It makes sense that architects have the edge when it comes to househunting - especially when it comes to older houses.

Eleanor McGarry, an architect with Dublin City Council, gives an example of just why being in the business helps.

Four years ago when she and her husband, and fellow architect, John Feely, were looking at houses, their first instinct when they saw one they liked was to go home to get a piece of paper and calmly draw up the rooms - "that way we wouldn't be distracted by the colour of the walls or a funny arch or horrible bathroom, we'd just be dealing with the basic shape", says Eleanor McGarry.

Their current house at 13 Millmount Place in Drumcondra was very different when they first saw it. Apart from needing all the basics - rewiring, heating, and so on - the redbrick, terraced house had an extension (of sorts) out the back that meant that the original back reception room was very dark.

"We basically went back to the original floor plan of the house," says John Feely, an architect with deBlacam and Meagher, "knocking down the extension brought a lot of light in."

Once that was done they were left with two reception rooms and another, smaller room in the back return.

They knocked the reception rooms together, laid solid oak flooring throughout and put the kitchen in what was the front reception room. Fitted oak units, custom-built for the space and topped with marble, line one wall.

"We liked the idea of the living area opening out onto the garden," says John Feely, and it does, in a very stylish fashion through an extra-large Oroko door.

The small room in the return became the bathroom and it too features a custom-designed window that's dramatic in its large scale so that whoever is lounging in the partially sunken bath can look out onto the patio. Needless to say the house is not overlooked at the back. The bathroom is plainly fitted out with limestone flooring, white mosaic tiles, and tucked into a corner is the washing machine.

Interesting details on the ground floor include the panelled chimney breast in the living area, the contemporary styled fireplaces and the way that the original door into what is now the kitchen has been converted into an internal window.

Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, two doubles, the most attractive of which runs the width of the house at the front, and a small single bedroom in the back return.

The two larger bedrooms feature original fireplaces. A Velux window gives additional natural light to the landing and down through to the hallway.

Throughout, the decor has been kept simple with subtle Farrow & Ball colours.

The 14-metre long back garden has a gravelled patio area and a patch of grass and, at the end, there's the very clever idea of a tall wall about a metre away from the real back wall.

It is painted a soft blue, has a square, window shape cut into it, "just for fun really", says John Feely, and best of all conceals bikes, wheelie bins, the back gate out on to a lane and even the washing line.

Now, two children later, the couple are moving to nearby Glasnevin and 13 Millmount Place, Drumcondra, with 82 sq m (880 sq ft) is for sale through Douglas Newman Good by private treaty for in excess of €445,000.