Monkstown: €3.4mA fine period house owned by Eoghan and Anne Harris has clear bay views, says Orna Mulcahy, Property Editor

Dublin Bay as a drawingroom, Seapoint as a swimming pool, Blackrock village as a coffee shop; Monkstown farmers' market as a kitchen garden, and neighbours who know your name . . . so goes the unusually lyrical estate agent's spiel for 15 Trafalgar Terrace, a fine Victorian house overlooking the sea in Monkstown. Owners Anne Harris, deputy editor of the Sunday Independent and political columnist Eoghan Harris, are likely to have had a say in the brochure, which describes the home where they have lived for 20 years. The five-bedroom house is now on the market with an AMV of €3.4 million prior to auction through Lisney on June 13th.

A big open home with as many reception rooms as bedrooms, number 15 has grand proportions, fine fireplaces and cornicework, and an elegant decor with sepia tinted walls created by paints specialist Peter Fitzgibbon.

The 315sq m (3,400sq ft) of living space includes a self-contained apartment at basement level, two fine interconnecting reception rooms at hall level, and a stunning first floor drawingroom where tall sash windows look out over the bay. There's a very different view from the top of the house where the large family bathroom has a huge roll top bath positioned by a window overlooking the lush, south-west facing garden.

The kitchen leads off the main hall and it's a big airy room leading to an original conservatory and the garden. The basement level is a self-contained apartment that cost the owners as much to convert as they had paid for the house. It has a sittingroom with French doors to its own terrace; a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. The wide hallway connecting these rooms has been cleverly used as a library at one end, and study at the other.

With potential for five bedrooms in all, number 15 could also be extended upwards with a big double attic ready for conversion.