When the Cosgraves, working under the banner of Jackson Homes, built Charleville Square, the peaceful gated development just off Rathfarnham’s Butterfield Avenue in 2000, they had a pair of surprises up their sleeves. Alongside the apartments and townhouses in the Edwardian-style scheme, are a pair of corner houses, with spacious secrets behind their façades

Number 46 is a five-bed family home with a massive 295sq m (3,175sq ft) of space and a roomy garden.

0 of 6

A wide hallway leads to a TV room to one side, and sitting room large enough for a baby grand piano and plenty of sofa seating to the other. Beyond is a vast kitchen / dining / livingroom, with a small study off it. This space was extended by the owners in 2006, and features wraparound windows with recessed electric blinds.

This whole area has space for a breakfast area, dining table (that can extend to seat 20), a large corner couch, and even a ping pong table.

Sports options

The sports options only start here. Outside the 0.23 acre south-west facing gardens, which are completely private, include a playhouse, patio, trampoline and six-hole putting green, as well as a vegetable garden, where we stop to sample some exceptionally tasty tomatoes.

Upstairs are five bedrooms, three of which, including the main, are en suite. “They’re lucky children,” the owner says. “They all have their own rooms.” Their luck continues, with all the space to play (whether piano or ping pong, golf or gardening) that this house includes. There’s also a huge attic, currently accessed by ladder.

“It’s so safe,” the kids are outside all the time, and that includes in the common areas of the estate, where you get the strong impression it’s the kind of place where everyone looks out for everyone else.

The house and grounds are in walk-in condition, with all the hallmarks of a stylish family home that has space for everyone to work and play. It’s for sale with Turley Property Advisors for €1.25 million.