Mike wrote:
"Colin Hammond" wrote in
message ...
I am thinking of building a garden room that I can sit in on cool
sunny days and also grow some plants. I don't want an all glass
conservatory type building that will be uncomfortable to sit in,
and
I don't want a summer house that will be too dark for plants to
grow. I suppose what I want is a partially glassed roof, but what
proportion would be best? Any tips or experience?
Colin



Colin are you in a position to do what we have done?

We have moved our kitchen into the Dining Room, thus making it a
huge
Farmhouse type Kitchen/Diner and then cut out the rest of the
brickwork from the kitchen window and door, put in Patio Double
Doors
and turned the kitchen as was, into a garden room. This room faces
dues South and we are now drawing up plans to put a verandah along
the complete back of the house to enable us to keep the doors open
even if it is raining but warm. The Patio doors are of a design
that
even though are separate entities in their own right, there is no
central pillar left in the doorway when they are both opened.

An advantage of doing what we did was, that the new kitchen/diner
was
all new stuff so at one point, we had two kitchens and thus no
eating
interuption :-))

Worth looking at?

Mike

The place I've just left had a front room with 6' high windows on 2'
ish base wall on the whole southern and western sides (designed it
that way in conjunction with the architect). It was wonderfully
gardeny, summer and winter, though a B* to heat. Pelargoniums
(pelargonia?) in flower all the year round.

What I'd suggest, if you're adding a single-storey extension but
don't want to go the whole conservatory hog, would be something like
that, but with up to half the roof glassed. Even a quarter or less of
the roof area in glass would make a huge difference to the light, as
a roof light brings in twice as much (is it even more?) daylight as
an upright window of the same area. This will give a lovely
conservatory feel without so much impact on the heating bill. If you
need privacy (luckily, I didn't, as we lived out in the bush), you
can use venetian blinds or those cane rollers: these would give a
more airy feel than curtains, and don't block any light during the
day.

(If I shave and learn how to choose clothes, do you think I could get
a job with those extraordinary camp Scotsmen?)

--
Mike.