Vendors Liz and Mick have been thinking about selling their Donnybrook home for over a year. "We've been so happy here," they say, "we're beside everything that's good in the city – including Herbert Park, which is our garden!" All true, but so is the reality of their grown family and need to downsize, find a personal garden for Liz and a shed for Mick.

Built in 1900 their terraced house at 27 Victoria Avenue is good-sized 128.21sq m (1380sq ft). It cost € 75,000 in 1989 but it needed refurbishment. They've done a lot of work since then, careful all the while to retain original doors, flooring where possible, plasterwork, fireplaces, dado rails - even the five-lever inner lock and key on the front door. Once they got basics like rewiring, heating and a new roof right, they replaced windows, added a new kitchen/breakfastroom ("you couldn't have swung a cat in the original"), converted the attic to a bedroom suite, enclosed the rear patio/yard with red brick similar to the house and added an insulating front porch.  No 27 now has two bedrooms, converted attic, living and family rooms, utility and kitchen/breakfastroom. Agent DNG is asking €795,000.

‘Keep the unity’

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The kitchen’s ceiling height is comparable to the rest of the house – “we wanted it high to keep the unity,” Mick says. It has a large skylight, double glass doors to the patio/yard, stone-coloured walls and creamy coloured fittings. The family room has a very effective wood burning stove and polished oak floor. There is another oak floor in the hallway.

The front facing sitting room has a pair of large windows, original ornate plasterwork and fine, black marble fireplace. A first-floor, rear bedroom has an original (cast-iron) fireplace, the main, front-facing bedroom has another pair of large windows and the attic conversion has three velux windows, a landing and separate shower room.