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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

373 replies

chillidoritto · 26/09/2023 18:50

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?

OP posts:
Syndulla · 26/09/2023 20:35

Haha. I've got a north facing garden on a hill in Cumbria.

I still get sun, just at the end of the day. I have plenty of plants growing.

My kids are a bit pasty but they are ginger and blonde and wear factor 50 from April to September.

I chose this house for loads of different reasons; location, size, etc etc. The north facing garden didn't factor at all.

FatBanana · 26/09/2023 20:35

Don't discount a north facing garden.

My last house had one. Sun throughout the day mainly everywhere. Some shady bits, but mainly sunny. Great with kids as always a spot to stay cool in the heat.

The kitchen was at the back and was lovely and cool in summer. The living room was at the front and nice and bright during winter as south facing.

I now have a South facing garden and kitchen - fucking nightmare during summer time!!

AlltheFs · 26/09/2023 20:37

We have gardens that face North, East and South as they wrap around the house. Previous house was mostly North too.

Our North facing part is absolutely great, not overlooked and not in shade apart from
one corner. Cracking open countryside views.

Not dark, not damp, not shaded.

You are ridiculous to rule out houses based on the garden direction without viewing it properly first. North facing gardens in a built up urban hellhole are crap but it is not universal.

StorminanDcup · 26/09/2023 20:37

I guess that like every other thing in the world, it’s completely preference. Some people don’t like the sun, don’t want to have a garden they have to commit to maintaining and aren’t at all fussed about having full sun all day?

The only absolute pain in the arse is restrictive drying time! Other than that my north garden gets a bit of sun in different areas throughout the day, so we have couple of sitting areas.

I also grow a lot of plants, some do much better out of direct sunlight anyway.

That’s not to mention all the other factors like affordability, compromise….

Id rather have a fabulous house in a great catchment area with a north garden than a mediocre house in a mediocre area with a south garden given the choice (if cost were a limiting factor!)

I mean some people choose to live in apartments and flats with no garden at all OP - shock horror!

StripyHorse · 26/09/2023 20:37

We have a NE facing garden. Annoyingly, the front gets lots of sun, but can't bring ourselves to sit out there.

We do have a patio in the back corner that gets the sun, and the section closest to the house is lovely and warm in the morning. It also means our conservatory is still useable in summer.

If I could change the orientation of the garden, I would. But when we bought, it was a seller's market. The general location is good. The house met our needs.

When I have my perfect house, I won't need to worry about garden orientation because the garden will be so huge, there will always be somewhere that gets the son buys lottery ticket

Syndulla · 26/09/2023 20:37

hopsalong · 26/09/2023 20:31

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.

"serious adults". Seriously? You think people who don't have South facing gardens are not serious adults?

I think I've just reached peak Mumsnet.

StripyHorse · 26/09/2023 20:37

Gets the sun

Goldmember · 26/09/2023 20:38

I posted this before but I absolutely love my north facing garden.

I get morning sun in our conservatory, love my morning coffee in the sun. The afternoon sun streams into our front room and our bedroom which is so nice and cosy in the winter. The sun is off the kitchen from lunchtime, which is nice in Summer, I'm not melting whilst making dinner. Our garden gets sun all day, the top half at least but we are not sun worshippers so we can sit comfortably in the shade. The conservatory is warm but not unbearable.

Our last house was south facing, we hardly used the garden and conservatory in Summer, way too hot.

rhino12345 · 26/09/2023 20:38

I grew up in a north facing house, so when we bought our most recent home, my stipulation was "definitely not north facing!!!" My DH thought I was bonkers, but within 6 months was converted 😂 I'd never ever buy a north facing house - think it's an enormous blight imho.

GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal · 26/09/2023 20:40

It's a deal-breaker for me, because I love sitting in the sun. I'm basically a cat.

Papillon23 · 26/09/2023 20:40

chillidoritto · 26/09/2023 19:34

Lots of positive answers about north facing gardens. I guess so long as the garden is long enough I will still be able to dry the washing / sit outside/ enjoy being outside without getting cold!

