For artist Frances Byrne, Gort na Drew, on Alma Road, Monkstown, has proved to be a great family home. She moved to the Victorian semi-detached house 21 years ago and her seven children grew up there. "It was terrific for raising a big family," says Frances. "Because of the solid walls, the children could have their friends in and play music loudly without impinging on everyone else, and the staircase was always a great place for playing hide and seek." She also found the area, between the shops of D·n Laoghaire and Blackrock and with the DART close by, an easy neighbourhood to live in. But the time has come, with four children moved out, and the remaining three well on their way, to think about a smaller place to live.

The five-bedroom house, which has a two-bedroom apartment at garden level, is now on the market with a guide price of £775,000 (E;984,037). It will be auctioned by Daphne L Kaye on November 7th.

The unusual redbrick house is one of a pair built by the architect Sir Thomas Drew for himself on land he bought in 1876.

Thomas Drew was responsible for an amount of church architecture and this influence can be clearly seen in the elaborate late Victorian detail of the house. Very little has been changed and almost all the original features are still there including the wide timber and wrought iron staircase, the large sash windows, complete with original wooden roller blinds which are pulled up from the window sill, and the original stone or timber fireplaces with blue and aqua tiled insets.

Steps lead up to a front porch with stained glass windows which incorporate the architect's initials. At hall level there is a large cloakroom panelled in wood and then the first flight of stairs leads to a big square landing, off which there are two enormous interconnecting reception rooms. There is a corner bay window in front with views over the sea to Howth and an almost wall-sized window looking out on the back garden. In both of these rooms there are fireplaces, ceiling mouldings and wooden window seats. The third room on this floor has been converted into a kitchen/diningroom.

The kitchen is at the back of the house looking out on the garden and has an original feel to it with its angled fireplace and coved ceiling. A study leads off an upper landing while the next floor up has four bedrooms. The main bedroom has a sea view from its corner window.

The family bathroom has its original tongue and groove panelling and a pretty stained glass cubicle for the toilet.

Up a further flight of stairs is the fifth bedroom, in the attic. This has large Velux windows and there is plenty of storage in cupboards under the eaves, as well as an attractive stained glass panel overlooking the landing.

There is a large sloping front garden which has been paved and planted, wide side access and a separate door to the garden level apartment and a big square back garden, mostly in lawn but with flower beds and rockery angled towards the back.

This is a house that would appeal to a large family as long as they did not mind much running up and down stairs, or equally could be converted into three wonderful apartments.

For anyone interested in the building of the period it is an opportunity to acquire a house which, while it has been modernised with gas-fired heating and a modern kitchen, has been almost untouched in every other way. The few partition walls which have put up to change certain usage would be very easily removed.