One of the hardest, and most expensive challenges families face in a city like Amsterdam is finding a place to call home. With space at a premium and a diversity of quirky neighbourhoods all with their own styles of housing, how do you make a home in the city?
Huub Verwoolde and Tikan Spakler of Spakler & Verwoolde understand those challenges very well. An experienced team of architect and makelaar (real estate agent), they are perfectly placed not only to help you find your space in the city, but also to make that space a home that works for your family.
Project Manager Huub Verwoolde, who grew up in Utrecht, knows all about the challenges of making a home in the city. Trained as a makelaar with a family background in property, he started building his property portfolio at a young age and has guided it from bachelorhood to family home. Managing his property portfolio and creating his family home has given him a wealth of experience to bring to his clients. There is no need to wait until you have found a property, he can start the search alongside you providing an invaluable insight into what can be achieved to create the home you want. Working with his architect partner, Tikan, they can envisage and realise creative solutions to take a property from house to home in order to meet the needs of your family.
Tikan Spakler, provides the architectural talent of the duo, bringing living spaces to life from their innovative concepts. Like Huub, he has a family background in the property business and has experience in many areas of it. Tikan’s experience allows him to envision clever and space efficient solutions for your home. And with his removal company he can even get you moved right into it!
We asked Huub and Tikan why they chose to start working together. Huub explained, “Due to our career backgrounds we saw a synergetic possibility by joining forces. Besides that, we got introduced by relatives from both sides which gives an immediate base for trust. After talking and visiting each other’s projects we decided to start to work together. We give each other extra input on the jobs we have and therefore the results are always better than doing it just by yourself. The feedback we get from the clients is that we focus on the details. We believe it is very important to us to take the taste of the client as a starting point and work from there.”
Since the start of the economic down turn in 2008, the Amsterdam property market has certainly seen its fair share of challenges. Buyers wanted more for their money and vendors struggled to sell. Add that to the baby boom in recent years which has seen demand for affordable family homes rise in a city where supply cannot always meet the demand and you can quickly understand why working with a firm like Spakler & Verwoolde to ensure that you are maximising the solutions in your future home can be a very valuable thing to do.
Whether you are new or native to Amsterdam, one problem that all homeowners face is the challenge of finding reliable tradesman to undertake renovations, improvements and even simple on-going maintenance of your home. As a client of Spakler & Verwoolde, they will take care of the whole process for you, managing the tradesman, paperwork, expectations and unexpected events. Drawing on their years of experience and extensive contacts will allow you to save time, money and stress. Spakler & Verwoolde only work with tradesmen who offer high-quality work, a clear understanding of the project and also who ensure that they are available to complete the work in the stated time.
A sense of home for international families is an extremely important part of living abroad and feeling settled where you are. As Huub can tell you from his own experience of renovating his home for his multilingual, multinational family, “The most important thing about renovating your house is to create a home of your liking within the budget available. My wife and I gave the planning of our home very thorough thought. First, we did a lot of talking about what we really saw as necessities in our future home (bedrooms for our kids, a guest room, enough toilets, laundry room, play area for the kids, etc.). Of course, all planning has limitations of space and money so we had to be realistic as well. Which wasn’t always easy as within our relationship there is a big difference between my wife’s and my own perspectives. There is a huge difference between houses in Mexico and Holland. For example, my wife is always wondering why the toilets are so tiny and why you have a sink in there where you cannot wash your hands properly. That made me laugh, but she is very right.”
“In the end,” he says, “we have the house how we like it. The layout for us is perfect. We got the most out of the space we have. And that feels really good!” When we asked Huub and Tikan about recent projects they have been proud of, they told us about Mark and Lise who they helped out when they were searching for a new home after their arrival back to Amsterdam after a year and a half living in California. Mark and Lise said, “Huub and Tikan are a phenomenal resource for anyone looking to buy, build, or remodel a home. They are contractors with strong vision, an obsession with the details, and the ability to execute at a high level. Their experience in all aspects of the building process will ensure you get the most out of your space. And perhaps most importantly, they have great taste.”
Spakler & Verwoolde have a lot of experience in the construction field and can advise you on all of the problems you may encounter. They can assist in complete renovations but they also have a great network to fix smaller jobs. Besides this they combine the real estate agent skills with the contractor skills by helping you to find the house you like, to buy or to rent, and provide accurate quotes for refurbishment costs.
If you are looking for your perfect family home in the city, if you need help to visualise how best your family can use the living space that you have or if you need someone to take care of your ongoing home maintenance then give Spakler & Verwoolde a call for a no-obligation meeting. Let them help your family create your home in the city.
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