After 48 years of residence, local Myrtleford couple Kevin and Beverly Dinneen are now moving out of their recently sold home in Smith Street, which many residents around town still refer to as the 'old Myrtleford hospital'.

Beverly said her fondest memories of the house will be the huge Christmases when their family all gathered to celebrate, as well as the installation of the pool, which became a 'summer playground' for their then teenage children and now grandchildren.

"We were forever surrounded by young ones," she said.

"That's what the house has been here for: it was our family home and it still is, we still love it.

"It's got a soul and a beautiful ambience about it: it'll be sad to leave it.

"While we find a residence which suits us here in Myrtleford, we do have a little rental we can go into while we wait to see what happens."

After keeping up with the property's maintenance over the years, Kevin said his on-site workshop was very helpful.

"I've got a pretty good shed out there which I'll certainly miss," he said.

"With all the timber fences and verandah posts, they all have to be repainted quite regularly, but otherwise, it's just been a labour of love."

When the couple were deciding on a name for their house, Beverly said the title had to have 'Myrtle' in it somewhere.

"The house hasn't the name 'Myrtlevale' for long," Beverly said.

"[Plus] it was appropriate to have 'vale', because we live here in the valley.

"We think the place was built around 1905, which makes it about 120 years old now.

"It was sold in the mid-1950s, when the new hospital was established and bought by the senior (patriarch of the) Ruaro family.

"He must have bought it as an investment property, because he somehow divided it up and rented it out to three different families.

"After the mid-60s, it was then bought by the senior Mr and Mrs Dent, whose son and daughter-in-law were running the Railway Hotel at the time.

"It was from them we purchased the place in 1978."

After the Dinneens were married in 1962, they rented a fibro-cement bungalow on the same property, which used to be the nurses' quarters when the residence was a hospital, which they "couldn't wait to get out of".

Years later, while living at another residence, the Dinneens noticed the house had been for sale for quite a while and, unbeknownst to each other, they both kept driving past the house before they realised they were both interested in it.

"We'd heard the price had been reduced, so we came down and the next thing we knew, we were the new owners," Beverly said.

"It was in need of a lot of TLC and we didn't really have a lot of spare dollars, with six young children; but we battled on and finally, we made it more livable.

"We did a major makeover and extension of the building in the early 2000s, [as] we were in a better financial position then.

"We were careful to make sure the extension integrated with the existing period of the house...it was a bit of a challenge to find the right bricks.

"My hope is the next people will get the same ambiance and love from it as we have over the years."

As part of their move, the Dinneens will take part in Myrtleford's Town Garage Sale on Saturday, 7 March.