Poet's D6 semi in neighbourly cul-de-sac

Dartry €1m: D6 has changed as it became one of the capital's most desirable postal codes - but there's a sense of the past about a house in Dartry, says Rose Doyle

St Kevin's Gardens is a leafy cul-de-sac in the old, strongly beating residential heart of Dartry, Dublin 6. Number 10 St Kevin's Gardens has been well and happily lived in by only three families since it was built in 1921.

The present owner, a poet who says she's "never even moved bedrooms", is the second generation of her family to live there. Time was, she remembers, when the house next door had a shop in its front livingroom and cattle on the way to Dún Laoghaire bellowed past on nearby roads.

All changed - but the sense of a past and neighbourly times are everywhere in number 10.

For sale through Sherry FitzGerald, with a guide of €1 million, the price reflects its location, size - 135sq m (1,450sq ft), and a layout with four bedrooms, two reception rooms and kitchen/breakfastroom. It goes to auction on November 3rd.

Semi-detached and two-storeyed, the redbrick/pebble-dash front façade has a wide bay window and sheltering porch. Original intact features include cornicing, windows, panelled doors and some fireplaces.

Modernised over the years, structural change is limited to the rear where the original kitchen, coal shed and dining area were opened up to make for a good-sized, light-filled kitchen/breakfastroom. The addition of a large Velux over the return landing allows light filter throughout the house.

The interconnecting reception rooms have high ceilings, dusty pink painted woodwork and the light and charm of the bay window.

A dado rail runs the length of the hardwood-floored hallway to where a glass-paned door leads to the quarry-tiled kitchen-cum-breakfastroom.

Here a cast-iron fireplace, originally elsewhere in the house, fits snugly into a wall where there was once a range. The Belfast sink overlooking the garden is original, the blue-tiled splashback new.

The family bathroom on the first floor return has a free-standing claw-foot bath on a white-tiled floor. Light falls from a Velux onto the blue-painted tongue and groove walls and ceiling.

One of the bedrooms is on this return, the others off the first floor landing. Two have original, cast-iron fireplaces. There are fitted storage cupboards on the landing.

The gardens, railed to the front and walled to the back, have pebbled paths, flower beds, plants and bushes. The rear garden has a concrete shed and, by a sheltering wall, a barbeque/al fresco eating area.