Conservatory now / wait and get an extension?

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

We've moved to a new house, and in doing so have lost our playroom which I didn't think I'd care about but my DD's rooms are full to bursting with toys and my 2 year old just won't play upstairs by herself so it's been a bit annoying.

We have a plan to extend, a double story extension to the side, that would give us a playroom (and larger kitchen, utility, and bedroom and bathroom) but have to save for this first...

I want to use the money we have saved so far to get a conservatory on the back of the house, which was somewhere we weren't going to extend. This would give us a playroom immediately which is my biggest concern, and then when we extend eventually (probably with an extra year of saving tacked on due to the spend now) we could knock through and incorporate the conservatory into our kitchen diner and put the playroom where we plan to have it...

DH thinks this will look rubbish, and we should just save for three years rather than four and stuck with the original plan...

I've been googling kitchens with conservatories incorporated and I like the idea... Plus it will be bigger!

What would you do?

I think it looks good?

I wouldn't really call them conservatories, they look like extensions with large roof lanterns. My conservatory which we used to use as a playroom was lovely for half of the year but hardly used in winter as too cold and reverse in the summer. I'm In the situation where we want to extend but we will definitely be getting rid of the conservatory! Unless modern conservatories are better insulated, I would definitely wait until you can do a proper extension. I would definitely miss my playroom though so sympathy there!

I would wait.

Save up and get the proper thing done instead of a halfway house.

You can set up some toys in your living room so your dd can be occupied and as she gets older there will be less bulky toys anyway.

The first and second photos are lovely but not really conservatories. The third one a little more. I'm sure someone more qualified and a few glasses of vino less into the bottle will come along to comment, but a conservatory has an external quality door between it and the house and no radiators. And then building regs sign off and you install a radiator. But they can still be too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer because of heat loss and not much heating or large area of glass. They are a cheap way of adding a room and I loved ours but it was cold and full of condensation in the winter.

What about doing a single storey to the side for now and at a later date add the second storey ?

Having lived in two houses with conservatories and having extended one house I would definitely recommend waiting and doing the extension.

It may take longer, but it will be worth it.

Some of the 'conservatories' you show are actually extensions with glass rooves and will be priced as extensions!

As the others have said, those aren't conservatories in the normal sense, and they certainly wouldn't be cheap. (They do look lovely though!)

It would also make the build for the 'proper' extension more difficult and expensive if you are putting something in now which you are then going to have to modify at a later date. At the very least you should be getting an architect to plan it all properly otherwise you could end up with a right mess.

I think normal UPVC conservatories are a waste of money in general. Unless you already have all the room you want and it is just a bonus space a proper extension is much more preferable.

Agree with PPs. Our last house had a (high quality) upvc conservatory which we did use some of the time as an extra room, but was like an oven in summer (and full of flies and wasps), and like an ice-box in winter. We spent our whole time there just wishing they'd done a proper extension.

I'd wait, it's honestly the hottest place in your house from May-September and the coldest the rest. I've also not lived with one that doesn't leak. If you spend proper money on one they are meant to be ok, but if your doing that you may as well get an extension.

Just looked at your pictures, all bar the last one is an extension not a conservatory. The last one I'm not sure. But you certainly wouldn't want a normal conservatory opening up like that into your house, you need to shut them off because of the hot / cold problem.

We rented a house with a conservatory for a short time, a few years ago, while we were having building work done.

It became very hot in the summer (although it was a bit of a washout summer that year) and by the time we left the house in late December, was really too cold to use as a room. (We used it as a dining room.)

The rooms you show are not conservatories, as others have pointed out.

Also, we have a room with a roof lantern, and it is a bit tricky to clean. It's not too bad for us, as it's single story, and on a flat roof, so reasonably accessible, but do bear that in mind.

www.bolton.gov.uk/sites/DocumentCentre/Documents/LABC%20Conservatory%20advice.pdf

Essentially 50% of the external wall must be translucent and 75% of the roof must be. It also has to be thermally seperate from the house.

We have a conservatory which I don't much like due to the heat issues - too hot in summer, too cold in winter. Putting special Pilkington "blue" glass in the roof has helped a lot, but not eliminated the problem. Never had any problems with leakages, mind (let's hope I'm not tempting fate with that last statement!)

I wonder if an orangery might fit the bill for you? More popular than conservatories at the moment, and better insulated?

Is there a way you could re-configure the layout in the short term? I also don't think a conservatory is the best way to go, but I also think you need to think through what needs you'll have after the 3 or 4 years its going to take you to save up. Our youngest is now 6, and certainly doesn't have lots of "plastic tastic" toys anymore. Yes to perhaps an extra TV room but you probably won't need a "playroom" for toy storage.