Rugby Road is a small cul de sac of terraced houses situated off Oxford Road, which connects Ranelagh Road to Charlston Avenue. It is a short distance from the Triangle in Ranelagh and close to Rathmines Swan Centre yet feels way off the beaten track.

Number 42 is a snazzy two-bedroom open-plan house that was remodelled by its owner, Jonathan Kirwan and his brother, a freelance interior architect, Gary Kirwan, who lives next door. Jonathan bought the property in 2001 and set about rearranging the layout, moving the stairs 180 degrees to the rear of the house.

In the space in the hall freed up by the move he installed a good size guest wc, which means guests don’t have to go upstairs to use the facilities.

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The brothers opened up the two rooms to create an open-plan lounge- cum-dining room with a galley kitchen running along one wall. The space is accessed from a small hall via a sliding door. The lounge area has a gas-fuelled open fire. Sliding doors to the rear open out to a city-sized yard that faces north-west. Its back wall is painted a grey blue that brings some colour into the house. There is pedestrian rear access.

The space is particularly bright thanks in part to a novel light source: the landing floor is made of sturdy, toughened glass that allows light to pool down from the roof lights above through the glass landing and into the centre of the living room.

An oiled oak staircase leads upstairs where there are two small double bedrooms. Neither is wide enough to put bedside lockers in but when doing the work the owner insisted on a decent-size shower room that is filled with natural light thanks to its large roof light.

The house, which measures 74sq m (800sq ft), is for sale by private treaty through agents Gunne and asking €495,000.

In February of last year, number 20, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, sold for €350,000. In September, number 14, a four-bedroom property of 106sq m (1141sq ft) sold for €451,000.