North/South Exposure or East/West? (loft, homes, living)

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by wase4711

so, its not as important what kind of street(north-south/east-west) you are on, its more about avoiding western facing backyards..
That makes alot of sense; I hope we dont find our "dream" house, and it ends up having a western facing back yard..

This all only matters if the way you /personally/ use the property is affected. I have my coffee in the morning on an east-facing patio. I bought a "koolaroo" sunshade last weekend because the sun peeks over my neighbor's house before I can finish my glorious cup of "don't kill anyone" - For me, it's unbearable - but I'm not moving, just adapting. My wife leaves for work without any coffee & she returns to a patio & a side yard that's completely shaded.

Awesome for her use of the same property.

With misters, sunshades, carefully planted trees, a pergola, tinted windows or even just a *slightly* different daily routine, what's awful for me might still be perfect for you. I wouldn't give hardly any thought to placement on a site unless I knew & was willing to map out my use of the property for The entire day. That's going to be very difficult unless you're retired & can plan not only all your days, but where you'll be during different seasons.

[wase4711]

thanks for the insights!
Yes, we will be "retired" when we buy this year, and yes, we want to be able to be outside as much as possible, after spending the last 40 years in Chicago.
I assume our routine will change as well, that is walking the dog in the very early am, and after the sun goes down, so his paws dont melt, and not spending alot of time out and about during the hellacious mid day hours between june and september

you're right about sunshades/misters etc., and if we need to add those to a house, assuming we love everything else, that wont be an issue. I see many houses have plantation shutters, so I assume that helps big time with heat load during the day..

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by wase4711

thanks for the insights!
Yes, we will be "retired" when we buy this year, and yes, we want to be able to be outside as much as possible, after spending the last 40 years in Chicago.
I assume our routine will change as well, that is walking the dog in the very early am, and after the sun goes down, so his paws dont melt, and not spending alot of time out and about during the hellacious mid day hours between june and september

you're right about sunshades/misters etc., and if we need to add those to a house, assuming we love everything else, that wont be an issue. I see many houses have plantation shutters, so I assume that helps big time with heat load during the day..

Plantation shutters, sunscreens, drapes, tinted windows - there's nearly always a way to make things nice. I "up-sized" one of the a/c ducts in my living room because the heat-gain in the middle of summer made one seating position noticeably warmer. I later replaced a single-pane window near the same spot with a tinted /low "e" - double-pane window & I suspect it may be extra-cool now.. Neither of those changes were particularly expensive given the benefits & what seems like the "cheap" solution might be the more expensive one if you look around a bit. I don't know of any way to get plantation shutters on the cheap, but I can find inexpensive tinted/low "e" windows on sale at lowes & installation labor will be measurably lower here than in Chicago.

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by wase4711

thanks for the insights! Yes, we will be "retired" when we buy this year, and yes, we want to be able to be outside as much as possible

That's us. We like being outside. Our main patio only gets a couple of hours' direct sunlight early in the morning. The rest of the day it's in the shade. The last thing you want is an outdoor living area bathed in sunlight at the end of the day, because all of those surfaces (stucco walls, patio slab, etc) will continue radiating heat long into the night.


One interesting configuration is east backyard, with the garage on the left (i.e., NW corner of the house). In the summer the sun sets in the NW, so the garage will take a lot of that afternoon heat and there should be few windows letting in sunlight at the end of the day. As already mentioned, this orientation is nice in the winter, when it does actually get cold, with the sun warming up the patio in the morning. Of course the main problem is the summer sun coming in the east windows early in the morning. If you like to sleep late in the morning this could get uncomfortable because most plans put the master bedroom in the back of the house. Trees can help fix some of these issues, but it takes years for them to get big enough to help out. You could put those dark screens on some windows, but I personally don't like them in the main living area.


Edit: Can also get garage on NW corner if you have backyard facing south and garage on the right side (as viewed from the street). This, plus the one mentioned above, tend to limit afternoon sunlight coming in through windows.

[KurtAZ]

Having lived in an east/west with the yard on the west side of the house for a number of years...I can tell you that we tried everything to shade the back of the house during the heat of the day/afternoons in the Summer. Once the sun started setting or got below the tree line behind the house it was great as you have the view of the sunset from your backyard...but we put drapes on the patio so we could close them from noon till about 4. When we moved, we bought a N/S and haven't had a problem with the yard at all.

When you move down here you will find that shade, in the summertime, is your friend. Also, in reference to walking your dogs...please look into the dog booties if you are going to walk them in the summer evenings. Cement and asphalt keep the heat of the day and can burn your dogs pads. Mornings shouldn't be bad but...be aware in the evenings. If you wouldn't walk out there barefoot...it is probably too hot for your dogs' feet. Oh...and water. LOTS of water.

[LBTRS]

I love our exposure...the front faces north and my backyard faces south with a full patio to keep the sun off the back of the house. We'll do it the same way next time.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

I love our exposure...the front faces north and my backyard faces south with a full patio to keep the sun off the back of the house. We'll do it the same way next time.

Our old house had a south maybe slightly southwest facing patio off the master & late afternoon sun felt like it was going to burn a hole through you. A tiny sliver of a crack between the blinds/drapes would let in so much light it felt like you were looking at a welder. Tinted windows/ aluminum blinds & room-darkening curtains combined were necessary to see the tv in there without moving to avoid the laser-beams of light trying to blast into the room. If my daily routine included a 5pm beer on the patio, it'd need to be an east - facing patio.. which would ruin my coffee time!

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

Our old house had a south maybe slightly southwest facing patio off the master & late afternoon sun felt like it was going to burn a hole through you. A tiny sliver of a crack between the blinds/drapes would let in so much light it felt like you were looking at a welder. Tinted windows/ aluminum blinds & room-darkening curtains combined were necessary to see the tv in there without moving to avoid the laser-beams of light trying to blast into the room. If my daily routine included a 5pm beer on the patio, it'd need to be an east - facing patio.. which would ruin my coffee time!

At 5pm the sun is in the west/north of the house and not on my patio. I enjoy an evening cocktail on my patio almost nightly.

Also, we have sun screens on our upstairs south and west facing windows that are not protected by the patio and we fight no sun and the rooms stay cool.

[FromEastCoast]

I have a west facing backyard and don't mind it so much. It's great to sit by the pool in the late afternoon and watch the sunset while we grill out and swim.

[wit-nit]

Just have to remember the west side exposure is always the hottest and take appropriate action to try and shade it as much as possible.