You’ll be snookered by the choices at this seaside labour of love

IS IT because this house has undergone such a metamorphosis that its vendors call it Franz Kafka House?

Kafka’s story Metamorphosis is one of literature’s classics: the house with the author’s name too has seen a flow of changes.

Built on an acre site by the sea, safe beach and tennis club in Fountainstown in Cork, this bungalow home at Sand Road has extended to cover 2,600 sq ft of well-finished living space. And then it goes on, and on, and on, across square yards of patio and brick paviors. In fact, the vendors reckon there is over 40,000 worth of patios and paving gone around Franz Kafka House.

It has been a labour of love for builder Aidan Foley and his wife Deirdre, who have made good use of its five bedrooms with their family of three growing children.

It has its indulgences too: the main bedroom, done all in white and with 8,000 worth of floor tiling, would put many a hotel suite to shame, and it has a full bathroom off it as an ensuite. No narrow passage tomb layout here. It is a place that is done on a large scale: the conservatory with sea views is a case in point, over 20’ wide and linking back into the kitchen/diningroom with Shaker style maple units.

The main living room is 25’ by 18’, with red deal floors and a wood panelled cathedral style ceiling.

There’s a large sitting room and French doors off to a lad’s retreat, a proper billiard room, complete with mini-bar.

The snooker table was a yearning Aidan had for years. He bought a secondhand one from a closing down Cork city club, stored it for years while he was in the USA - and was snookered when he went to put it back together. He found it was an amalgam of four or five incomplete tables.

He got his cash back, turned the tables and bought a new full size one which now graces Franz Kafka House, a spot that doesn’t really reflect many traces of existential angst.

Estate agent Denis Prendergast of Marshs is now selling Franz Kafka House and gives it a €495,000 price guide, reflecting the market demand that has grown up for all-year round houses by the sea within a short commute of Cork city.

This house’s landscaped acre site is by the local tennis club which has five courts, the beach is a minute’s walk, and the back strand has sheltered spots for mooring a boat or pulling a dinghy up on shingle. The property also has a double garage.