Ocean-view HOME
Adam Laskey and Daisy Sawle embraced the unique quirks of a sea-view property in Falmouth to create the perfect home for their young family
WORDS REBECCA FOSTER
PHOTOS HUGH HASTINGS
FACT FILE
NAMES Adam Laskey & Daisy Sawle
OCCUPATIONS Owners & directors of an architectural practice
LOCATION Cornwall
TYPE OF PROJECT Renovation & extension
STYLE Victorian
CONSTRUCTION METHOD Stone & block
PROJECT ROUTE Homeowner (an architectural technician) designed & project managed the scheme, hired a builder for construction work
PROPERTY COST £300,000
BOUGHT 2016
HOUSE SIZE 110m²
PROJECT COST £43,000
PROJECT COST PER M2 £391
TOTAL COST £343,000
BUILDING WORK COMMENCED July 2016
BUILDING WORK TOOK 12 weeks
CURRENT VALUE £400,000
As the owners and directors of an architectural practice in Falmouth, Cornwall, the highs and lows of a home renovation scheme are familiar to Adam Laskey and Daisy Sawle. In the summer of 2015, with the couple’s first baby on the way, they decided the time was right to switch to a larger property to accommodate their growing family. they also wanted to find an abode that was closer to the office, in order to be able to cut down on their daily commuting time.
the pair had their eyes peeled for a project house, with the scope to adapt and create a bespoke home. However, this wasn’t the first time they had tackled a major build. “the first house we bought together was in a terrible state when we purchased it,” says Adam, an architectural technician. “We fell through the floor when we surveyed it because chronic woodworm had set in. We ripped the ground floors and structural walls out, rewired, replumbed and extended to the rear.” So it’s fair to say that the couple weren’t put off by the prospect of buying a house that would present them with a few challenges on the road to refurbishing it.
Sitting under the new roof lantern, the dining room is positioned in the area that originally formed an internal courtyard between the Victorian terraced house and the sail loft, which pre-dates the residential part of the property
The ideal opportunity
While Adam and Daisy were flexible in terms of the kind of house they wanted, tracking down a suitable property to renovate was no mean feat. On various occasions, the legal process for buying a new home had gotten well underway, only to fall through later on. “We looked at such a variety of places,” says Daisy. “We found this lovely 1930s bungalow in a village near where we both grew up, which seemed to be a promising opportunity at first.” However, the couple were aware that the dwelling had been tested for mundic in the past. this construction issue is common in the south west, and refers to where structures built of poor-quality aggregate leftover from mining waste start to experience degradation.