Pic credit: Sacbee
Kenneth Roebbelen’s luxury estate now features a 9,800-sq-ft main house, along with a 2,200-sq-ft recreation centre, an 82-ft Junior Olympic lap pool, a private runway, an aircraft hangar and a helipad, the Sacramento Bee reported. In 1974, Kenneth Roebbelen graduated from UC Davis; he wanted to avoid dorm living. The 1974 cabin stands even today and is now part of the complex that grew with Roebbelen’s career, family and landholding. Kenneth Roebbelen is the former president of his family-owned Roebbelen Contracting Inc. , founded by his father, Hans Roebbelen, in 1959. The family eventually owned 623 acres of land stretching to Folsom Lake. Today, the gated estate in El Dorado Hills covers 48 acres and is on the market for $6 million. The main residence was built between 2008 and 2010. The pool house and the pool arrived in 2024. A staircase rises more than 40 feet; carved mahogany double doors open into foyers flooded with light, and hydronically heated floors are fitted beneath it all. The most striking feature is something else: mahogany wine cellar doors, intricately carved in Monterrey, Mexico, lead to a cellar that can house 2,300 bottles. The unique estate also has a 9,800-square-foot main residence, a 2,200-square-foot pool house anchored by an 82-foot Junior Olympic lap pool, a spring-fed fishing pond, an airstrip with a hangar, a helipad and enough amenities to rival a small resort. There is a six-car garage, storage for RVs and boats, and also a massive fertile garden built during the COVID-19 pandemic. A solar system producing 38 kilowatts, paired with ten Tesla batteries, generally offsets the property’s electricity consumption, though the pool house occasionally tips the balance. The $6 million asking price is a great deal, according to the listing agent. “To build this today would be $15 million.
“The rule was I had to only use hand tools, no power tools, no electricity,” Roebbelen said. The trick, he said, was making each era look like it belonged to the others all along. That it was all coordinated,” he told the outlet. It’s nearly a century old, according to him. It’s absolutely worth every nickel,” listing agent Chris Wolfe of eXp Realty told the outlet.
But half a century ago, this sprawling property in the Sacramento area looked different. It started with a small cabin, completely built using hand tools. Pic credit: Sacbee Kenneth Roebbelen’s father, Hans Roebbelen, bought the Sacramento-area estate in the late 1960s. So when he started to build a cabin, his father had one condition attached to it, which made the project part construction job and part character test. During weekends, he would come over to build the cabin, so he would have a place to live instead of renting an apartment after college. Pic credit: Sacbee Roebbelen raised three children with his wife, Kimberly, in homes built gradually around that original hand-built cabin. “You’re doing all this stuff in different phases of your life, and part of the goal is to make it look like it was done at one time. This aesthetic is also deeply woven into the physical fabric. The main residence features cherrywood ceilings, Brazilian cherry floors, hydronically heated floors and carved mahogany double doors. The primary suite has dual walk-in closets. It comes with a soaking tub, steam shower, dry sauna and private fitness area. Pic credit: Sacbee The main entrance has wrought-iron double doors leading into an elaborate foyer with a soaring ceiling and custom stone floors. There is an art gallery that runs through the house and connects its different sections: the original cabin, older portions and the newer main house upstairs. A freezer salvaged from Sacramento High School’s renovation when Roebbelen was still in high school now serves as the walk-in refrigerator. It is nothing less than a commercial-grade greenhouse. Pic credit: Sacbee Bronze mustangs titled ‘Spirit of Nevada’ greet visitors at the entry gate, a work by Auburn sculptor Doug Van Howd. There’s more art across the estate. For instance, a striking statue of a woman dressed in a white dress, created by Ken Shutt, overlooks the water of the expanded pond. A metal roof, extensive stonework and granite hardscape speak to investment beyond the visual. The runway his father installed as an avid pilot remains; when Roebbelen ran the construction company, it let him reach Western jobs and return home the same day via pilot project managers. Beyond its size and resort-level amenities, the kind of work that’s nearly impossible to replicate at current costs, let alone afford. I mean, you couldn’t do it. Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.
