Help!! Have I just bought the wrong house?

[EllisRoses]

We've bought plot 13. I didn't know this whole north/south facing thing. I'm a first time buyer. I did ask the estate agent how much sun the back garden would get and he said morning sun and from mid afternoon onwards, I thought that was perfect as the kids will have shade during the hottest part of the day but we'll have sun the rest of the time. Now I've seen a post about north facing gardens and I googled and oh my god. Damp, dark, no sun ever, nothing grows? What have I done!! There's more plots available but it would be difficult, if not impossible to change at this point and everything would need to be redone, mortgage, H2B, the lot...

@TheSweetestHalleluja

I have a North facing garden, but its about 60ft long so only the bit nearest the house is full shade, the rest of the garden gets so much sun. How long is your garden? With kids, having a shady area just outside the back door has been perfect. We have all sorts growing out there, and shade loving plants can be just as beautiful.

My living room is the same as yours with windows at the front (south facing) and then a door out to the back (north facing) and it is such a bright and cheerful room. The sun streams through the front part. My kitchen is at the back like yours and its perfect for keeping food fresher because its not in the sun getting hot. Honestly the layout has been perfect for us. Its also nice having the main bedroom at the back overlooking the garden and again not so hot being in the shade.

I'd buy the house without worries, honestly.

Thanks that's reassuring. Our lounge has doors at the back out to the garden, not sure why it's not more clearly stated on the plans. So we'd be similar in that sense. The plans don't seem to give actual garden measurements, I'll get in touch and find out.

Plot 30 as it's got more of a chance of sun from the side?

If the foundations are not dig can they widen the drive, or put 1 drive either side of the house?

We have north facing and it's honestly the thing I hate most about our (otherwise fabulous) house. It's ok in summer, you get partial sun all day, but winter is dire. You have to sit on the front to get any sun at all. How long is the garden?

It's more complicated than just which way the garden faces, there are so many other factors that will affect where and when you garden gets sun - buildings, trees, walls, being on a hill, size/length of the garden etc

I've just checked the aspect of my very sunny garden. It's north facing. I had no idea. There is a small part of the garden that only gets partial sun (in the gardening sense where plants are classified as needing full/partial sun or shade) but gets the evening sun in summer as well as early morning. The majority of the garden has full sun. There is always sun in some part of the garden. The fact that your house is only the width of half the plot will help so its shadow probably won't fall on all the plot.

The only way to be sure is to visit the plot at different times of day when there is sun or create a detailed map and use an app to plot the shade but that is a lot of work.

I've had both and while a South facing garden is good in the spring/autumn, I find it too much in the summer. North facing gardens can be pretty grim in the winter though as when the sun is low in the sky you might not get any sunshine in the garden. Can you find out the total height of your house and the houses on each side and use that to work out which bits of your garden will be shaded and which won't? That garden looks reasonably big, so I imagine that the far end of it will get sunshine all day in the summer.

Honestly OP, I have lived in a house with a North facing garden - we never, ever, got to open the back doors to sit out as it was always in shade - this only works if the shade is Spanish heat level of shade, not England and Ireland level of heat shade.

And the EA lied - your house faces north, not north west so you will not get the sun at any time facing the back of your house.

The best plot is No. 25. Second best are 21 / 22.

Builders will always negotiate to change a plot. You can never make a north facing garden have the sun unless the garden is over 50 foot long, which yours probably is not. And you have the option of changing your plot unlike many people who buy a one off house so have to sacrifice the garden to get the location.

Our old house was north facing at the back, the garden was dark and depressing.

Our current house is south facing, the entire kitchen and back garden get the sun all day and it's beautiful, but it shows every single piece mark on the floors and windows.

The front is north facing and we get damp/condensation on the external walls as it's an old house. I would still definitely go for south facing at the back though.

@DarkMutterings

Take a breath No house is perfect So far in your post you've mentioned 1) NW facing garden 2) desire to park cars side by side not one behind each other 3) largest garden plot in that price bracket 4) furthest from main road

I presume there is no plot that meets all of these criteria so take a breath and prioritise the ones most important for you

It depends on your priorities and preferences.

None of the houses will be perfect.

You have to figure out what is most important for you.

Right now we have south facing and it has pros and cons. I love the light especially in the morning and late afternoon, great for breakfast and dinner outside. Midday and early afternoon in the summer it was difficult to be outside though as it was far too hot. And our lawn is rubbish as we don't remember to water it enough.

I quite like these animated gifs that give you a kind of idea of how the sun is moving across your garden depending on position and time of day (yes its to do with planting but it gives an overall idea) www.dwh.co.uk/advice-and-inspiration/interactive/garden-aspect-planting-cheat-sheet/

I guess it depends on the size of your garden, and is it overlooked by other buildings on the north side?

Out garden is south facing and honestly it's difficult at times, house gets boiling, windows swell, too hot for kids and pets all day

I lived in a shared drive house for 20yrs and never had a problem with it. You only hear the bad stories about things like shared driveways/neighbours etc. Don’t let other people’s experience put you off.

