Serendipity...

I can’t quite believe it’s 3 months since I last posted and we returned home from that stunning trip, but I suppose it must be. I’ve been back working, we've been doing a bit more tinkering to make the house even better and this time serendipity (I love that word, as well as the film) absolutely played its part.

The conservatory roof has been a topic of conversation for a while, it’s yellow, and although solid, it doesn’t look good. I love sitting in the conservatory looking out at the stars and have been thinking how much better it would be if we could do that from the living room too. If the conservatory roof was glass, it would be like sitting outside all the time when we looked up and out. How amazing would that be?

We did our usual YouTube and Google searches and discovered it isn’t that hard to replace the roof ourselves as long as the structure was solid, so up Ian went, lifting the panels to see what we had. 

It looked solid, but after a lot of discussion we decided to get the salesman in to give us a quote - yes, we could do it, but it wouldn't be easy and I am back working, so that would help with costs. What a good job we did!

The first person quoted a huge amount, but agreed the structure could take it weight wise, but wasn’t sure about the pitch of the roof. He thought it was too shallow so the glass wouldn’t  work. He needed the surveyor to check. A few quotes later, the story was similar. Glass really wasn’t an option, so we needed to go with the polycarbonate roofing we couldn’t see through and get over the disappointment. 

We’re both fairly pragmatic, you have to be if you are renovating on this scale, and not prepared to spend a fortune just to get what you want, instead of what might work best! Having got the quotes in it seemed a silver reflective panel would help with heat consistency both winter and summer and so that’s what we decided on. Only it was several thousand pounds cheaper if we ordered them online and we did it. 

So we did, or in reality Ian did.,.I was busy working but as I finished my lunch break Ian said he would start the roof, before I knew it the first panel was in.

By the time I finished work Ian looked exhausted and we had a new roof! It looked incredible. Shiny and so much lighter.

However, now it’s been in for several weeks in both very hot and slightly cooler and rainy weather, we realise glass would have been a disaster! Suddenly we have a room we can both sit in most of the time. It stayed a much more comfortable consistent temperature, in fact so much so, that I am now out there working. Ian can cope with the warmer temperatures and I can manage the cooler ones. And no leaks!

Serendipity...