This is a house that has had attention to detail, loving care and the best of materials lavished upon it. Inside and out. The curve of paved pathway to the front door is lined with twice-yearly flowering roses and has tall, sentinel bay trees at either end. The ground-floor interior has a layout that flows from one shining walnut-covered floor into another.

Vendor Stephanie O’Connor bought No 81 with her late husband, John, “nearly 50 years ago. We paid £14,000 but we did a lot of work and today’s house is completely different.”

The O’Connors demolished a side garage and rear lean-to before adding a large living room and extending the dining room into the rear garden to allow both rooms to meet in a pleasant flow of movement.

This and much more – a contemporary, front-facing kitchen, impressively equipped utility, guest shower with toilet, secluded sitting room and ceiling-to-floor rear windows overlooking the south-facing garden – make for a stylishly comfortable ground floor.

Altogether, No 81 has a floor space of 203sq m (2,185 sq ft), on a .22 acre site, with four bedrooms (one en suite), kitchen/breakfast room, dining and living rooms and sitting room. Agent Allen & Jacob is seeking €1.15 million. With the family reared, Stephanie now finds the house too large and is downsizing.

The garden, a 36m south-facing sweep to the rear, is a real tribute to Stephanie’s skills and passion. It has high trees, low bushes and plants of every kind around an immaculate lawn. A mirror in the distant end wall creates the illusion of further delights and a small arbour to the side of the Indian sandstone patio is peacefully inviting. Stephanie “planted everything you can imagine, all perennials, so replanting is unnecessary”. There is even a couple of very rare quince trees.

Rear walls of window overlook all of this and throw light on to the walnut flooring and pastel paintwork. The living room has an open coal fire. The kitchen has a ceramic tiled floor and marble worktops. The den-like sitting room has French doors to the garden.

Stephanie says they “left the bedrooms much as they were except for adding an en suite to one”. Large and bright, the bedrooms (as with the rest of the house) have Sentinel windows and built-in wardrobes. An attic, large enough to convert to an extra bedroom, has been floored and insulated. The family bathroom is tiled in contemporary grey and white.