KEYS TO KNOW

North Berwick is a great location for a property that is all about having fun, discovers Kirsty Mcluckie

Awork life balance can be difficult to achieve but sometimes the right house, and the right ideas, can make it a lot easier.

Klaus Frömmel and his late wife Brigid bought Cherrytrees in Old Abbey Road, North Berwick, in 2005 when their three children were under seven, and he says that the potential of the house to offer an excellent work life balance was what first attracted them.

“It was a big house already, but there was such a lot of space in the garden that we knew it would be able to take an office extension so that I could work from home.”

Klaus’s company, Rob Roy Tours, coordinates trips around Scotland for inbound tourists and he says that having got to know Scotland in his work life, and marrying Brigid, who was Scottish, the couple chose North Berwick as the ideal place to bring up a family.

Sadly, Brigid passed away just a year later, leaving Klaus a single father and making the time he spent at home with the children even more precious.

The extension, with a large office over the garage and a multifunction games room, music studio, library and self-catering unit over the two floors, which was completed in 2007, have hugely added to the family’s quality of life, however.

Klaus says: “I have a 20-second commute from doing the laundry in the utility room to chairing a business meeting.”

The office is reached through a secret bookcase door in the first-floor library so he can slip in to make essential phone calls when the children are otherwise occupied. He says: “It means I can spend the maximum amount of time with the family during holidays and in the evenings without having to waste time commuting.”

The secret door is just one fun aspect of a house you suspect was designed and adapted to be a true family-friendly home while having plenty of grown-up entertaining space.

There is a firepit in the garden, tucked underneath a child’s trampoline which can easily be moved, and the grand Victorian dining table has a top which lifts off to reveal a full-sized snooker table.

The garden, despite the extension, is still large with enough room, if the next owner were to pursue it, to build a second family house with its own driveway.

It is not something Klaus would relish, as the garden is such a luxury of space with seating areas, decking and plenty of room for children to play.

Three waterfalls feed into the pond, which is child-safe, with a wire cage invisible under the surface.

He says of the location: “Everything is within walking distance. The train station, good schools, the beach and supermarkets – everything you would want for an easy life.”

The music studio, which was fitted by the same sound engineer, and to the same standard, as Rita Marley’s studio in Ghana, is another brilliant feature of this surprising house. Klaus is a singer and bassist in what he calls “a middleaged rock band” who have toured both Germany and Scotland. The three children, Amelie, 19, Kristian, 17, and 14-year-old Matthias enjoy the studio too.

With the address of Old Abbey Road, the family jokingly refer to it as Old Abbey Road studios.

The house has also been fun for adults. Klaus’s 50th birthday in 2015 saw partygoers flown in from Germany and a weekend-long shindig with guests, cocktail waiters, caterers and entertainers numbering around 200. Klaus says: “The house can hold that number of people easily. We also had a full Cuban band but it didn’t feel overcrowded.”

When the Open was held at Muirfield, the house was let to a US golf magazine for ten days. Klaus says: “It is basically a family house but there are opportunities if you wanted to run a holiday business.

“The self-catering part has been ideal to offer to friends who want to visit for a week or for business contacts to come and stay.”

With children either at university or about to go, many people want to downsize to a quieter life, but with more travel, possible rock and roll tours and a book to write about the gap year he and the children enjoyed in 2010, you suspect that Klaus isn’t about to settle down.

But he says: “The house should be enjoyed by a family and, if they are anything like us, it will be absolutely idyllic. We have loved living here.” Cherrytrees, Old Abbey Road, North Berwick, East Lothian. Six bedrooms, three public rooms, four bathrooms, double garage, office and self-catering apartment. Large garden with pond, waterfalls and terracing. Walking distance of train station, schools and shops. Professional-standard music studio.