The pattern is usually this: period house comes on the market, after a while the sales board comes down and a skip appears in front, and the reasonable assumption is that new owners are getting work done.

Just over five years ago the “For Sale” sign went up on number 5 Leahy’s Terrace, a fine, well-positioned Victorian terrace in Sandymount,Dublin, and some time later a skip appeared – what hadn’t happened was the middle part – the sale.

Instead the owners got the offer of a corporate letting, so they took the 249sq m (2,564sq ft) property off the market and upgraded parts of the two-storey over-basement period home for the tenants.

That arrangement has now ended, and the UK-based owners, who had used the Dublin 4 property themselves infrequently, are selling – definitely this time, the rooms are now -presented bare of furniture – and number 5 is on the market through Colliers seeking €1.3 million.

In these style houses there are usually two principal rooms upstairs. In this the layout was altered to suit the needs of the owners who in a bold decision some years ago sacrificed what would have been a very large rear double bedroom to create a luxurious bathroom with a contemporary free-standing bath, a shower, toilet and a his-and-hers vanity unit.

Meanwhile, for their own bedroom they used the other room on this level which runs the width of the house at the front, with high ceilings, two sash windows and a fireplace. The two other double bedrooms – much less grand, but both with en suites – are in the return, one at hall level, one at basement level.

Also at hall level, which is rich in period detail, are two bright, nicely proportioned interconnecting reception rooms. Their folding doors are long gone but each room has its original white marble fireplace – and the house’s position on the road means it has a pleasant open aspect to the front, looking straight out towards St Mary’s Church.

Down at basement level the original cream high-gloss contemporary kitchen was upgraded for an even smarter one for the tenants, this with more fashionable grey units and stone worktops built on facing walls with a dining table in the middle.

The kitchen opens out to the northeast-facing garden to the rear and into a living room to the front.

Number 5 shares the flight of granite steps to its front door with its neighbour, as well as a pedestrian entrance – parking is on-street – and in recent years both houses have come together to improve the front garden.