Name: Donal Maguire and Clare Bowe. Address: Arbour Hill, Dublin 7. Dwelling: mid-terrace, two-bed house. Here since: 2005
We live in Arbour Hill in Stoneybatter.We lived in an apartment on Thomas Street before that, and we learned our lesson - we didn't want to live in an apartment. We love Thomas Street, though. There's a real sense of community there - we still go up to Meath Street for the markets and butchers - and we wanted something like that.
We were looking at Stoneybatter; we have friends living here, and we found a mid-terrace, two-bedroom house. You usually find people sitting out on the steps on fine days. There's not the same interaction between people on corridors as there is on the street. The problem with apartments is that they're a temporary home for many people. When your neighbours are changing all the time, you don't get the same sense of community. Here it's different; people have lived here for 50 or 60 years. It's actually easier for someone to come in when there's an established community there.
One thing we like about our house is that it's a period house, about 100 years old, and there's something really comforting about knowing that it has housed so many people before you. It's been a home for so many generations of people, and you're part of that.
An American woman has organised two community gardens in the green areas at the end of each row of houses (featured in last week's Irish Times Magazine). They're a focal point for people. She's had two garden parties and everybody was out on the street for the day, showing their support for the community.
We are both trained as artists - a glass artist and painter, and we have a studio nearby. That's the great thing about Stoneybatter: it has all these sides to it. The fact that we're moving in is obviously making a difference to the area, and although we're providing a mix, which is beneficial, maybe something will be lost.
We'll miss the markets off Capel Street, where we get our fruit every weekend. It's a very different experience to going to a supermarket, you have to bargain, but it's to be shut down before the end of the year. It's going to be turned into a trendy Covent Garden-style market. If it has not got prices that local people who have lived here all their lives can afford, it won't work.
What's great about Stoneybatter is that it isn't manufactured regeneration, it has happened by itself, without having money being thrown at it. You can't shove an apartment building right into the middle of it - the small village feel, with terraced houses, can't be taken away from it. That will always be there.
• In conversation with Davin O'Dwyer