best option to add living/dining area

happypie

Looking for some advice regarding extension planning. Currently I have a small kitchen in my living room (room next to garden), I am planning to add extension to this room and make this room bigger by opening it wider by breaking walls - very typical extension plan I guess. Attaching picture for more clarity. https://ibb.co/Bwc34gz Now I am thinking to go for full width glass patio door and sky light as big as I can afford, now while I was planning this I thought when I want glass at the roof, glass at garden side door then why not go for conservatory and save some money? I plan to have kitchen units in my existing living room anyway, this extension was to have more living space and dining area. Also looked into orangery which seems interesting as well. What is my best option considering cost and in terms of adding more space for dining and general living (our this current room next to garden is most popular room as our garden is south facing and this room gets most light and sun). So adding anything to this room should be absolutely usable as current room will get little bit darker (even with sky light). Thanks.

grumbler

opening it wider by breaking walls...  now while I was planning this I thought when I want glass at the roof, glass at garden side door then why not go for conservatory and save some money?

breaking walls + conservatory?!

Doozergirl

A conservatory is cheap because it doesn't have proper foundations, nor does it meet the thermal criteria for an extension.  They are hot in summer and freezing in winter.  If you open a conservatory up to the house, you make the house perform in the same way and you aren't allowed to make the thermal performance of a house any worse than it is.  When you go to sell the house, without building regulations in place, buyers will struggle to get a mortgage.   

The existing house must retain exterior quality doors for a 'conservatory' to exist, otherwise it will be classified as an extension and needs to meet the building regulations for one.  If you want walls down, you need to meet the building regulations.  
 

FreeBear

Big windows, patio doors, and huge skylights will suck heat out of the space during the winter months. Think carefully about the amount of glass you really want in a habitable room.

Slinky

Our sunroom in our previous house was a proper extension with a tiled roof and lots of windows. It faced south so we didn't want the boiling hot conservatory issues. We used it much less on winter evenings as even though it was properly heated, you get the feeling of cold air falling off the glass.  We treated it as a summer sitting room and our old lounge was the winter sitting room.  We were able to close the doors off to the sunroom, I wouldn't have wanted it to be open plan and feel like it was sucking the heat out of the house. We didn't have blinds or curtains up as we didn't want to obstruct the garden views.  It was great on winter days when the sun was low, for opening the internal doors and heating my adjoining office.

AmberPick

It takes so much time and money to make repairs in a new house, it's so exhausting. We tore down one wall and put in panoramic windows, it turned out very beautiful. We don't have cold winters, so we won't have any problems. But if you have cold weather, there will be problems with heating.