a cast-iron fireplace and two windows.

Three of the remaining bedrooms, including the main one, are off the first floor landing. All have original fireplaces with ornate tiling insets and built-in wardrobes in period style.

The main bedroom has a bay window which mirrors that in the drawingroom below.

The fifth bedroom, on the second return, has polished floorboards, a pair of sash windows, basin and cast-iron fireplace.

A final flight of stairs leads to the top floor and sixth, en suite, bedroom which has a couple of Velux windows.

High hedging runs along one side of the long rear garden with its horseshoe-shaped lawn. There is a patio area close to the house, storage in sheds to the side, a pear tree and many shrubs and plants. To the side there is a garage and, in front, a well-tended garden as well as a driveway with car-parking.