Co Sligo: €450,000Back in 1992, Noreen and I left Dublin for a summer holiday in Co Sligo. We never dreamed of buying a house here, but on our first day we saw a faded photo of Clarkwood House in an estate agents.

We forgot about it for a while, but when we got married, the painter Barrie Cooke lent us his house and studio for our honeymoon, and this place turned out to be about two miles away. We fell in love with it and the area.

We bought the house in 1993. It hadn't been really lived in for 20 years but even then it was a house of great character and had its place in local history.

The original wood ceiling design in the livingroom (a neighbour's local speciality) and wonderfully proportioned square rooms give it a robust country charm and sense of space and natural style. We've kept all the original features intact, and only added a large living-sunroom off the kitchen to let in more heat and light at the back, rebuilding the adjacent shed/granary for use as a studio.

While the studio was being built, I took some of the old cut stone that was on site to build a two-tier terrace, steps and rockery at the back of the house. This is what you see from the sunroom and patio, and it was a real labour of love.

Living here has been a dream for what they call 'work-life balance' - working at home in the studio but being around for the kids growing up.

The gardens are part wild and part cultivated, and growing our own food has been another passion. There's a patch of deep, fertile soil, improved with years of cultivation and the addition of a polytunnel (for year-round organic produce). I swear it takes less work than you might think! It's been great for the kids too, they have lots of freedom, and we're just a mile from their school.

The place is nestled between the extraordinarily beautiful Brieklieve Mountains and the ancient passage tombs at Carrowkeel and Highwood. It's just next to Lough Arrow, and minutes from Lough Key. It's an unspoilt landscape, which became a well of inspiration for my work as an artist. I draw and paint from my mobile studio in the back of a converted truck.

As time, children and pets filled up the house, we imported a two-bedroomed wooden chalet, which we use for guests and also for the sitters who come up for portraits. It sits on the site of an original cottage beside the house, and, as one friend joked, "it looks like you are trying to sell a small village".

What has made it possible for us to live here in rural bliss is partly the great connections outwards. We're 45 minutes from Knock Airport, where you can park in a field and be in New York in five hours or London in one. Dublin is under two and a half hours away.

After dipping into the busy urban world I love that sense of returning to complete peace, and if I need to be reminded of the outside world, there's always the satellite broadband connection.

For the first 10 years, the traditional solid-fuel range in the kitchen was my charming but demanding mistress, needing daily attention for heat and hot water then, somewhat foolishly ahead of my time (before the green energy grants came in) we installed an eco-friendly "Air-source heat pump" which uses the same technology as geothermal systems, but "air" is the source for heat exchange.

This runs continuously at a very low output, keeping the place warm with hot water whether you are there or not - great for any west of Ireland house. It is integrated with the old oil systems for the depths of winter and the now un-needed, but still loved, Stanley cooker. It significantly improved heating costs and quality, and we hope to install one in our next house.

As sorry as we are to leave our house, an opportunity came up to move to the seaside. But we're only going about 30 minutes away so, although the move is big, we keep the most important thing from our 15 years here; the friends we have made. There will be new territory for our lives, and for my art, and while I feel it may be madness to move on from all this beauty and the hard work we've put into it, it'll still be there for someone else to enjoy.

Clarkwood House is for sale through Boyle estate agents, ERA O'Connor Auctioneers seeking offers over €450,000.