To wonder why anyone would choose to buy a house with a north facing garden?

[chillidoritto]

Currently trying to find a new house and every time I think we’ve found one that ticks all the boxes, a quick look on street view shows it has a north facing garden!!

A woman at playgroup was going on about how lucky she was that she had a shady north facing garden! It’s dark, damp and nothing seems to grow there except moss! She does have very pasty kids mind.

Am I missing something? Are they so bad?

It's only rubbish if you can only afford a house with a small postage stamp north facing garden.

If you have a big north facing garden then it's not a problem as the shade from the house is minimal.

Is that all you can afford OP?

Pasty kids!!

I have a north facing garden. Doesn't bother me at all. You can shift things around so seating areas face south. And it makes the rooms cooler. We recently had an extension and put in roof lanterns and sliders and the back of the house is now the warmest and brightest. Despite being north facing. I would choose not to have a south facing garden as it's just too hot

I was nervous about our NE facing garden as I love the sun. It's actually fine and I wonder what all the fuss is about! In fact my mum told me she wished her garden wasn't south facing as her kitchen is too hot for most of the summer.
Ours is 65 foot long and gets sun down the end tll 7pm in the height of summer. Even now at the end of September there is sun at the end till about 4pm, we are going to create a seating area down there. I imagine it will be shady all winter, but who really sits out in winter anyway?!
The shady patio is such a relief in the hot summers with small children, and the cool kitchen too, plus the living room at the front gets sun all day which is great for cooler winters to be cosy.

I’m of the pasty variety. I hate the sun, would actually want to avoid a south facing garden, and so would my dog who likes it as cold and shady as possible!

My garden is south facing and for the majority of the summer it's too hot to sit out there after 11am. I much prefer my shady north facing front garden which still gets some sun.

My garden is N/S/E/W facing, not sure I can discriminate against one direction really.

Surely it depends on the house? We had house with a north facing back garden, but it was a detached Edwardian one on a large plot. So there was always sun in most of the back garden, and we had a seating area next to a summerhouse at the end of the garden specifically for the evening sun. The breakfast room opened out to the east so had sun in the early morning. With its large sash windows on all sides and high ceilings it was a beautifully light and airy place to live, but the paved terrace adjacent to back of the house probably needed cleaning more frequently due to the fact in only really had sun for a few hours a day, even in the summer.

When I was first looking at houses I thought I should buy one with a south facing garden, I think because of something I read on here years ago, and like @chillidoritto didnt want north facing.

however we bought a house with NE facing garden, but it’s not overlooked. It’s perfect. Gets lovely sunshine, lovely light in the rooms downstairs, love my morning light in the kitchen. Now I have kids I’m so thankful for the shade the house provides, I send the kids out and don’t worry about sunscream or hats, easy. The garden in the front of the house (south facing) gets HOT and would be too hot for the kids to be out playing a lot of the summer.

I hate my south facing garden. It’s too fucking hot, my eyes are sensitive to the light, and I burn very, very quickly. It’s not a joy. Not sure why that’s difficult to understand.

Our old house had a north facing garden but we loved it. We had a conservatory built and could use it all year round as an extra room. We did have sun in the garden and had it sectioned with a small grass area, slide, little play house and sandpit. It was such a happy house. We only moved due to twins needing their own rooms as they had different sleep needs. Our new house has a south facing garden (which people often find too hot but I’m a lizard and love it) and east facing (corner plot). We bought it for the house space and the fact the garden isn’t overlooked.

I have a south facing garden and it's great for growing flowers but we've had to create shade to use it. I miss my north west facing garden. The end was in the shade by the afternoon so we could sit out there all afternoon and evening while the sun created the loveliest light in the rooms at the back of the house.

But the flip side is the opposite side would be sunny and bright surely

'Pasty kids', that's ok then, won't be at risk of Melanoma then!

My garden is north west and in summer it has sun from 1pm onwards. Most of our rooms are at the front of the house and I absolutely love the sun (east and a little bit of south) and light through the glass, warms up nicely especially in winter

As a fair-haired, fair-skinned bald person with a family history of skin cancer and an unrelated condition that makes me more vulnerable to burning, I focus on trying to create enough shade in my southwest facing garden. I'd swap it for a north facing one in a heartbeat!

@Ash099 yes but if your kitchen
is at the back of the house you spend quite a lot of the earlier part of the day there & if a living room is at the front you would generally use it at the latter part of the day as opposed to using it first thing when the sun is streaming in.

Mine is North West facing, it's absolutely fine

Personally I'd rather a north than the hell that is our current south facing one! I hate it so much, it's far too hot to sit out in (even in the shade) and our bedroom is hotter than Satans buttcrack in the summer (even with blinds and blackout curtains shut all day)

Although I'd prefer east/west if I could really choose

Yes mine is the same, my lounge is lovely at the front of the house

Poking fun at what people can afford is just as bad

Poking fun at what people can afford is just as bad

That's why I like South west the best as you still get the late sun without it being quite so hot.

I agree. It's a mistake. I've owned one house with a north-west facing garden (mossy, miserable, dark most of the day, also sadly impossible to sit out in the evening because if the shadow from the neighbouring building) and one with an north-east facing garden which was preferable but only because there was morning sun at the end so some grass grew. But I didn't buy either of these houses expecting them to be for more than a few years.

It was important to me to buy a house with a directly south or south-west facing garden for our current house / family home. It's a million times better. When we first moved in none of us could believe how hot it was eating lunch outside by the brick wall in May. I think serious adults/ house-buyers wait for the side of the road with south-facing gardens to be available: they don't command much of a price difference, if any, but you notice that the houses sell much less often and often have fewer rentals.

@chillidoritto

Your comment about pasty children was clearly an insult. Better to own it than pretend otherwise

I would imagine that anyone choosing to buy a house looks at various factors. North / South facing garden is just one of them

I love my north facing back garden, it’s surrounded with woods so wouldn’t get much sun if it was south facing. The biggest bonus is that I can sit in the garden and still remain pale and interesting.