Agent's own home for £1.25m-plus

Selling a house is an emotional business and estate agent Tricia Crisp of Ganly Walters is finding out just how painful it can be now that she is selling her own home. The house she and her husband Graham are selling is a large Victorian redbrick on one third of an acre. Ashton, at 5, The Hill, Monkstown, Co Dublin is a five-bedroom two-storey over garden level house will be auctioned on April 13th by Ganly Walters and joint agents Sotheby's International Realty. It is expected to make over £1.25 million.

Like many couples with large houses, the Crisps are moving to a smaller home now that their family has grown up. They are in the happy position of already owning a smaller house. It is in Percy Place, overlooking the canal, and for many years it was the offices of Tricia's former firm, McCabe Crisp, which recently merged with Ganly Walters. The vacant house seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, and the Crisps are now following the trend of moving out of the traffic-blighted suburbs into the city centre.

The large Victorian semi-detached house on a third of an acre is furnished in immense style on two floors over garden level. Built in the 1850s, it has two reception rooms, three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the first and second floors, with two further bedrooms at garden level.

The front drive has a massive cedar, and the secluded back garden is tiered in three terraces.

The Crisps bought the house in 1974 for £18,000. "Many period details like the fireplaces and plaster work remained untouched," says Tricia. "We renovated, adding two extra bathrooms and moving the kitchen upstairs from the basement by knocking through to the morning room."

The L-shaped entrance hall, which is large enough to take a sideboard and hall table, is flamboyantly decorated in shades of pinky-orange and grey green, the shades picked up in the carpet, walls, recessed wall alcove and ornate ceiling plasterwork.

The drawing-room is elegant and restful. It is decorated in pale shades of beige, pale green and ivory. The original fireplace has an imposing white marble mantel. All windows are double glazed and central heating is oil fired.

Some years ago Tricia designed the kitchen, which is incorporated into a large rear-facing morning room. The kitchen is clutter-free with floor and wall storage painted white, an American oak wood floor and a square bay window. The large morning room, decorated in warm pinks, has a period cast-iron fireplace with brass hood, built-in bookshelves, and it has space for a large dining table.

Upstairs, the main bedroom area is a suite of three rooms comprising bedroom, bathroom and dressing room. The bedroom has been recently redecorated in shades of cream and beige.

The bathroom leads on to a dressing-room with extensive wardrobes, lots of storage space, including shelves built into the window shutters.

Two further bedrooms share a bathroom at the top of the house. The garden level has two bedrooms, a large family room with a wood-burning stove set in large bricked hearth, a kitchen, a stylish wood panelled shower room, a wine storage room and a laundry room. It has two separate exterior entrances and could be separately let.