When Mark and Alisha Lyndon decided to self-build, a breathtaking Cornish coastal site with planning permission in place for an innovative design offered the ideal opportunity

WORDS JANE BOWLES PHOTOS LAYTON BENNETT

After constructing their first self-build home in 2008, Mark and Alisha Lyndon were keen to repeat the experience. “We liked the idea of being able to tailor our living spaces to our lifestyle and had succeeded in creating a high-spec property that we’d never have managed to afford otherwise,” says Mark. “I suppose we’d definitely been bitten by the self-build bug.” So when the couple began to discuss the idea of buying a holiday home, taking on another project seemed like the logical choice.

THE LYNDON FILE

NAMES Mark & Alisha Lyndon

OCCUPATIONS IT architect & marketing and comms specialist

LOCATION Portwrinkle, Cornwall

TYPE OF PROJECT Self-build

STYLE Contemporary

CONSTRUCTION METHOD Hybrid timber frame

LAND COST £500,000

HOUSE SIZE 289m2

PROJECT COST £736,025

PROJECT COST PER M2 £2,547

TOTAL COST £1,236,023

BUILDING WORK COMMENCED April 2015

BUILDING WORK TOOK 60 weeks

CURRENT VALUE £1,500,000

“We wanted a second place for weekends and family getaways – ideally somewhere we could also retire to in 15 years’ time, when our children (now aged seven and nine) have grown up,” he says. “We anticipated building a property we could rent out for holiday lets when we weren’t using it ourselves, in order to recoup some of the construction costs. We’d had many vacations in Cornwall and loved it, so decided it was the ideal location.”

“It was love at first sight when we saw the location”

Perfect opportunity

After an exhaustive online search, the couple found an ideal site at Portwrinkle, a stone’s throw from Plymouth harbour. “It was love at first sight when we saw the location,” says Mark. The land was basically a large overgrown garden, which had been designated as an open area of local significance (OALS) – a restriction intended to protect the essence of the setting.