Rambling semi with a touch of the 1930s

Dublin 4/€1.6 million: A six-bedroom home near the city still has lots of room to extend, writes Rose Doyle

A 1930s Crampton-built semi-d at 154 Merrion Road in Dublin 4 is expected to fetch over €1.6 million at auction through Sherry FitzGerald on April 21st.

Sitting on a quarter acre, with mature gardens, the six-bedroom house has plenty of space to extend; either into the 110 ft rear garden or the large garage to the side. It has an appealing, rambling-style layout in which a winding stairs with oak handrail leads to the top floor, eyrie-like en suite attic bedroom with sloping ceilings and four dormer windows set into alcoves. The en suite has a Velux window and shower.

There is a 1930s mood and style to the terrazzo tiled floor of the outer porch and wide entrance hallway which gets extra light from a window over the first return on the stairs. A guest cloakroom at the end of the hallway is in a green colour while a front study, with a large window overlooking the front, also has a 1930s feel. There are polished pine floors in the interconnecting living and dining rooms, as well as a wood surround fireplace with marble inset. All of this benefits from the light of a large front bay window and patio doors leading to the rear garden.

A new owner might choose to extend the smallish kitchen/breakfastroom which has a parquet floor, window over the rear garden, floor and wall units in timber and which leads to an inner lobby with utility and walk-in pantry. The family/tv room has a soaring, vaulted pine ceiling with centre skylight. Four windows overlook the garden and a door leads to the side.

On the first floor, there is a large landing and corridor, five bedrooms, family bathroom and hotpress. The main bedroom has a deep bay window overlooking an old holly tree with a smaller, feature window alongside. The floor is of polished timber and there are built-in cupboards and wardrobe.

There are polished floorboards too in the other bedrooms, and built-in wardrobes. Three are good sized, the fourth is a box room. The door to the blue-carpeted family bathroom has as mirrored inset on the outside while the bathroom has white ornate tiling, bidet, toilet, bath with shower and two windows.

Largely in lawn, the rear garden has a restful area under old trees at the end. There are old fruit trees and three outhouses. The front garden has high hedging, a lawn and off-street parking as well as vehicular access to the garage.