Would you buy a house where the dining area is in a conservatory?

[donteatthehedgehogs]

Have found a house with our perfect layout. If building a house from scratch I couldn't make it any better.

BUT the dining area is in a very large conservatory. It is almost entirely glass. North West facing so won't be bathed in sun all day and has underfloor heating and a special 'blue' glass in the ceiling. Will it still be too cold in winter and hot in summer?

To buy this house would cost every penny we have and it would be such an expensive mistake to make. We won't be able to afford to move for years.

Anybody got any words of wisdom?

Have you got a link? Might give a better idea of the layout/potential.

Fwiw I find underfloor heating so so effective and wouldnt let the layout put me off.

We are having ours converted into a proper room

Sorry if I confused re "does face north"!
I meant is that it faces north and is still fine!! Not a problem!
Worth checking out garden at different times of day if worried about sun. It may come from side, over roof etc.

What's perfect about the layout? . Having to put the dining table in the conservatory doesn't sound ideal to me; fine if it's unavoidable, but perfect layout??

Perfect layout means that when you look at the floor plan, everything from bedrooms, storage, bathrooms , utility to living spaces are exactly what we would plan if we could build the house from scratch. the right size, positioned perfectly eg. DH needs an office where he can see clients and there's a studio room with exterior access for that, we have alot of overnight guests and there's a second en suite bedroom, we have very outdoorsy, sporty DC and there's a big shower room by the back door door. I can imagine life being very relaxed, unlike in our current higgledy piggledy conversion where we are falling over each other all the time due its quirkiness. The conservatory is not a tacked on lean to or separate room, its like a glass extension to the kitchen and makes a gorgeous dining area, just concerned about the practicalities.

I think it sounds lovely op.

Go for it

Ah, ok. It sounds great!

We have a conservatory as a dining room, no door between that and the kitchen, and tbh we said we'd never go for anything like it again as it gets SO cold in winter and because you can't shut it off it makes the kitchen freezing too. Bad condensation/mould too. We had curtains to keep it warmer/ try to make it cosier (sitting in a glass room when it's dark at night doesn't appeal to me) but they got so mildew stained we had to bin them. Not sure what we'll do next winter. It's lovely in the summer and really appealed to us when we viewed but unfortunately doesn't really work for us. BUT we don't have underfloor heating/blue glass so that might make a big difference. Do consider what you'd do re curtains/blinds though. Sorry not to be more enthusiastic, I know what it's like to love a place. It might be ok.

Just saw your description of the layout. If it's perfect in every other way could you go for it and plan to replace with a proper extension (with sun lights etc) in the long term?

North facing aspect is miserable, dark & cold in winter when you need warmth & light most.

When I was house hunting I told estate agents to only send me south or west facing gardens. Our previous house was west facing (my preference as sun warms front of house in am, back pm). We currently live in a house with south facing back garden. DH's study & our lounge is north - both are several degrees colder. We had a 2nd lounge built at the back of the house & front room rarely used unless we have a fire going.

I'd look at other properties, you'll never be content with it.

Depends how life pans out Chicken. At the moment I can't see us being able to afford to do anything which is why I'm focusing on this one worrying thing rather than just thinking about the good stuff. Every other place we've owned we've only really been thinking about the present but we'd plan on staying there for a very long time, til our children finished school and the youngest is only a toddler so its a long time to be wearing gloves or sunglasses to eat. Its significantly outside our financial comfort zone - bloody estate agents showing you stuff you can't really afford!

The back of our house is north facing. We had LED downlights put in a couple of years ago in the original part of those rooms. Massive transformation and amount of light doesn't bother me any more. (In case you do end up going down solid roof avenue. We have a solid roof on our back-of-house extension.)

I'm not too worried about north facing back of house internally as the main living room is dual aspect so south as well as north and the second reception is at the front its just this whacking great kitchen/conservatory at the back, plus office & utility.

It's not the reception room facing north that I would see as a problem, but the garden itself. Our main living room faces north, but we have a huge dining/family room at the back if the house to replace appalling conservatory. Living room is dark but quite cosy, especially in winter when the fire is going.

However, we do spend most of our time outside if weather is good. So, for us, having dinner on a patio which gets the afternoon/evening light is really important. Our patio faces SouthWest so we can sit out there in the evening light until 9pm in summer.

If being outside is not that important to you, then maybe the north facing garden isn't an issue. For me, it would be a dealbreaker. Tbh, having experienced a conservatory, I would think twice about buying another house with one.

Our garden faces north east and kitchen/diner are at the back. They are flooded with light all morning/lunch time and still ok in the evening. We have a deck outside which is sunny until about 2pm and then have another deck in the bottom right hand corner of our small garden - this has the sun until 8pm. I wanted a south facing garden, but am actually very happy with a north east facing one.

Thanks Marmite. I'm now studiously reading all the positive responses and ignoring all those that cast a north facing shadow!

But north east will get some sun - rises in the east, sets in the west.

Believe me, north facing rooms don't get the sun, especially in winter.

If you're that keen, get a roof on the conservatory with either a roof lantern or big velux windows wither side to capture the sun.

My conservatory is the dining room. I need to get proper blinds to use it more comfortably when it's hot but I find it's fine in the morning for breakfast, and by dinner time the sun has gone down a bit.

We also have stools in the kitchen. Not had a winter here yet but I expect it will be a bit chilly but we're goingto see how we go with the electric fire.