DH and I are buying a Victorian lower ground garden flat in a lovely conservation area. Building, however, is not listed.
To get to the garden of the flat (which is not communal), you currently need to go out of the front door and down a path at the side of the flat - not ideal. Bedrooms are at the back facing the garden and have original sash windows (which need refurbishing). We are considering replacing one with a French door to give a direct route into the garden from within the flat but I'm concerned that a. We'd be removing a beautiful window (would want replica matching French door, not cheap upvc) and b. Would we need to have the frame reinforced?
Anyways, whilst mulling this over, I started to think if we could do this in one place, hey, we could also replace one of the sashes in the living room bay window at the front with a similar thing, giving us direct access to a south facing patio which would have the side benefit of bringing in more light. Currently, the only way to get to this patio is to either climb out of the window OR clamber down through the front garden. This makes a sunny little patio area pretty useless at the mo.
So ... I have no idea whether any of this would make sense, how much it would cost and again, if we'd need to reinforce the frames.
Anyone have any knowledge of such things?