£1.45m on a gracious road

A three-storey over basement period home in Dublin 4 is, according to Geralyn Byrne of Sherry FitzGerald, on the "good" side of Wellington Road. But while having a west-facing back garden is a plus, this Ballsbridge road is so fine it hardly matters which side the house is on. Number 51 is also one of the bigger ones on the graciously wide and very quiet road because it is three storeys over basement spread over nearly 3,500 sq ft. It will be auctioned on May 30th and the guide is £1.45 million (#1.84m).

The present owners have lived in the house since the 1970s. While they put in a kitchen, bathroom and some showers, the house now requires extensive modernisation. Any additions the owners made, however, don't appear to have damaged any of the fine period features which are evident in all rooms above basement level.

For example, the aluminium doors installed just inside the hall door to create an inner hall could be easily removed, and while mostly boarded up, all the original fireplaces are there.

The basement area has suffered the biggest changes. Sometime in the 1960s, it was divided up into a warren of smaller rooms which look to be in poor condition. It would make a wonderful kitchen and family living area.

Currently the kitchen, which is very dated, is in the hall level return and there is access down to the back garden from it. It could almost certainly become another reception room or study.

At hall level, there are two grand interconnecting reception rooms, but even more dramatic is the first floor livingroom. It runs the width of the house and has all its period features intact. Also at this level is a large bedroom to the back. At the top of the house there are two more bedrooms and a bathroom.

Number 51 shares a handsome common front area with the house next door: it has parking for several cars. The back garden is over 90 ft long.