Take two in D6: Rose Doyle looks at homes backing onto Muckross College, Fiona Tyrell one by Gonzaga's grounds

Sandford Road: €2m A detached house built in 1927 at 100 Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, has a comfortable layout and is still reassuringly what it was in the beginning when, with a value of £850, it was "built and certified by J J Robinson, Architect".

Since then it has had four owners,lived through a period in bedsits and long been converted back to a townhouse.

Modernising touches, even to the addition of four rooms in the 1930s, blend with carefully conserved features like the internal doors with their brass knobs and fingerplates, the pair of bow windows to the front topped with coloured leaded glass, picture and dado rails, high ceilings with cornicing and high, hardwood fireplace surrounds.

The front is suitably clad in Virginia creeper. There is light and space - 161sq m (1,730sq ft) - with four bedrooms and three reception rooms.

There is also a rich and wonderful rear garden, almost 120 ft long, with a lawn bordered by rambling roses, pear and apple trees (one a very good Bramley), shrubs and plants of every flourishing kind.

There are also a number of cement sheds and a glasshouse and, with the grounds of Muckross Park College over the wall, no danger of it being overlooked.

Gunne Residential will sell it at auction on July 12th. It has an AMV of €2 million. The interconnecting drawing and livingrooms have distinctive hardwood fireplaces.

The one in the front drawingroom has an inset shelf, decorative blue inset tiles and a steel canopy which catches the light from the bow window.

The kitchen/ breakfastroom is small and a new owner may modernise and extend into the family room off it to the front. Garden views from the kitchen window are stunning.

There are three bathrooms, one of them at the end of the ground floor hallway doubling as a utility and cloakroom. Two of the bedrooms are to the front, two to the rear with another bow window lighting up the main bedroom.

There is off-street parking for several cars to the front. The vendors have seen Ranelagh change, and somehow stay the same, in their almost 30 years in number 100. Houses like this, once in bedsits, have been increasingly refurbished as family homes and, in a village once filled with takeaways, there are now restaurants, coffee bars and nearby, the Luas.

Park Drive: €3.2m A five-bedroom Edwardian house in the heart of Ranelagh has leafy views over playing fields and is around the corner from the Luas.  Number 37 Park Drive, a 149sq m (1,600sq ft) family home with original features intact will be sold at auction on July 11th through Sherry FitzGerald.

The house, in a mature cul-de- sac close to Cowper Road and facing the playing fields of Gonzaga College, has an AMV of €3.2 million.

The current owners, who have lived here for 35 years and are planning to downsize, have made very little change to the original layout of the house.

Beautifully maintained, there's a lovely sense of space throughout with high ceilings, lots of windows and lovely soft yellow walls throughout.

The drawingroom and diningroom both have elaborate original mantelpieces. Upstairs there is a large landing with pretty stained glass windows.

There are five bedrooms (four double) and a bathroom. Each bedroom has an original cast-iron fireplace.

Although a new SieMatic kitchen was installed in the kitchen in recent years, new owners may opt to expand into the large garden. An enclosed side passage doubles as a utility room.

The back garden has been well loved and has a nice patio area and raised flower beds with railway sleepers.

Park View is close to the upmarket shopping area of Dunville Avenue and two minutes' walk from Cowper Luas stop.

... and two for less on the southside.

Dalkey: €1.7m Summer is in full swing but the heat has gone out of the property market, at least for the moment. Traditionally the summer months are a good time to go house hunting as vendors who haven't managed to sell early in the season may be more flexible on price. Lisney has cut prices on two family homes in the south suburbs in the hope of wrapping up a sale on each in the coming weeks.

San Michele on Barnhill Road, Dalkey is a five-bedroom semi with a 27.3-metre (90ft) back garden. It didn't sell at auction in May and was then on the market at €1.85 million. The asking price has now been dropped to €1.7 million.

The redbrick fronted house is close to Dublin's most fashionable village but has plenty of privacy with off-street parking and the sunny back garden. Inside, it has 220sq m (2,375sq ft) of living space, including both formal rooms and a family room that spans the back of the house.

There is a large kitchen and utility room and a study, as well as a guest cloakroom on the ground floor. Five bedrooms, three of them large doubles, share a family bathroom on the first floor where there is also access to a fully floored attic with pull down ladder.

Foxrock: €1.9m Lisney had been looking for offers over €2 million when they first launched this large detached house in Foxrock Manor six weeks ago. However, the owners have bought elsewhere in the neighbourhood and are keen to sell, so the price for the five-bedroom house has been dropped to €1.9 million.

Foxrock Manor is a mature development off Leopardstown Road, a short drive away from Foxrock village and major transport routes.

Number 56 has 230sq m (2,475sq ft) of space, three reception rooms and a main bedroom suite the size of a small apartment. The house has a traditional layout with interconnecting drawingroom and diningroom, a separate family room and a 21ft kitchen breakfastroom. Off-street car-parking and a manageable back garden complete the picture.