Decorative redbrick with period features - and lots of fireplaces

DUBLIN 6 €985,000:THIS REDBRICK house is impressive from the outside, with its tall, arched windows, wide front, decorative details – such as the lines of dark brick picking out the shape of the windows – and three storeys. And 8 Windsor Road, between Ranelagh and Rathmines, is deceptively large inside.

The current owners of this 253sq m (2,723sq ft) house, which is for sale at € 985,000 through Allen and Jacobs Estates, have been here for 29 years.

When they first moved in they turned it into a family home by incorporating a bedsit on the first floor back into the rest of the house.

And in 1989 they added an extension to the rear. This is in exposed brick and pine, and was built just before Dublin 6’s love affair with Modernism in extension design began.

The extension has faceted walls and large, west-facing windows beside the paved garden. It comprises a kitchen, with quarry-tiled floor and Aga, and a sitting room, with pine floor and exposed-timber ceiling.

To the front of the house are two reception rooms that were joined by the owners. There are steps down from the front part to the back and both rooms have period fireplaces.

There are period features through the house, including lots of fireplaces (one in a bathroom on the first return), decorative plasterwork, and sash windows and many of the doors were stripped back to the original timber by the previous owners. There are also lovely three-petal flowers inset into the side of the stairs.

The reception room has two tall, arched windows to the front of the house while the rear two windows, which were at the original back of the house, now face the corridor that leads to the kitchen.

Also on this floor are two small rooms to the rear, one of which used to be a kitchen and the other a washroom/utility. They are now two studies.

There is also a utility room at the back of the extension.

On the first floor is a wonderful bedroom, spanning the width of the house to the front, with three tall, arched windows, one over the front door. There is a lovely, large, period fireplace in here, matching the cream walls.

To the rear is another double bedroom with two large windows, and a white stone fireplace.

There are bathrooms on the two returns: the upper one has a bath and corner fireplace, while the lower one has a power-shower and is painted in a deep red.

On the top floor the main bedroom, facing the front, has two tall windows and a cast-iron fireplace as does the bedroom to the rear, which also has two smaller windows and a basin on a vanity unit.

There is also a garage at the back of the garden and a covered side entrance where bikes and other appendices to living can be stored.

This is a substantial house on a quiet road (we will draw a veil across the time – now past – a few years ago when a student house some way down the street became famous for its parties) whose owners are moving on now that their children have left home.

It would make a great family house although the new owners will probably want to put their own stamp on it.

8 Windsor Road, Dublin 6

Three-storey, 253sq m family home with 4/5 bedrooms and kitchen extension

Agent: Allen and Jacobs