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Original poster

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

67 replies

sparkler1 · 29/06/2006 15:21

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?

OP posts:
horace · 30/06/2006 12:19

our conservatory is north facing and too hot in the afternoonbut lovely in the mornings and sunny winter days. Although we have a radiator i there it is freezing in winter evenings or cold days. A friend has underfloor heating in hers and that makes it lovely and cosy BUT she says her heating bills have shot up. Don't use ours much and would never have another

3catstoo · 30/06/2006 13:31

Our conservatory is fab. It's a great addition to an otherwise small house.
It is on the kitchen and we've knocked through so it's all one room, kitchen diner type.
Its wooden with glass roof.
I have 3 children so the potential to get dirty is huge but actually it is not that bad. I don't do cleaning in a big either so it hasn't been washed for months. The rain does a pretty good job on the outside. As the roof is glass there are no ridges for the moss to get stuck in so we don't have a green roof to look up at.

But, as someone else said, it does get hot in the afternoons. My DH is too mean to spend a 3 figure sum on blinds. We manage ok though.

Ours cost £17000 for a 10 ft wooden one (square with corners chopped off - can't remeber what style it's called).
The downside with the wood is that it needs painting every few years. As we have dark brown wooden windows we decided to have the conservatory the same.

jil · 30/06/2006 13:38

I thought planning laws say you can't put radiators into conservatories - ie, permanent heating? Oil-filled plug-in rads would be fine.

Our conservatory is too hot in summer and too cold in winter, perfect in spring.

AngelaKitchen · 30/06/2006 13:54

We got a conservatory last year and we love it. We're out there all the time. We got a nice size one about 4m x 5m and we paid a bit extra for some special heat reflecting/ glare reflecting glass, so don't need blinds. And it makes a HUGE difference. It faces south-east, and the only time it is too hot in there is between 12 - 2pm, DS is sleeping and DD is at school then anyway, so doesn't matter. We use it as a playroom, but have decorated with a nice sofa & chair (not rattan/cane)

mommie · 30/06/2006 16:02

our neighbours built one (took 3 months!) in a south facing garden and say it is now way too hot to sit in. they sit on their patio instead. they have also had problems with flies.

expatinscotland · 30/06/2006 16:05

i'd get a utility room added first.

chenin · 30/06/2006 16:12

We use ours all the time.... It is 18 ft long and south facing. Yes, of course, it gets hot in the summer but you don't sit indoors on a boiling hot day anyway (well, I don't!)

We have got roof and window blinds and spent a fortune on them - they were half the cost of the conservatory - they are worth every penny. In the winter we use all the blinds and with candles etc its a fab room to use to entertain.

We also have two double radiators in there so its gets like toast in the winter. There is no problem with having permanent heating in conservatories - I looked into everything when we built it and have never heard that to be a problem.

I would recommend investing in blinds - it just makes it like another useable room, as opposed to just a conservatory.

Judd · 30/06/2006 16:15

Completely opposite to Sparkler1. We have 3 bed semi with conservatory. DH works from home a lot and as we only have one long through room downstairs, he works in the conservatory. In the winter, he has to wear jumpers and have a fan heater on. Books and computers don't fare particularly well and suffer from damp. In the summer, he swelters underneath the huge patio umbrella he has put up in desperation to try keep the glare off his computer screen. Noise still carries, so telephone clients are often treated to the wholesome sound of two under 5's playing together (ahem).
Next month we are moving to a 4 bedroomed house (which actually was less of a hike than having an extension built) in the next road. DH will have the smallest bedroom as a study (although tried to wangle 3rd largest by feigning concern over the temperature in the extension room and DS's wellbeing(I saw through him and thwarted his arguments - pah!))
Will NOT miss conservatoire at all!
PS. When we came to view our present house, the owner (who had put up the cons. the previous year) waxed lyrical about idyllic mornings spent out there eating croissants and reading the paper. She painted a very beautiful picture which may have been true for her, with both her children in their teens and capable of eating croissants in an acceptable fashion, but for us the dream has never materialised! (les enfants only 4.5 and 2)

FourJays · 30/06/2006 17:58

My sis had one in her last house and could never sit in it as it was boiling in summer and freezing in winter!

sparkler1wantsaconservatory · 30/06/2006 18:01

OMG - I've just realised that this thread has made the discussions of the day list. Oh no!

Clary · 02/07/2006 00:22

oooh we are about to build a huge conservatory across the back of our house so thanks for all the tips ladies.

It's more of an extension than anything, we have a logn thin kitchen you can't eat in and this is going to be a big opening out of the end of the kitchen, plus a replacement for the old lean-to conservatory - to be used as a playroom. Planning air-con an dradiators too so heat should be OK.

Thanks for the heads-up on the windows tho piff!

divamummy · 02/07/2006 16:55

is this OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH I WOULD LOVE very now?
yes we have conservatory and its lovely when its cool( got heater in), but it could be oven in summer even with fan

sparkler1wantsaconservatory · 02/07/2006 17:00

oh god!

LadyTophamHatt · 02/07/2006 17:21

come and take mine away....it must be 40 degrees in there atm.

God only knows what it was when we were out and had to lock the door and windows.

Bloody awful thing!

I moaned about it all winter because it was too cold to sit out there and now its too bloody hot to sit in it too.

crunchie · 02/07/2006 17:27

Well we left early this morning, and ours only gets sun until about 1pm. It does get warm, but not unbearable. Then in the afternoon it is lovely, feels like sitting in the garden. I have had enough sunbathing so I can now chill out in my conservatory

elliepippamummy · 02/07/2006 19:35

We had one built back in 2003 and 2 weeks after finishing it (and adding a whopping amount to mtg to pay for it) discovered pg with DD but it is fantastic we have it as a toy room so my lounge is toy free (except for a wicker basket with DD books and DD armchair that matches our sofa) she plays in conservatory all day, have nice sofa and tv with sky in there plus loads of storage boxes for toys and her little table and chairs. Have had radiator fitted for winter as electricity bills were huge when we had oil rad in there on permantley for 5 months, got blinds for the summer and heat reflecting glass and a tower fan and its fine in there only gets hot if doors and all windows shut but live in a lovely estate and have retired next door neighbour so we leave all the small windows open and if I go out she keeps an eye out for me.

MrsGerrard · 02/07/2006 19:50

I have a conservatory and I love it. Mine has brick walls either sides though as we are mid terraced. Have lovely large windows at the front and the glass is lovely and clean.

The only downfall is that it is a fly trap and so bloody hot in there!

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