Residents of the gleaming white terrace of substantial period houses in De Vesci Terrace in Monkstown enjoy a very special amenity – keys to the 4½-acre park in front of their homes. That’s the view most residents enjoy from their front windows, and the owners of number 1 have that too, but as their property is located at the end of the terrace they also have something else – sea views.

They bought the 403sq m /4,388sq ft property in 1979 when it had been divided – the garden level was a self-contained flat and the coach house to the rear was in original condition. When built in the 1840s it was the largest of the 11 houses on the terrace – it still looks it – so they didn’t need to extend just rework the interior to suit their family.

They commissioned architect Alain Giacometti to reincorporate the garden level into the main house and install a family kitchen down here; convert the coach house into a 73sq m/785sq ft two-bedroom mews (accessed via a gated lane); and figure out how to install an en suite and dressing room for the main bedroom which, like the gracious living room below, is dual aspect, the gable window looking out over the more recently built developments across the road to the sea.

Another attractive feature of the houses in this terrace is the tall wall and railings to the front giving extra privacy, not that there’s much in the way of passing traffic.

Interior

Number 1’s front door is up a tall flight of granite steps and it opens into an outer hall with double doors – with coloured glass – and then into a spacious inner hall. Off it is a formal drawing room to one side, with a smaller reception room and a formal dining room on the other side of the hall. The reception rooms to the front have distinctive, tall oriel bays still fitted with their original French windows and the ceiling plasterwork at this level, notably in the drawing room, is particularly fine.

To the rear on this hall floor is a home office, guest toilet and a door to a flight of exterior stairs leading down to the back garden.

Upstairs are four bedrooms – three particularly large doubles and one single. What would have been another bedroom was converted into an en suite and dressing room for the main bedroom. A sun room is ideally positioned in the top return.

Down at garden level is a family room, bathroom, utility and large eat-in kitchen. Double doors open from the kitchen out to a beautifully planted side garden.

The back garden is laid out as a paved courtyard and the owners now park there. The cleverly designed two-storey mews incorporates a garage door and drive through.

Just as the current owners did when they moved in four decades ago, new owners will do work to modernise this fine period home.

Number 1 De Vesci terrace is for sale through Knight Frank seeking €2.4 million.