Selling up on the square after all these years

Ranelagh: €1.25mWhen writer Petra Carter went househunting in Ranelagh in the late 1970s, everything seemed to be £4,000 over her budget and mortgage rates were a whopping 17.5 per cent

It was spring 1979, and we had returned to Dublin after some years in East Africa. Hard to imagine now, but Ireland was going through an unprecedented property boom, and there was that same feverish sense of urgency to "get onto the property ladder" as there is today.

Our first son was born two months later and, while renting a flat in Ranelagh, we set about looking for a house to buy. I wanted to stay in D6.

Having stumbled across Mountpleasant Square by accident, its uniqueness, secrecy and oodles of (then dilapidated) charm, had me hooked.

Friends told my (Irish) husband that I was crazy and reckoned that, as a blow-in, how could I possibly know about the importance of location, location? "It's flatland at its worst," they said. "The pits," others added. "And besides . . . here are those tenement buildings right next door!"

It wasn't to be anyway. Our life's savings amounted to £4,000. We made offers on various small Georgian houses but, even with a large mortgage, were outbid each time.

Country properties were more desirable then - everyone wanted to get out of Dublin and, as he was a pilot and had to commute to the airport, so did John.

Thus we lived in Co Meath for a few years, but I didn't forget Mountpleasant.

So when the opportunity presented itself to buy a small restaurant and move back to Dublin, I jumped at the chance of looking again at Ranelagh. We viewed an endless stream of houses and again we lost as many as we bid for.

Frustratingly, every house we liked was again some £4,000 above budget - a huge sum at that time. Then, there it was - number 27 in my "dream square" . . . on the market.

We loved the house of course. A 75ft south-west facing garden not only meant a sunny playground for the boys, but more importantly, evening sun on the patio for relaxed meals after work.

Rear access to Mountpleasant Avenue with two shops right beside meant we'd never again have to run out of milk or bread.

And there was the sports element: the tennis club with its 11 courts and squash/badminton hall, and the Leinster Cricket Club at the back would not only provide us with interest and exercise, but hopefully entice our sons into sports at an early age - as it did. We were surrounded by the best schools and colleges, and whilst Ranelagh now boasts well over 30 fabulous neighbourhood restaurants, in those days the village offered an amazing array of specialist shops.

Remember McCambridges, with its fragrant jars of spices? The all-knowing and all-selling Murphy's hardware? And the colourful Keegans greengrocers and fishmongers?

Needless to say we were seduced. But of course the house was again over budget. The restaurant deal fell through. Yet we chose to take the plunge and make the potentially dangerous decision to borrow the extra money - NOT to buy carpets or curtains or furniture . . . in those days you'd do without, until you could afford them.

John was a freelance pilot in a pre aviation-boom era and he had already been made redundant once, when AVAIR went bust in 1984.

Moreover, mortgage rates were a whopping 17.5 per cent! We had sleepless nights for five years - in case we couldn't pay up and would lose the house. But we survived these economically uncertain times.

Over the years we restored more than we renovated, as we love the charm of truly original Georgian houses with their elegant tall windows that allow the light to flood in, the exquisitely crafted details, the quality of the materials and the pure, perfect beauty of it all.

There is an active residents' association that cares enough to have established a well-planned regeneration scheme for the square.

As residents, we may think we own these valuable houses but in fact we're only tenants in a historical square that must be preserved for the future.

There is as much an element of romanticism as a political tone, and it has been wonderful to be able to nurture the seeds of appreciation and respect for these in our sons.

A copy of Susan Roundtree's 1991 master's Master thesis on urban and building conservation, which is entirely devoted to Mountpleasant Square, is a fascinating source of information and should stay in the house. Now, with both our boys educated, we can afford to make changes. And plans. We can sell and buy a smaller house in Dublin, then spread our wings and follow our dreams.

We could go trekking through Africa, or backpacking in India. I could run a cookery school in the south of France and paint for pleasure. John could fly his glider around the skies. It's possible. Thanks to the (at the time truly frightening) risk we were prepared to take - way back then. Address: 27 Mountpleasant Square, Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Price:

Details: restored three-bed Georgian with original details, attic room and a potential mews site

Auction date: April 21st

Agent: Douglas Newman Good