Upside-down living in Monkstown

A quirky house with unusual features down a lane off Albany Avenue in Monkstown, Co Dublin, could suit a well-heeled downsizer who has €1.15 million and perhaps up to another quarter million to revamp and refurbish it.

That's the kind of buyer agent Sherry FitzGerald has in mind for Casa Tina, a two/three-bedroom house built in 1918 in what was probably the coach-house of The Albany, the Regency villa in front.

Casa Tina is a very private 195.7sq m (2,106sq ft) property with sea views from the livingroom and a very sheltered formal garden behind high electronic gates. This is an executor sale of a home owned by one family for about 32 years and last renovated before the 1990s; although the décor is dated, the house looks comfortable and well-cared for.

It’s a house with an upside-down layout, with the bedrooms downstairs. The glass front doors of the house open into a bright entrance hall with a tiled floor and a pitched glass ceiling over tiled stairs to the second floor.

On the left of the hall on the ground floor is a room with a deep exercise pool: it’s not large – 2.1m (6.8ft) wide by 3m (9.8ft) long – but has jets you turn on to swim against the current.

The large main bedroom has a dressingroom, shower room, and a sitting area next to French doors that open onto the garden. A smaller double bedroom has an en suite and windows looking into the pool room. There’s another study that could be a single bedroom, an understairs utility room and a guest toilet.

The steep stairs to the second floor open directly into the diningroom, richly decorated with floral red wallpaper. On the right of the diningroom is a decent-sized kitchen with cream units and a small island.

Folding double doors open into a large livingroom with a box bay window looking across Dublin Bay, with doors opening onto a small balcony. A new mega-house being built on the corner of Albany Avenue and the coast road does not obstruct the view.

The small very sheltered Italianate garden has clipped hedges, shrubs, trees, a wooden pergola and plenty of seating areas. There is room to park in it as well as residents’ permit parking outside.

There are six houses on the lane off Albany Avenue where Casa Tina – named after a former owner – is located.