Seattle Home - Which is best? East Facing or West Facing?

[Vinylly]

It's all a matter of personal preference. I like west facing if your kitchen faces east. You get nice morning sunshine and if your backyard is on the east side of your house, you get shade from the house on hot summer afternoons. My son-in-law preferes just the opposite, but that's the way son-in-laws are. If you are facing Puget Sound, be warned, the bright hot summer sun can be very uncomfortable reflecting off of the glaring water. On the otherhand if you have a view facing east, Lake Washington and the Cascades never have that glaring problem.

[M3 Mitch]

Would have to know more about the design of the house and the surrounding land layout on both houses to comment really. You probably do want to maximize sun there in Seattle.

Do the houses really face exactly due East and due West?

Keep in mind that here the angle of the sun changes a lot between summer and winter. You may want to maximize winter sun, or may just give up on winter sun and maximize summer sun.

[ukiyo-e]

The sun gets really low in the winter, so if you want lots of light, have those rooms face SOUTH. People who raise a lot of houseplants know that east or west facing rooms get much less light, though it might shine right in the windows for awhile, because much of the day the sun is on the other side of the house. The south-facing rooms get light throughout the day as the sun meanders from east to west.