A fine four-bedroom Stringer- built house at 12 Neville Road, Rathgar, is for sale with Sherry FitzGerald for €1.85 million. It last changed hands just three years ago when it sold for €1.373 million, a strong price in the market then and an indication of the popularity of the south Dublin suburb.

Then it was described as in walk-in condition and it had been extended, renovated and attractively decorated, but in this price range, no matter how perfect and appealing a house seems to others, new owners tend to want to get in and, to use that dreadful property phrase, “put their own stamp on it”.

The family who bought the house in 2011 had their own plans to extend – they commissioned TV architect Dermot Bannon to draw up plans to give extra bedroom and bathroom space and planning for that was granted during the summer.

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Meanwhile, they redecorated the four-bedroom house and it is a lovely bright family home with a great feeling of space – it has 252sq m (2,713sq ft).

There is also a converted attic used by the family as a home cinema but it has a shower- room en suite and could be used as a fifth bedroom.

Upgrading and planning

Even with the money they spent upgrading and planning new works, the current owners, who are thought to be upsizing, will make it back and more given the price rises in Dublin 6 this year.

Stringer built just eight of this style of semi-detached red- bricks on Neville Road. They are the biggest houses on this quiet road – similar in design, if a little smaller than the houses he built around the corner on the much busier Highfield Road.

Number 12 was originally a five-bedroom house with a garage to the side. Over the years that layout has changed.

Previous owners converted the garage into a home office at the front and extended at the back to create a family room off the kitchen, with exposed brick wall, a pitched ceiling and opening out to the back garden.

Access to the home office is one thing new owners will probably change in that a door into it wasn’t opened at the time into the square-shaped family hall as would be usual, instead access is via a narrow passage through the utility room off the kitchen. The other major change to the layout was to convert the house from a four-bed to a three-bed.

Wall knocked down

The wall between the front and back bedrooms was knocked down so that double bedroom is now a dressing area fitted with custom-built units with a full-sized bathroom en suite.

The three other bedrooms are two double and one single and there is a family bathroom.

Downstairs, the two interconnecting reception rooms have their original fireplaces and floorboards and open at the back on to the garden.

The kitchen is well-planned and fitted with custom-built painted timber units and a cherry-red Aga. There is a breakfast bar and room for a good-sized dining table.

The mature back garden has a sun-trap flagged patio area. There is off-street parking to the front for a couple of cars.