When getting a house ready to go on the market – particularly if it’s an executors’ sale – sellers often wonder how much work they should do and if the house should be furnished or unfurnished.

The family now selling 10 Brendan Road in Donnybrook, with guidance from their agent, opted for the latter route, and the fine semi-detached five-bedroom home is presented unfurnished, save for the built-in wardrobes in most bedrooms and the units in the galley kitchen. That’s because most buyers will be looking at the house with a view to modernisation – a larger eat-in kitchen being top of the list particularly if it’s a family buying – and presented as a blank slate helps give a clear idea of what is possible.

These are striking looking, very pretty houses, with their Tudor-style timber detailing, brick and pebbledash. They are also larger than they appear. Number 10, which was extended across the rear many decades ago, has 192sq m (2,065sq ft). Crampton-built, they are more in keeping with the style of their (albeit grander) near neighbours on Herbert Park rather than the earlier solid redbricks that line the opposite side of Brendan Road.

How number 10 looks now is, apart from the mature hedging to the front, not too different from the first pictures taken of it when built nearly 100 years ago in images held in UCD’s archive of Crampton developments.

Inside, the ceilings are higher than usual at ground level which enhances the feeling of space, and the entrance hall is room-like in its proportions and potential for furniture. On either side to the front are two reception rooms. Upstairs there’s a small family bathroom and one of the five bedrooms has an en suite in the corner.

The house has been in the same family since the 1950s and the members of the third generation to live here – minding the house during lockdown – turned the detached garage into a home gym, though new owners will probably seek to incorporate it into their living space. While the rear garden is modest, Herbert Park is just a few minutes’ walk away.

Brendan Road is considered one of Donnybrook’s premier roads; it is certainly one of the most convenient in terms of services with shops just across the road and the city centre within walking distance.

Now on the market through Lisney, 10 Brendan Road, with a C3 Ber rating, is quoting €1,595,000.