When Patricia Aherne O'Farrell moved into a cottage on Upper Dargle Road in Bray 40 years ago, there was a hole in the floor of the now bright livingroom. Built in 1869 and named Dunville after Columba Dunne, the man who built it, it needed work: she fixed the hole, rewired the house, put on a new roof and, over the years, adapted it to her family's needs.

The result is a quirky house with two living spaces, created when Patricia's mother moved in to live with her. Before that, Patricia had run an art school in the house, later teaching art in St Kilian's Community School in Bray; her artist daughter, Róisín O'Farrell, lives nearby in Bray.

Now she's moving on and has placed the 140sq m (1,507sq ft) four-bed for sale through Sherry FitzGerald for €450,000. Although much smaller than big Victorian houses, Dunville has some of the period features of its time – original doors, pretty cast-iron fireplaces, working shutters on now double-glazed Marvin sash windows. But it also has a decidedly unusual layout and new owners will likely revamp it. There is potential in a large empty plot at the side of the house too, possibly to extend, or simply to create a parking space – there is planning permission for a vehicular entrance gate. There's also potential to build in the attic which runs the width of the house, says Patricia.

Covered veranda

A neat hedge surrounds the front garden of Dunville, where the path leads between two lawns bordered by rose bushes up to a pretty covered veranda. On the right of the front hall is a bright warm sittingroom, where Patricia now runs Heartfulness classes. One door from this room opens into a bedroom/study. Another door opens into a galley kitchen at the back of the house, and from here, there’s a doorway into the hall where there’s a sitting area/sunroom looking into a narrow rear courtyard.

On the left of the hall is a double bedroom with original wooden floors and a door from here leads to a second double bedroom which in turn opens back into the hall.

The house is full of surprises – there’s another kitchen/breakfast room at the back of the house on the left and a door opening on to hidden stairs up to an attic bedroom: from here you can see down into the narrow back courtyard. There’s a sheltered small suntrap in the courtyard.

Dunville is on Upper Dargle Road, not far from the junction with the main road into Bray.