Renovation Plans: Buy this house . . .

. . . and you'll get the plans to turn it into the modern home on the right. Emma Cullinan reports

The vendors of 8 Trees Road, Mount Merrion, Dublin, have provided a virtual tour of the property on a dedicated website (www.deantus.com/treesroad/).

Here you are in the bedroom, scanning the walls from one side to another, and then nipping into the en suite. Downstairs you can see how the kitchen is top-lit from a skylight and the way in which it links to the livingroom and out through large glass doors into the garden.

Should this tasteful, architect-designed home appeal to you then by all means put in an offer but you will have to wait some time before you move in because it hasn't been built . . . yet.

This 3-D tour was the brainchild of Andrew Machesney who came across the house when he was looking for investments: its large site oozed potential and having bought it, he secured planning permission to almost double its size to 231sq m (2,482sq ft).

That's why - in a moment of admirable honesty - selling agents Sherry FitzGerald are advertising the existing house as "a rather tired and ordinary three-bedroom semi-detached home".

Having talked the property down somewhat, out comes the footage of the "graceful, well proportioned and imaginative home designed to cope with the demands of modern living". You don't even need to organise the building work, as Machesney is offering his services as project manager. He has detailed costings but as a ballpark the price of the building work will be around €290,000 (plus VAT) with the fitout on top of that.

This is in addition to the €1.4million asking price.

The design is by Mahoney Architecture, which is gaining a reputation for one-off houses for developers. A mews house they designed in Raglan Lane, Dublin 4, for a developer, scooped an Opus Architecture and Construction Award last autumn. At Trees Road, the original house has been expanded with the addition of a steep peaked extension to one side and another to the rear. The architects have also shown how the attic could be converted into a living space.

And just to show that it's all in the details, the blue front door has been replaced by a black one and a clipped bay tree has appeared beside it. The white gate, with its ornate curves, has also disappeared.

More and more architects are showing their schemes to clients as computer "walk-throughs" - now it seems that househunters won't be buying off-plans for much longer but off-cyber tour.