When the owners of a terraced house in Marino, Dublin 3, bought their home in 2016, it had already had a modern makeover: in 2014, the previous owner added an extension at the back of the house, creating a bright open-plan livingroom/diningroom/kitchen, moved the staircase and upgraded the heating system to provide a B3 BER energy rating.

The current owner refloored much of the downstairs with good laminate flooring, repainted the house and tackled “the jungle of a back garden”: the 40ft long garden has a new lawn off the back patio. The owners have decided to move back to Howth to be nearer to family.

Number 204 Philipsburgh Avenue is a 129sq m (1,388sq ft) three/four-bed and is for sale through DNG. Bought for €515,000 in 2016, it's back on the market seeking €565,000.

Transport

The house is at the Griffith Avenue end of Philipsburgh Avenue, around the corner from Marino Institute of Education, close to bus routes and about a 12-minute walk from Clontarf Road Dart station.

Number 204 is in the middle of a terrace of five houses. Marino was the location for Ireland’s first public housing initiative in the 1920s, when the houses were built in response to a dire housing problem at the time. The houses near Griffith Avenue were built later on, in the late 1930s/1940s, the owner believes. (Philipsburgh Avenue stretches from Fairview Strand to Griffith Avenue).

Accommodation downstairs includes a reception room, a study/home office that could be a bedroom, a fully-tiled shower room and the kitchen/living/diningroom with a vaulted ceiling and Velux skylights. The smart Nolan’s kitchen has glossy cream units and black granite countertops. Sliding glass doors comprise most of the back wall and open out into the back garden.

Upstairs are three bedrooms, two doubles and a single, and the family bathroom.

Outside, there’s rear access to the garden from a private lane off Philipsburgh Avenue, and parking for two cars to the front.