THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 20, 2020 |M3
MANSION
share the home with their two chil-
dren, Casper, 7, and Lili, 5.
Construction of the 3,500-
square-foot, two-story house relied
on environmentally friendly, high-
strength, cross-laminated wood.
Natural wood beams and a
rough concrete floor preserve a
raw feel, but there are also wallpa-
pered accent walls for the chil-
dren’s upstairs bedrooms, as well
as a refined off-white wall covering
for the living room, which sur-
rounds a custom-built contempo-
rary fireplace and a television.
The family moved into the fin-
ished house in May 2018, six
months after breaking ground.
Many of the wooden construction
elements were prefabricated, and it
took less than two weeks to frame
the house.
Ms. Karthaus and Mr. van
Harten, head of investor relations
for a Dutch food and biochemicals
company, regard the $22,000 fire-
place as a splurge well worth the
cost. “We use it every weekend
from October through the spring,”
says Ms. Karthaus.
The couple worked with Amster-
dam studio Paul de Ruiter Archi-
tects, which has gone all-in on green
building. Busy with high-budget
projects such as a new research fa-
cility for Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch
consumer-goods giant, the firm
saves time for one or two single-
family homes every year.
“Villas are fun to do,” says stu-
dio founder Paul de Ruiter.
Mr. de Ruiter suggested a long,prices in 2018 topped $1 million.
The couple are in the Gooi for
the long haul, and are more con-
cerned about putting finishing
touches on their new home than
about cashing in. On their to-do
list: bathroom mirrors inside and a
new pool outside, as well as
planted sod for green roof areas at
either end of the house.
Ms. Karthaus says she has had
second thoughts about the shade of
the bathroom tile, among other
things, adding that it is in her na-
ture to keep an eye out for im-
provements.
“I’m a perfectionist,” she says.
“So I can keep on going.”A
fter making a killing
on an Amsterdam
apartment in 2016, Je-
roen van Harten and
Sabine Karthaus
looked beyond the Dutch capital to
see what they could find.
“It was either the sea or the
woods,” says Ms. Karthaus, a hu-
man-resources executive for a car-
leasing company.
The couple, who have two chil-
dren, decided to get more value by
starting from scratch on a wooded
lot in the Gooi, a cluster of high-
end towns and villages east of Am-
sterdam—an easy 20-minute com-
mute to their offices.
The couple spent $1.1 million in
February 2017 for a 1950s villa on a
half-acre lot with towering beech
trees. They demolished the house,
which had gone uninhabited for
two years, when Amsterdam’s soar-
ing prices had yet to reach the
Gooi.
They built a $950,000 four-bed-
room, four-bathroom showpiece
green home, with triple-glazed
windows, sophisticated underfloor
heating and cooling, and rooftop
solar panels that generate up to a
third of their electricity needs.
The interior is a modulated open
plan on the ground floor, setting
off separate but free-access living
and dining areas, and using sliding
doors to isolate or open up a guest
room and office.
The couple, now in their 40s,BYJ.S.MARCUSBALANCE SHEET
Into the Woods
A Dutch couple cashes in on Amsterdam’s hot market to go green
Clockwise from
top left: The
living and
dining areas
are a
modulated
open plan; the
bedroom
features large
windows; the
home cost a
total $2.05
million for the
lot and new
build; the
fireplace was a
splurge at
$22,000.TIM VAN DE VELDE (4)
narrow, south-facing, wood-clad
house to make use of the lot’s am-
ple sunlight, adding skylights for
the top-floor master bathroom and
the oak staircase. “I like to put sky-
lights above stairs,” he says, “so
you’re always walking toward the
light.”
Holland’s current real-estate
boom has started to make tear-
downs more common, and new
builds have special appeal in the
Gooi, where foundations rarely
need the extra support necessary
in the clay soil common in the rest
of country.
The couple also looked to de-
signer Piet Boon, whose studio didtheir kitchen, at a cost of $45,000.
The space is marked by a dark-
marble bar, appliances from Ger-
many’s Siemens, and an anony-
mous 17th-century Dutch painting
from Ms. Karthaus’s family.
The couple have a knack for
buying at the right time. Between
2014 and 2016, prices in Amster-
dam rose about 30%, giving them a
sharp rise for their apartment.
After they bought the Gooi prop-
erty in 2017, prices in their corner
of the area also dramatically in-
creased. Their neighboring commu-
nities of Blaricum and Laren are
two of the three most expensive in
the country. Average Blaricum home