PORT ST. LUCIE HOMES
AN ABSOLUTE
GEM
BY GREG GARDNER | PHOTOS BY ROB DOWNEY
With all its Mediterranean grandeur, the front of this home in the Hidden River neighborhood of
Port St. Lucie is actually the guest house and the garages.
Hidden custom-designed
home features fantastic
river views
Tucked away on the North Fork of the St. Lucie River is a Mediterranean
style home that stands out among the other 20 homes in Hidden
River Estates.
It is the only home on Hidden River Drive where you enter through
a gate into the courtyard, passing the pool before going up steps for a grand
entrance and down steps into the living room which has panoramic river views.
Robert and Barrie Haarer built the home in 1997 on the Port St. Lucie lot with
plans drawn up from Barrie’s memory of a home she had seen in Miami. Four
days a week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., she supervised the construction process for
nine months while her husband worked in law enforcement.
“It wasn’t because I didn’t trust him (contractor), but if something is wrong
you have to catch it early,” Barrie said. “We built this house to last a lifetime.”
The attention to detail and design can be seen throughout the home. Barrie is
an artist who has worked the Florida art show circuit on weekends, selling her
watercolor paintings. For each room in the house, she chose a different pastel
color with a slightly darker hue than the usual tone. Every window in the >>
Port St. Lucie Magazine 15