Install a Conservatory - It may Help Head Off Divorce

Installing a conservatory and designing out room for a television can help head off separation or divorce, and contribute to smoothing over domestic disputes.

That's the finding of the North West conservatory designer, Cheshire-based Crystal Windows.

'Yes, we laughed as well - the image of a sharp-suited conservatory salesman sitting up until midnight counselling an unhappy married couple is the first image that springs to mind, but when we heard not once, twice but three times that a conservatory had helped save a marriage, we looked into it,' said Tony Wooderson, Managing Director of Crystal.

'We don't have sharp-suited salesmen, but we do have some very well practiced ears for listening.

'It sounds corny, but one common factor came out in discussions with several clients: most people go home and flop in from of the TV and simply don't communicate with each other.

'But an attractive conservatory without a TV encourages people to maybe sit down with a bottle of wine in a nice environment and talk.

'Our advice is not to create a second lounge with a TV and so on, but to create a room with a completely different use and ambience. Make it a room where you sit comfortably and talk.

'It's a bit like having that holiday apartment balcony moment every day - at home.'
Liz Bottrill of Cheshire law firm SAS Daniels said: 'People fall towards separation and then divorce for a number of reasons - but a key reason can be that they 'simply don't talk anymore'.

'Everybody has talk and conversation in them, but with the death of the family dining table evening meal and the rise of the television set, it is now the default move to come home and watch TV rather than chat.

'A conservatory - or any similar such light and comfortable room, but without a TV - can help promote conversation, drive quality time together and re-establish the reason a couple got together in the first place: because they got on together so well when they first spoke.'

Crystal Windows is based in Poynton, Cheshire. It was established in 1992. Crystal designs and installs conservatories with an average value of £17,500 when the average in the market is £7,500.

Web: http://www.crystal-windows.co.uk