Mature gardens a feature of Blackrock home

The present owners have lived in Derryvale, Granville Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin, for 41 years and in that time they have considerably extended the house and made a comfortable, light-filled home. They have put passion, however, into the gardens.

Derryvale is detached and on one-third of an acre, most of which is taken up by front and rear gardens. The house itself has five bedrooms, three reception rooms and a floor area of some 2,500 sq ft. It is for sale by private treaty through Sherry FitzGerald and joint agents Stephen Conway who are quoting a guide price of £850,000 (€107,927)

The owners have extended Derryvale twice during their long occupancy and some of the major benefits of this are to be seen in the L-shaped drawing room. Extending from the front it turns at an angle to run across the rear of the house where two large windows, one of them a sliding patio-style, overlook the rear garden. The fireplace is in white-painted brick and the room itself is painted in tones of gold and yellow. Outside, the patio window steps lead down to the gardens.

An archway leads to a den, an ideal reading room which can be curtained-off for privacy. The floor here is in the original American oak - this has also been retained in the diningroom, hall and part of the drawingroom.

The diningroom is to the front of the house and has been designed and decorated to create a more formal mood than the rest of the house. A serving hatch gives ease of access to the kitchen, the walls are a deep red and there is a picture rail. To the front there is small bedroom with built-in cupboards and wardrobe.

The original kitchen, which has wooden fittings to the ceiling and part-panelled walls, has been extended to make a breakfastroom which is, in effect, a sunroom overlooking the garden. Between the kitchen and a rear hall there is a pantry and off this hall a utility room in which there is a Belfast sink.

A good-sized family room on the ground-floor has hessian covered walls, a cork floor and a wide window to the front. There is a guest toilet and understairs cloakroom with hanging space.

The benefits of the extensions are also apparent in the main bedroom, where an en suite bathroom is a full-sized room in itself. Double doors lead into it from the bedroom and a large, sliding window gives views (obscured a bit by summer's high, heavy foliage) of the bay and Howth head. The colours are green and white and over the bath the tiles have been hand-painted.

There are three more bedrooms upstairs, two of which also have sea views. The separate family bathroom and lavatory are on the landing.

The rear garden has a small lily pond with fountain and patio surrounded by beds of flowers and shrubs.

There is a well-stocked herb garden, two pear trees, two apple trees and a spectacular holly tree. A "secret" garden, with Barna shed, has been screened off by shrubs and trees.

High hedges give privacy throughout and in the front garden there are shrubs and plants as well as an impressive, 37-year old Magnolia tree and off-street car-parking.