Do you have a conservatory? Oooooh I'd love a conservatory.

[sparkler1]

At the moment we live in a beautiful 4 bedroom detached house. All I keep thinking about at the moment is how lovely it would be to have a conservatory. I'm even considering moving from here into a 3 bedroom house with a conservatory instead. We don't have the room to build one onto the back of our current house.
Do you have a conservatory in your home and if so do you think they are worthwhile? Do you use it very often?

I have a conservatory but it's wooden rather than upvc. What I'd love to do, is take it down (put up by the people before us) and put up a 'proper' one.

Having said that we use it all the time from spring throught to the autumn, and in the winter we store the firewood in it!

There's nothing nicer than putting ds down for his nap, and sneaking out to the conservatory with a book when it's sunny outside.

Even better in spring when it's too cold to sit outside but the sun has heated up the conservatory nicely.

Had our ocnservatory built way before kids came along and it was all very nice with its consveetory firniture etc etc. It is now has the dinig room table in it, as dining room which opens onto it is now playroom/family room.

Three yeras ago had blinds fitted on roof , extremely hot in summer , cold in winter.

We are considering demolishing it to extend out the back to have a more family friendly area and bigger kitchen with french type doors that open onto the garden, perhaps with skylight or velux windows in sloping roof. The room then can be used all year round without extremes in temp.

A friend of mine who is in building/property states that for a family house this type of extension is better than conservatory.

No conservatory here, but we do have a "garden" room on the ground floor. This is just a square room with patio doors, leading out onto the decking though. But that is how it was described when we bought it, LOL!

Not got one - never really wanted one. Idon't know why but they are a bit naffola to me.

Jools has an enormous one and when we were there the other week we nearly boiled to death in it. Had to draw all the curtains for a start - wellwhat's the point in that?!?!?

Rather have an extension. Like Twiglett's idea of a back wall all glass though.

My brother is in the process of having a £30,000 conservatory built, can't wait to see what it looks like.

If you have one make sure that you have a climate control unit installed (cost about £500 extra). Hey presto warm in winter, cool in summer and it filters the air and stops any of your furniture get damp.

we have one and its fab, we do all our seeds on the windowsills , we eat in there too, couldn't be without it

We have one in our new house. Only been here 6 weeks and so far can get a bit hot. Imagine it willl gey cold in the winter - will have radiator fitted soon though. I like it as I have filled it with toys so don't have them in lounge or dining room now

My driving instuctor was harping on about his lovely conservatory in winter, saying how nice it would be in summer, now its summer its too hot and hes had to spend a grand on blinds for it.
I had to laugh...A room that you have looked forward to sitting in all winter and you having to put BLINDS on it so you cant see in the garden....
FGS sit outside and enjoy it.

Aha some serious views at last . Good to hear the negative as well as the good things - you could save us thousands.

Sparky,great thread title.

Why, thank you. Not such a great start though.

We have a wooden one, installed by previous owners. It is useful extra space but it's messed up the garden by creating a side return (ie wasted space). And it is indeed freezing in winter and boiling in summer. I want to knock it down and build a proper extension.

I would love a conservatory and if I ever come into a few thousand it will be the first thing I buy. WE have a small 3 bed semi with through lounge and diner so idea of having a room I can shut door to other rooms is fab whether its to lock the kids in or out

Y'see sparkler - lots of people on here who like theirs, like them because it provides an extra room. Perfectly logical of course, but it's not often about the fact that it's a 'conservatory' as opposed to just another room. So for many, a normal extension is just as good!

we had one to replace a 'lean-to'. it is fab, DD & I spend hours in there, I have a comfy sofa where I can read and she has all her toys. We have a radiator for the winter, and the summer we open the windows and it fab. One of the best things we did.

we had a conservatory but never used it because it was always too bright or hot or cold.Our garden is south facing.We replaced it with an extension to the kitchen and lounge with floor to ceiling glass doors.It's much more user friendly for us.
I'd never have a conservatory ,why not have a garden room,it's tha same thing really but with a proper roof so it doesn't get so hot and cold.

We had our conservatory built last summer & have used it continuously since. We had underfloor heating put in to use during the winter & even on hot days we do ok. But that is because it is in the north facing l shaped part of the house so protected from direct sunlight most of the time. Yes it does get hot, was sitting in there yesterday afternoon with roof vent open, a couple of side window vents & the double doors wide open & it reached 24 to 25 degrees in there.
Ours is used as a playroom mostly so that my children & my mindede children have direst access to the garden & an area they know they are allowed to leave toys neatly overnight. It is long & narrow 18 ft by 6 ft approx has a half brick wall & an opaque roof. I did make some curtains for it which help make it look more room like & helped to keep the draughts off from the glass during the winter evenings & nights plus also giving us some privacy especially when lit up inside & dark outside.

Loved ours. BUT I think the thing is that is need to be NORTH FACING. That stops it getting too hot in Summer and then you will need a radiator to stop it getting too cold.

Couldn't have done without ours once we had DD. I would happily sacrafice a bedroom for a conservatory.

my dad's got one at his house in Ireland and we (dh,ds,bump and i) love sitting in it. However we looked into one for our previous house(add extension/conserv. or move question) and decided an extension would be a better "investment" as you HAVE to put a proper outside door up between conserv. and house and that ruined my plans for a huge open family room(where I could lock the kids away from kitchen part if necess). any way we sold that house and are currently waiting for builders to get back to us to start our extension.

Bad news, ours is north-facing and still gets too hot in the afternoons - must be north-west rather than straight north.

Thing is, extensions are better (although you have to think about blocking light to other rooms) but also more expensive and disruptive. I'd just like a 14 x 9 foot kitchen extension with new downstairs loo but reckon even if I got a bargain basement price, it would still be £20k before I even got onto landscaping the garden (which we would have to do due to change in levels). Could easily spend £40k.

How much will your extension cost, spina? And how big will it be? As my post below suggests, I'd like one but am worried about cost!

If you do replace a conservatory with an extension, I'm told you can sell the conservatory, which is handy. But ours would only fetch about £500.

Our conservatory is the best £7k we ever spent. We decided to have central heating out in when it was built to keep it warm in winter. We use it a a second tv room and kids playroom (toys hidded discretely of course). Even on a dull day the room is so bright and cheerful. If we ever move I would want a house with a conservatory or build another one. looking back now I think the addition of underfloor heating would have been a good idea.

How much would a bog-standard 5m x 6m conservatory cost, any ideas? Just a white upvc jobby.