Have you ever wondered what is meant by the rather vulgar term “property porn”? If so, try an online tour of Bob's at the Beach - the staggeringly opulent property of the brothers Bob and Chris Lindner.

The house, glistening white, multidecked and priced at nearly $8million (£4.4 million), rises like an ocean liner from the shores of Lake Tahoe, California. It is described as “the ultimate party house” and has played host to stars such as Charlie Sheen, Barry Manilow, Patrick Stewart and Diana Ross. The house was designed by the brothers' father, Bob Sr, and is a symbol that he had, in the American way, “made it”.

“Our dad was a jewellery designer whose clients included Liberace, Sammy Davis Jr, Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck,” says Bob Jr, 59. “When we were kids he'd bring us here camping and we had a great time, so in 1979 he bought the exact plot of land where we used to put our tent and started to plan this house.”

Everything in this 7,000sqft property is on a grand scale. You enter on to the split-level first floor, designed for parties. On one side is an indoor pool with a waterfall tumbling over brass walls; on the other is a bar built around a real wooden motorboat.

“Our dad was spending a lot of time in Beverly Hills when he built the house and that was where he got his design ideas,” Chris, 48, says. “He was particularly impressed by Liberace's place, which had a copy of the Sistine Chapel frescoes. Dad loved all of that. So when he built this house in the 1980s he incorporated a lot of similar real wacky features.”

Perhaps the most surreal of Bob Sr's features is the door to the pool's changing room. It is the salvaged solid steel hatch of a submarine and weighs about 1,000lb.

Across from the wet area on this level there is an expanse of dance floor and a “conversation pit” - a kind of sunken lounging space. Doors lead out to a glass-enclosed barbecue kitchen and hot tub which, in turn, gives access to the private beach. It is a room so full of reflective surfaces and visual surprises that even super-rich visitors, who are used to the extraordinary, have been confused by it.

“Diana Ross got a real shock when she came down the steps,” Chris says. “The pool has a mirror opposite and she mistook the reflection for the real thing and almost took a dive into the glass.”

Soon after Bob Sr's death in 1998, Bob Jr and Chris, who each have other homes near by, began to let out the house: one night costs $2,000 in high season. That sort of money buys luxury on an alarming scale. For example, on the next floor there is a kitchen complete with a pizza oven and a diamond-encrusted rubbish chute. “That idea really appealed to Liberace,” Chris says. “When he saw it he wanted one himself.”

This second floor is more formal, with the dining and living rooms leading out to a lakefront deck. There are fully stocked bars and a 10ft “projection” television with surround sound. Naturally, all three guest bedrooms (two on this floor and the other on the first floor) have bars, televisions and bathrooms. But the real eye-catcher is the master suite on the top floor: as big as most British family homes, it has a bar, library, Jacuzzi, three televisions and a gym.

Bob's at the Beach has been for sale for about nine months and is now being marketed to international buyers, notably in the UK. “I can envisage a high earner from the UK flying in by private jet to Sacramento or Lake Tahoe airports for holidays,” says the agent, Shari Chase, of Chase International. “There's nightlife at the casino and the whole family can have fun in the house.”

What will the brothers do next? “Work starts next week on digging into the mountain in the national forest five minutes away,” Bob Jr says. “Whereas Dad's house is nautically themed, our new house is going to be a mountain home. And we're going to match Dad for wacky ideas. What do you think of a bar built into a ski gondola?”

bobsatthebeach.com ; chaseinternational.com or mayfairinternationalrealty.com

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