The previous owners of 12 St John’s Road stayed just four years, something of a record for this terrace. People tend to move in here and stay for decades, which means the houses very rarely come on the market. The Sandymount location plays a huge part in that – the terrace is minutes from the sea – and the neat houses, having been built circa 1849, are not the sort of sprawling Victorians with vast rooms that prompt downsizing. The last one was on the open market about 15 years ago.

The people now selling bought the two-storey over-garden level property in 2000 and have upgraded it considerably since then to suit their young family, including, three years ago, adding a contemporary two-storey extension to the rear that was designed by Walker Architects.

The colour of the front door has been repainted from an austere black of the 1990s to a more cheery pastel – an indication of the family-friendly home that awaits – and off the entrance hall are two interconnecting reception rooms with impressive period fireplaces and attractive ceiling roses. Like the hall they have been refloored; the rooms with timber, the hall in glossy marble.

Down at garden level the open-plan area was extended out to make space for a living area and a good size dining space, and the glazed French windows out to the patio replaced with a more contemporary floor-to-ceiling door. A flush door in the wall opens to the utility and a shower room and on out to the new extension with its large room glazed on two sides. Currently filled with toys, it would be a lovely grown-up garden room.

The house is now a four-bed with 251sq m (2,702sq ft) of space and a Ber of C2. Upstairs, the arrival of two children prompted a rethink of the bedrooms so what had been used as a grand bedroom by the previous owners spanning the front of the house has been divided into two. The main bedroom is to the rear, with a recently built en suite in the corner. Down the stairs, on the half landing, the family bathroom is in the return and the fourth bedroom, used as a guest room, is in the new extension with its own bathroom.

The house is set back from the road and when it was sold before, its lack of off-street parking was seen as a drawback. That has now been remedied and there is parking for two cars leaving plenty of room for planting greenery.

There is pedestrian access to the rear. The extension did have an impact on the south-facing rear garden which is small relative to the size of the house. Space has also been given over to a garden room that is used as a gym, though it could equally be a home office.

The owners are moving abroad and have put their house on the market through Sherry FitzGerald asking €2.4 million.