Such is the case with Kalafat, a fabulous c. 325sq m (3,500sq ft) period family home with rooms to sigh for, on Dalkey's Sorrento Road, an award-winning mews behind it, and a lifetime of happy memories bound up within its walls.

Owned by Edward and Daphne Hamilton, this classically proportioned house is a joy from the moment you open the beautiful front door, with stained glass by Michael Gemmell, and wander out to the mews at the back, designed with pzazz by local architect David Crowley.

Decorated and styled in the vibrant fuchsias, yellows, greens and ruby reds that a house this size and vintage (1853) can wear so well, every room, from the dramatic, big, square, sunny yellow entrance hall, to the pink dining room, dual aspect living room and bedrooms, oozes a confident, comfortable sense of style.

This is what a home should be: a house which the Hamiltons have used to express themselves and their love of art and antiquity, but also a solid haven in which they've wrapped themselves as a family.

Now, having reared five children here, and with even the 11 grandchildren starting to get a bit older, they have decided it's time to sell up and find a smaller home, a difficult decision because Kalafat is so very much their creation.

It is for auction on 11 May, with agent Clodagh Barry of Colliers Jackson-Stops setting an AMV of �?�3.2million.

"We felt it was important to move now, " says Edward Hamilton, "while we still have the energy to make such a big decision. But we're not moving far. We are staying in Dalkey village so we'll still be close to our family and friends."

The couple are very much part of the Dalkey community.

Edward is a violinist and plays at the local church, while Daphne helps run the meals on wheels service. At one stage, she ran a playschool from Kalafat - with actor Victoria Smurfit and RT�? presenter Andrew Fowler among her more famous charges.

The property is full of period features including marble fireplaces, a beautiful staircase, sliding sash windows refurbished by Ventrolla, working shutters, high ceilings, elaborate cornice work, gilded in some rooms by Edward, and heavy old panelled doors.

But the couple haven't been afraid to put their personal stamp on this classically proportioned home.

The huge stained glass window that dominates the hall and staircase was a recent commission by artist Sandra Miley. The bathroom suite attached to the restful master bedroom, which has views across to Dun Laoghaire, gives a Hamilton twist to Victoriana, with a huge central bath surrounded by Victorian style cupboards and tiling, providing a wonderful spot in which to luxuriate. The upstairs bedrooms are all sizeable rooms and provide beautiful views - across Dalkey Hill at the front, to the sea at the back and Dun Laoghaire to the side.

The main bathrooms and shower rooms were also designed in a modernist style by the architect David Crowley when he created the mews.

This curved-walled, lightfilled 66sq m (710sq ft ) addition to the back of the house is a delight in itself with a highly stylised interlinking set of rooms including hall, living room, kitchen, large bedroom and a spiral staircase leading to a mezzanine bedroom or artist's studio.

The basement of the main house has been fully dampproofed and, for the Hamiltons, these rooms provide more bedroom and living space for family and friends to stay in but they could easily be configured to suit a new owner who may want to put a massive kitchen and living room in here.

Parking is at the back and all the garden is in the front, where the large private southfacing lawn and mature shrubs are a spring joy.

But it's over the front door that Edward and Daphne have created one of those really lasting legacies that should endure. Years ago, when they first moved in and had children, like the Victorians, they painted - beautifully - a motto they composed themselves over the front door which reads "On Their Returning Came The Sun And the Stars" - a sentiment meant to reflect their happiness every time their children arrived home.

Now you don't get better than that.

Price: AMV �?�3.2m, auction 11 May Agent: Colliers Jackson-Stops, 01 6333700