Four-bed family home near DART for £480,000-plus

Families with teenage children are likely to be interested in 12 Dornden Park, a detached 2,280 sq ft four-bedroom bungalow that comes with a new garden office/ playroom. The house is in a cul-de-sac not far from the junction of Trimleston Avenue and Booterstown Road.

Refurbished and extended in the 20 years that its present owners have lived there, it has plenty of space for a growing family, as well as being near the DART, and UCD. It is scheduled for auction by Cumisky Auctioneers on September 28th, and carries a guide price of £480,000.

The house is the second to last in a cul-de-sac in this quiet estate, and has a deceptively modest exterior. A long open-plan, splitlevel kitchen/breakfastroom leading to a comfortable family room has a solid beech Junckers floor, a raised, railed-off dining area, fitted white units with redtiled splashback, an island unit and a utility room.

The timber floor extends to the family room which opens through patio doors into the garden. There are three large rooflights over the whole area.

The livingroom/diningroom, which runs the depth of the house, has a polished timber floor, a cast-iron fireplace with slate hearth and a tiled fireplace.

The four bedrooms are reached from a hall off the main entrance hall, and are quite separate from the living area. Painted a striking blue, the long narrow hall has bookshelves running its length high up the wall, with a ladder placed nearby.

The first bedroom off the hall is a good-sized room with a high ceiling, like all the rooms in the house. It has two substantial built-in sleeping platforms incorporating desk/study areas and wardrobes underneath. Unlike many of the bed-cum-desk units you can buy ready-made, there is plenty of space to stand up and move around in the desk area.

Another smaller bedroom also has a large platform bed with storage underneath, but this freestanding unit will move to the owners' new home. A third bedroom - which is big enough for a double bed - and the main bedroom both look out on to the back garden. The main bedroom has a wall of fitted timber wardrobes, as well as plenty of storage over and around the bed, and a large en suite bathroom.

The room looks on to the 165 sq ft timber Homespace unit in the back garden. While this has reduced space in the garden, it is a very useful addition: equipped with electricity and phone lines, it could be a home office, playroom, teenage den - or parents' escape hatch. The garden has mature trees and shrubs, and a terracotta-tiled patio with a border.