Also my parents have a north facing garden and it’s full of gorgeous roses and has a lovely lawn. Plenty of sunshine at the top end for most of the day, and yes it keeps the back rooms lovely and cool, which will be an extra advantage in a new build.

My garden faces north and it's great. The area directly outside the house is in shade from mid-afternoon which makes it ideal for sitting outside in the summer. Rest of the garden gets sun until the evening. Never had any trouble growing anything, including the lawn. With it being a new build you wont have any tall trees to either side blocking out the sun anyway.

When you come to sell, not having a garage would put me off but the garden wouldn't.

I have a north facing garden and get plenty of sunshine throughout the day. We have a long garden and the bottom end of it has sun from around 10am-5pm in the height of summer.

Annasgirl where did you get the idea of 20%premium for South facing gardens? Our last house had a south facing garden and one on the 'wrong' side of the next street sold for £20k more just after ours, even though it had a dated bathroom, a conservatory half the size of ours, and a paved back garden. Our current house also has a south facing garden and it was a good price, not more than other houses of the same design.
Do people still worry about Plot 13? Ours was plot 13, but numbered differently. At one point people told me you could pay less for plot 13 from the builder because people wouldn't want it, and then it would be valued lower when you sold it on. Is that just an urban myth?

I'd be more worried about making sure that it is a freehold not a leasehold, that it is going to be adopted by the council and that there are no restrictive covenants. There are a lot of cons going on with new build houses at the moment.

@GoGoGone

I'd be more worried about making sure that it is a freehold not a leasehold, that it is going to be adopted by the council and that there are no restrictive covenants. There are a lot of cons going on with new build houses at the moment.

It is all of those things with no fees or restrictive covenants. Always said I'd never buy a new build as they're bad quality, knocked up too quick and usually paper thin (heard all the Persimmon horror stories!) this is a far smaller developer, all double thickness walls, double glazed sash windows, solar panels, low energy heaters. Far higher build quality than the standard new builds, we would never consider one of those.

We have a nw facing garden and we get a decent amount of sunshine through the day. We get the sun through the gap between the houses in the morning and then it moves round. In the summer when the sun is high we have sun pretty much all day until 5pm ish. Obviously in the winter it's not as high so half our garden is in shadow until about 3pm ish.
Can you visit the plot and see what the light is light and if there is anything that might block it?

I wouldn't especially like a north facing garden, but it's the shared drive which would kill it for me - my last house had one and I never wish to deal with the blocking-in issues again

Also, are the "grey" parts of the roads unadopted? If so, I hope you realize they'll be your responsibility maintenance wise?

It doesn’t have a shared driveway, I am not sure why people says it does; the drive goes straight off the public (once adopted) road turning area.

The garden that we have now is south-west facing so the sun streams into the kitchen and makes it uncomfortably hot in the summer and every time someone opens the back door bluebottles come in. In the winter the sun is low in the sky and it's blinding to use the sink or the counter that runs under the window.

You've obviously got lots of good reasons why you've picked the plot you have so do keep those in mind.

Saying that ours is south facing, just by chance as we were FTB , and I absolutely love it. The back of the house does get hot so we sleep at the front but the garden is amazing. We appreciated it so much during lockdown, and can always find a bit of shade as theres trees.

That's certainly more north facing than north-west - check out the compass guide at the bottom of the pic. If prices are the same I would be looking to change, especially as resale value of property likely to be lower than those with south facing gardens.

We have a small north facing garden with a main reception room out north and honestly, with the hot summers and heatwaves we've been having, it has been fantastic. We have huge roof lights in the north-facing rear extension with the effect that it is always light and airy but never hot. It is a lot lighter, in fact, than the south-facing front room, which has an overgrown hedge stealing part of the light! When all our neighbours across the street are moaning about the heat and installing air conditioning, we are just perfectly comfortable.
We have a little growing patch at the far end of the garden which grows rasperries really well. Also a small seating area back there to enjoy the sun, which gets there in the winter too. In the summer we need to get the parasols and suncream out if we want the kids to be in the paddling pool or if we want to eat lunch outside. In other words, plenty of sun! In the winter we don't grow anything anyway, and we have a bench to sit on out front if we want to catch some rays. It looks to me like you would be able to do the same at your new house.

I think you have the perfect plot there. It ticks so many boxes, and the north-facing garden is really only a downside if you are a keen gardener.

If you think back over the other places you have lived and the house you grew up in, or other people’s houses you knew well, what directions did their gardens face?
Maybe it doesn’t matter very much.

I’d go for 31 and put up a high lapped fence along the roadside.

Adoptable you're right technically, but it has shared access and is right at the end of a small (and possibly partly unadopted) road

Look at the "two cars worth" of space on the drive next door ... all you need is inconsiderate visitors there, or even a family with more than two cars, and that's the potential for major problems

As said I've been there with my last place - never again