It's been around five years since one of the fine family houses on  Monkstown's highly desirable Knapton Road came on the open market but in the last week of September two will go under the hammer through Douglas Newman Good, both with a guide of €1.2 million. Bernice Harrison reports

The owner of Thabor, Knapton Road says she fell in love with it because of its nooks and crannies and there certainly is a rambling feel to the house which was built in 1927. The same family have lived here for the past 26 years and there are five bedrooms and 158 sq m (1,700 sq ft).

But what makes this house stand out is the plot of land on which it was built. It is well off the road, the garden at the back is over 46 metres long and to the side of the house, the garden is 10 metres wide.

The livingroom is at the back of the house off the square-shaped, bright hallway. The formal diningroom to the right. Another door to the right leads into a collection of smaller rooms where the kitchen area is and then beyond that to a door at the side of the house.

The kitchen itself has been updated in terms of fittings and appliances but it is very small and galley-style, and is adjacent to a walk-in pantry and a separate, quite basic utility room. The small breakfast room at the back has sliding patio doors installed by the current owners to give better access to the garden - whoever designed the house intended that the quite formal-looking door at the side of the house should be "back" door.

New owners will almost certainly look at this collection of rooms and knock the whole lot through to make a large eat-in kitchen, that's if they don't decide to extend - as others on the road in similar houses have done - into the back garden.

Upstairs there are five bedrooms, three doubles and two small singles. The bathroom and wc are separate and, as they feature the now thoroughly out of favour avocado suite, are ripe for renovation.

The downstairs loo is to the front and has a distinctive porthole window.

There is a garage to the side but it is very small by today's standards and there is parking for at least four cars.

Douglas Newman Good will be auctioning Thabor on September 23rd.

Glencoe, Knapton Road is a four-bedroom house with 193 sq m (2,080 sq ft) and a back garden of around 15 metres. It has been in the same family for the past 40 years and has been well maintained, although new owners may update the kitchen and bathroom and rethink the extension.

Off the bright and spacious hallway on one side are good-sized interconnecting reception rooms made more attractive by the dual aspect in the livingroom to the front, and its bay window. At the back of the house on the other side, is the kitchen which still has its original terracotta floors but has been modernised and extended over the years by knocking through a couple of smaller rooms. Running along the back of the house is a single storey extension that contains two rooms, a sun room and a diningroom. As this extension is rather dated and does not make the best use of the space - or access to the rest of the house and splendidly planted garden - it's likely that new owners will rethink the whole thing and possibly knock it to rebuild an entirely new eat-in kitchen with better views and access to the garden. It's mostly this extension that makes the house larger than its neighbour across the road.

Upstairs off the good-sized landing there are four double bedrooms. The main bedroom is to the front with the same duel aspect windows as the livingroom downstairs and an original fireplace. The bathroom, which would have originally been two rooms, a small wc and a bathroom, has been knocked together and modernised with the addition of a walk-in shower. There is also a toilet downstairs.

There is covered side access with a utility area and it leads through to the back garden, which was obviously a labour of love for a very imaginative gardener. It is thoughtfully laid out and planted with an exotic array of shrubs, flowers and trees. To the front there is a decent-sized lawn area and parking for four cars. Douglas Newman Good will be auctioning Glencoe on September 24th.