7a Ellieslea Road, Broughty Ferry, DD5 1JG

The approach to Hazelwood begins between two stone pillars, and a winding driveway carries you up through the grounds to a Victorian villa built in 1872. The two-bedroom apartment occupies the ground floor and some of the house’s original principal rooms, whose broad bay windows look over the shared lawns and mature trees, with a glimpse of the Tay estuary across the surrounding area. A gardener looks after the grounds at the front, so the outlook arrives already tended. Inside the residents’ entrance, a mosaic floor runs beneath tall stained-glass windows, the first sign of how much of the house has been kept. Your own front door is immediately to the left, opening into a hall with timber floors, and the original detail carries on into the rooms beyond. In the lounge, elaborate cornicing and ceiling plasterwork frame the broad bay, which looks out across the gardens. It is the place for a slow Sunday morning with a coffee, and the open fire makes the same room just as good in January. There is space for friends and family to gather, and for an evening at home with nobody else in it. The kitchen is built around the table, with a breakfast bar for the quick start to the day and room for a dining table for the long dinner. Its door opens directly into the private rear garden, just a couple of small steps down, a connection between kitchen and garden that is unusual in a conversion. A meal can move outside as easily as it moved in. The main bedroom shares the garden outlook and the same glimpse of the estuary, with its own bay and the same period ceiling. The second double bedroom sits to the rear, close to the bathroom, which has both a bath and a separate shower. A basement study gives somewhere to work, a floor away from the rest of the apartment. Gas central heating serves it throughout. The garden itself is enclosed by clipped hedging and planted borders, with mature trees rising above the boundary and gravel laid nearest the house. Stone flags set into the lawn lead across to a black timber pergola with a seating area tucked against the hedging, sheltered on every side, and a stone path runs along the side of the house to a timber gate. It is the part of the grounds that is yours alone. Residents’ parking is within the grounds. Home begins at the stone pillars.