My Conservatory Project
My
children's Den
For My Conservatory Project I have decided to
feature a recent addition at the
"Dunlop's" home - namely my children's
Den. I could have shown off with a
complicated and impressive structure that
emphasised my Conservatory Designers Skills.
However this featured structure is a more
realistic project to feature - a project far more
representative of what people may use
conservatories for in the real world. I hope
you agree and enjoy this rather personal
indulgence.
During Christmas 1998 my husband and I decided
that despite the fact that our four children
already had a Den in our loft room which they
"shared" with my husband's office, that
the time had come for them to have their own
dedicated room. At ages 12, 10, 8, and 6 they
were keen to have their own space and, frankly,
sharing with my husband was not working out.
As our
home had been previously extended on both the
north and south sides and we already had a south
facing conservatory we had exceeded our permitted
development area. It was therefore necessary to
obtain planning permission. We had decided on a
pitched roof (Victorian style with box gutter) as
we felt a lean-to style would give us a rather
cramped feeling with limited head room on a
bungalow such as ours. This was just a personal
"thing" - lots of people do opt for a
lean-to design - either because they prefer the
appearance or because it is a simpler
alternative. We opted for the North East
(actually its mainly East facing) location as it
was virtually the only space we had left and
because it give us the morning sun.
Planning permission was obtained in late March
1999 and we started work in May - the idea being
to have the work complete by the start of the
children's summer holidays. We chose PVCu for the
frames and the Ultraframe roofing system in the
roof as we where keen on a easy maintenance
product which would perform well in a location
that was only 100 metres from the sea. I do
prefer using Hardwood in conservatories (it has a
warmer, more charming feeling in my opinion) -
however in this instance I'm afraid other
practicalities had to come first.
We opted for Pilkington "K" glass and
Argon filled units for the frame glazing with 25
mm opal polycarbonate in the roof. This gave us
the best insulation properties we could have and
would we felt give us an all year round
conservatory.
We chose
opal coloured polycarbonate for the roof glazing
as we wanted protection from the early morning
sun and wished to avoid having the expense of
blinds in the roof. Frankly I would have
preferred a glass roof as per our other
conservatory but even for someone in the
"trade" the additional expense and the
absolute necessity to install roof blinds was on
this occasion prohibitive, having said all of
this I should say that I do think we will
shortly be putting in some vertical blinds on the
PVCu frames. Our children inform us they have
trouble viewing the TV screen because of glare -
especially in the early morning sun!
Sometimes it feels like you can never win,
especially with children!.
To the left are some views
of the completed conservatory.
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| That's Me with my Daughter
Alana in the completed Den |
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| Here is a view from the
initial planning application drawing. |
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| The almost completed
conservatory - we still have landscaping to do. |
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| Internal view of completed
Conservatory - showing box gutter - which we have
clad with timber internally. |
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| Somebody needs to give this
Den a clean - and its not Mother! |
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| The Children love the Den -
we are not allowed to move house - ever again! |
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| A slightly larger view of
the almost completed conservatory |
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