Going Coastal

Ash and Jess Alken have created a timeless seaside house in Cornwall with family-friendly features at its heart

- Alison Wall

HOMEOWNERS Ash and Jess Alken, with their sons Ernie and Miles

LOCATION Cornwall

PROJECT Five bedroom New England style self-build

SIZE 400m with 50m² garage and storeroom

CONSTRUCTION Brick and block

BUILD TIME 14 months (Sept 2018-Nov 2019)

PLOT COST £840,000

BUILD COST £650,000

VALUE £2,500,000

Self-builders are a keen tribe, none more so than young couple Ash and Jess Alken, who even wove plans for their future dream home into their wedding vows. Remarkably, Ash had already self-built two houses while still in his thirties, and Jess was keen to build a family home with Ash near to her own family and childhood roots in Cornwall.

So when a 1930s seaside bungalow plot with scope for redevelopment came onto the market - the very same house, owned by her grandmother, that Jess had grown up in - neither hesitated. And rather than knocking down and building a modern home with vast swathes of glazing (a natural enough response to the stunning sea views) the couple chose to build a home with a Georgian/Hamptons beach vibe, complete with a soft white rendered exterior, vintage roof slates and classically proportioned mullioned windows.

“We've got fantastic sea views and gorgeous sunsets so the temptation was to have a glazed rear elevation. We did consider that, but it wouldn't have felt like a family home for us, and that was a key part of our brief,” says Ash. Adds Jess: “If we want to see the view, we can open the doors - and as you go through the house you get lovely glimpses of the sea.”

FAMILY-FRIENDLY