Say Goodbye to the Winter Blues with a Sunroom or Conservatory

HOLBROOK, NY (January, 2002) - This time of year everybody is sick and tired of the cold, bleak days, long winter nights and subzero temperatures. We're bundled up in our homes with the thermostat set high and our moods set low. While we're shut in from the cold, we're also shut off from the light of day. No wonder even the most friendly North Dakotans are feeling a little grumpy today.

It doesn't have to be this way. Let the light shine in and lighten up your mood.

Everyone from scientists to doctors tout the benefits of natural light these days. Studies show that exposure to natural light improves your health, elevates your mood, and boosts your energy and productivity. If we all just "lightened up", rather than suffer the depression of cabin fever, we would enjoy renewed vitality and enthusiasm.

Easy to say, not so easy to do – especially when it's zero degrees outside. No one is going to feel too happy and enthusiastic when they can't feel their fingers or their toes. To enjoy natural light when it's too cold to go outside we need to bring that natural light inside where we can stay warm and comfortable. Fortunately, improvements in building technologies, have enabled us to do this these days, even in the dead of a North Dakota winter.

More and more Dakotans, and in fact more and more people all over the world, are discovering the benefits of bringing light into their lives by adding insulated sunrooms and conservatories to their homes. Most of Four Seasons' sunrooms and conservatories are built to be lived in all year long, not just one or two seasons.

"My new Four Seasons Sunroom is a virtual miracle room!," Susan J. Fuglie of Fargo said. "Enclosing me from the bitter North Dakota winter and bringing sun and warmth into my house, the very seasons seemed to change before my eyes. The room is so sunny and inviting that it seems like summer year-round. This is so much more than I could have hoped for. North Dakota winters will never bother me again!"

Today's sunrooms and conservatories are much more practical than those of years' past. Super energy-efficient glass technologies and maintenance-free thermally improved frame materials make the best sunrooms, conservatories and patio rooms as easy to heat and cool as the common dark and dull ordinary room addition. With frames of heavy duty, yet slim profile aluminum, beautiful, warm laminated wood beams with maintenance-free aluminum exteriors, or maintenance-free vinyl cladding, the best sunrooms and conservatories today are built to withstand the toughest climates and the heaviest loads. And while a conservatory or sunroom addition is much more dramatically beautiful, it doesn't have to cost much more than an ordinary boring, room addition. Because all patio rooms, sunrooms and conservatories are pre-engineered and prefabricated to your specific needs by Four Seasons, there are huge labor savings over an "ordinary" room addition!

There are hundreds of beautiful conservatory and sunroom designs out there these days as well. No longer are you limited to the curved "greenhouse-look" you may be familiar with. Sunrooms, patio enclosures and conservatories today come in every shape and architectural style to fit any need and any homeowner's tastes. Utilized by homeowners just like you for myriad applications, from family rooms and home offices, to kitchens, and even bedrooms and bathrooms, sunrooms, patio rooms and conservatories are as versatile as any other building system, but oh so much more spectacular! From solid-roofed deck or patio enclosures, to elegant glass-roofed sunrooms and solariums or majestic, English-style conservatories, the architectural diversity of today's glass room addition is almost irresistable.

"Our idea started when we needed more space for our family get-togethers," Roberta Duysen of Fargo said. "We thought a light and bright sunroom for a dining room would be the ticket... We are enjoying it greatly and especially like to sit and watch the birds and surrounding beauty."

So shake off those winter blues and get out into the bright sunshine! Bring the outdoors... indoors with a practical and dramatic glass room addition. Beautiful both inside and out, a sunroom or conservatory addition will do more to improve your mood, your lifestyle and your home's value than just about anything else you can think of. In this day of unsafe investments and a sluggish stock market, your home is the one investment you can count on.

"No more snow and no more bugs," Raymond Schuh of Bismark said. "It's great for entertaining in very comfortable surroundings 12 months of the year. It also added real value to our home."

With a beautiful, energy-efficient, insulated sunroom, conservatory or patio room, you create your own escape from the workaday world right at home. Add a few glass walls and a roof and you have a whole new, delightfully refreshing retreat. Invite natural sunlight into your life, bring in the views and allow yourself the cool breezes of summer and the warming rays of the sun in winter. You'll feel like you're outdoors, with all the comforts of indoors. You'll bring the Outdoors... Indoors.