The lady with the pasty kids doesn’t want them being in sunlight at all because they burn very easily. It wasn’t a criticism - just me trying to understand why she loves the shady garden so much! Not sure why it’s caused such a furore!

I imagine it caused a furore because it means "unhealthily pale" - it doesn't just mean pale, but rather pale with added negative connotations.

Fistralstorm · 26/09/2023 20:41

OP you sound like a dullard 😂

Missingmyusername · 26/09/2023 20:42

YANBU we have one, never again. Yes there is some sun, but it’s still predominantly dark, damp, wet.
Neighbour planting conifers so it’s likely going to get darker and wetter! Hopefully we will be gone by the time they grow.

givemeasunnyday · 26/09/2023 20:45

I don't live in the UK, but here people buy a house for the house - I have never once heard anyone take the position of the garden into it. I find it quite weird all this discussion about which way the garden faces Confused

SeenYourArse · 26/09/2023 20:47

North facing garden here ✋ on purpose! Love it that the huge kitchen diner is cool even on the hottest days, and there’s always a shady patch to sit in. Our previous house was the same orientation too by accident (first home) but taught us it suits us perfectly I’d HATE a roasting hot garden and living area.

Oiyouoverthere · 26/09/2023 20:48

Love our north facing garden. We bought the house without checking the orientation because we didn't really care. But now I've had a north facing garden I don't think I'd buy anything else.

  • I don't enjoy gardening so stuff not growing doesn't bother me and we have veg growing in the front garden.
  • we are a very pale family that burns so easily. Means we need limited suncream and sunhats when in the garden.
  • it never gets too hot.
  • when it snows there's enough snow after school to play in.
Moonshine5 · 26/09/2023 20:49

Had a South facing 150 ft garden never again. Essentially you can't go out without shade and don't get me started the conservatory (even with blinds) was hotter than the surface of the sun.

hopsalong · 26/09/2023 20:49

@Syndulla
If you live in a big detached house in the country it won't matter. Or if you don't really have much of a garden at all. Or don't like gardening!

But, yes, after buying two houses quite hastily because we wanted to move/ could afford them, I didn't want to make the same mistake again for a house I would live in for 20 years plus, perhaps forever. This is for an average Victorian semi with a very long and reasonably wide garden. I love gardening. First we had to work out which streets in the general area had big gardens (most didn't). Then we had to wait a year for one on the preferred side to come up for sale. When I was younger I wouldn't have appreciated why waiting so long was a good idea.

Fistralstorm · 26/09/2023 20:51

Guess as summers get hotter, north facing gardens may suit more and more people 😊

spottedinthewilds · 26/09/2023 20:51

paddyclampofthethirdkind · 26/09/2023 20:30

Poking fun at what people can afford is just as bad

I was trying to give the OP a taste of her own medicine with her snobbery about pasty kids.

margotmargeaux · 26/09/2023 20:55

chillidoritto · 26/09/2023 19:34

Lots of positive answers about north facing gardens. I guess so long as the garden is long enough I will still be able to dry the washing / sit outside/ enjoy being outside without getting cold!

The lady with the pasty kids doesn’t want them being in sunlight at all because they burn very easily. It wasn’t a criticism - just me trying to understand why she loves the shady garden so much! Not sure why it’s caused such a furore!

Because the word pasty sounds insensitive and judgemental.

LizzieSiddal · 26/09/2023 20:55

We’re lucky enough to have a house in the middle of a plot, so all aspects are covered. As the years have gone on (been here 22 years) we’re very thankful for the North facing part of the garden as it provides shade and cool air when it’s 30 odd degrees!

CherryMaDeara · 26/09/2023 20:57

spottedinthewilds · 26/09/2023 19:49

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!!

Nowhere has OP said what type of house she can afford.

PaprikaPlease · 26/09/2023 20:58

Pasty kids is just bitchy! What an unnecessary thing to say about children.

PickAChew · 26/09/2023 21:01

Our sound facing garden gets far too hot for sitting in. And we're a family of "pasty" people as you so kindly put it. Fair skinned and don't fancy skin cancer.

Sometimes, the way a house faces might be the difference in it being affordable or not. Or someone might prefer to have a brighter room at the front. Or just not care.

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