Palmerston Road house for £1.2m-plus

A large terraced house on the sunny side of Palmerston Road, in Rathmines, Dublin 6, should set a new price record for the road when it is auctioned on September 29th by Sherry FitzGerald. Number 12 has been extensively renovated over the last decade and the Victorian five-bedroom redbrick is expected to fetch £1.2 million-plus under the hammer. The three-storey house, which has a four-storey return to the side, should appeal to buyers who want an impressive city residence with plenty of space to entertain. This is an ideal house for parties with its fine interconnecting reception rooms at hall level and wide deck running right across the back of the house. When the timber deck was built some years ago, the owners stipulated that it had to be strong enough to take 100 people holding gin and tonics.

Leading off the diningroom, it is a terrific addition to the house adding a friendly element to what could have been a forbiddingly large property and providing a valuable link to the garden below. The garden will be another strong selling point. There are plenty of long back gardens in this neighbourhood but few are so private and so deceptive. Looking out over the garden from the deck, you might be in the middle of a park, so high and deep is the belt of trees around the neighbouring gardens. This garden is in two parts. There is a large formal garden laid out with box and yew hedging. Beyond what looks like a boundary hedge is a hidden garden that is the same size again. This is used for parties by the owners' teenage children and speakers mounted on the wall are linked to a Bang and Olufsen music system.

The house has a total floor area of around 3,500 sq ft.

At hall level there are the two principal rooms with their matching fireplaces and deep ceiling cornices and centre roses. Off the hall is a large guest cloakroom, and there is good under-stairs storage on the way down to the lower floor. A sizeable room on the landing between hall and ground floor, counted as a bedroom in the estate agency's details, could be converted to a kitchen or a butler's pantry. This room is part of the return to the side of the house, and above it, on the landing between the hall and first floor, is a delightful study with windows facing front and back. The first floor has two bedrooms, including a very large main bedroom with a walk-in dressingroom and a separate en suite bathroom. On the top landing is a fourth bedroom and there is also a shower room.

The ground floor has a large utility room with access to the garden and an under-stairs area that could be used to store wine.

There is also a sittingroom at this level, another bedroom and a bathroom, all of which are at the front of the house. The breakfastroom is a large bright yellow room with French doors to the patio, and a wide opening into the kitchen with its smart grey units and granite counter tops. The breakfastroom is a little on the dark side, since the area outside it is overshadowed by the deck above. However, the benefit of the covered patio makes up for the diminished light since it is often used for outdoor meals.

The house is decorated throughout in muted heritage shades that are an ideal backdrop to the owners' collection of furniture and prints.