Tell me about your South facing courtyard only North facing front homes ….

[IfYouLook]

Bit of a niche one here.

Period terrace we have offered on. V special in terms of unlikely to get anything on east / west aspect

But - front of house gets v little / to no sunlight for much of the year as almost exactly due north. A long front garden which my DH has now clocked on second visit is going to be in shadow most of the year.

There is a rear courtyard - south facing obvs - which I love with nearly full length Georgian window gets morning / to mid afternoon sun into kitchen which I love. But master bed + both receptions face north. But aren’t dark at all because long windows and open vista / sky beyond.

But DP really despondent now as houses on other side of square are front facing west / rear small courtyard facing east which he has now.

Any experiences or will he regret it forever if we do this.

South or west facing back garden/yard is essential for me. I’d much rather have yours than his current one.

Most people want a south facing garden/courtyard, then west then east then north.

Apart from some people say the garden gets too hot but that's not too much of an issue in the UK I don't think unless you have young children who will spend a lot of time out there.

But the sun would be gone by lunch time if the kitchen faces east? I'm not sure why he'd prefer that to south sun all day?

You'd probably only use the north facing reception rooms in the evening anyway.

Yes that’s what I’d thought - south facing garden is best. certainly in a modern kitchen diner with a decent size back garden

But in fairness it’s a slightly unusual house in that the rooms are each square rooms at front and back with staircase in the middle. So no through rooms. One of the reception rooms would probably be where one of us would work. We both work largely from home.

id prefer the master bedroom to be cooler myself than his current one that gets baked by the afternoon / evening sun. But it feels like the joy has gone out of this for him. It’s a big move for us in other ways so maybe this wobble is the other stuff. I don’t know. But I certainly don’t want to be “persuading” him and if we are withdrawing from this purchase (and his related sale) we have to do so ASAP- we are only just a week or so into the process. But it affects other people too.

Sun in the back is much more important than in the front! Our back garden is totally shaded by 3pm and the front is sunny forever. It's the only thing I don't like about this house.

I have a north-slightlyeast-facing front garden, so I'm speaking from experience here. A north-facing garden is not actually in shade all day. If you think about it, a north-facing rectangle with a house on the south face also has east and west faces. What will determine how much shade you have will be the size of the garden and what is on those east and west faces - particularly the west one - plus how tall the house is to cast shade. If, as you say, the north-facing garden is long, then you are particularly likely to find the house doesn't cast shade along the full length - particularly in the summer when the sun is high in the sky.

My front garden actually has sun for most of the day, and it's not a particularly long one (just a bit longer than one car). The one bit where it really is shady all day is in a nook really close to the house where the shape of the house means there are 2 stories on both the south and west aspects. In fact in hot weather it's really much nicer at the front than it is in the south-facing back.

We have a North facing front garden. Due to the layout and shape of our house and the rest of the terrace it doesn't get a single ray of sun ever.

We never use the front anyway, true Northern style we only use the back door and back yard. The yard is sunny and lovely in the middle of the day.

Is the back yard a nice place to sit and is the front badly overlooked? If yes and no I'd go for it.

I think you need to look at all the rooms and work out what time of the day you would most likely be using them. It maybe one of the reception room would be in the evening so the north orientation isn’t so important. I personally don’t like north/south or South/North as I hate the thought that some rooms won’t get any sunshine. At least with East/west or West/east you know at some point in the day they will get sun. As you are a terrace you couldn’t add windows to the side of the house which is always an option in a semi or detached. Have you checked there are no buildings or trees that would block the sun in the garden? It’s so difficult but to me the orientation is the most important thing but that is just me.

We are WNW back-ESE front, but even then the front facing west gets too hot in the bedrooms at the front in the summer. We have fruit trees at the front because they like the sun and a patio at the back for when the garden gets too hot (long garden so end of garden still in sun in the afternoon). If the front garden is a useful size you could have lockable storage there to increase space in the back.

I would love to have a cool bedroom and living room. It is easier to warm up the room with thick curtains, foil behind the radiators and a cosy fire in the living room than cool down boiling rooms as good air conditioning is expensive and costly to run.

I actually don’t like my N-S oriented house, the back is too hot and front too cold. My last house was EW, with a wrap around west facing garden which was ideal. There was always shade and sun in the back garden,

We have a south-facing courtyard and most of the year it's great.

However, on really sunny days (remember those?) in summer the lack of proper shade can be very uncomfortable. Our kitchen and sitting room are at the back of the house and we've fitted awnings across both windows, which helps. The sitting room has french windows and on summer days if we're home we open them wide and have the awning fully extended. Sitting in the courtyard in the daytime heat is very uncomfortable.

Our bedroom overlooks the courtyard and again, in high summer we keep the curtains closed all day. We also have an air-conditioning unit in the bedroom or sleep would be impossible.

If you intend to grow flowers in planters or have hanging baskets, be prepared to have them on or along the back wall so they have some shade. We've attached a water feature to the back wall and the sound of water trickling (bizarrely) gives the illusion of coolness - although I appreciate not everyone enjoys the sound.

Having said all that, though, we do love our north/south house, despite the occasional days of unrelenting and quite harsh heat.

I had thet set up for 10 years. Lovely patio and we painted walls white so even the shaded bits looked bright and had a mixture of sun loving and shade loving plants.

I had lots of long mirrors horizontally in the hallway and front room which we had as a dining room Facing north.

I think the right shades of paint made a massive difference- and i found white with a hint of taupe were the most warming with a feature wall -

The hallways were painted a sort of light golden sand and the master bedroom faces north.

Most people thought our house was light and spacious due to all the mirrors and plants and high ceilings. Only my mum thought it was dark.

I know dark colours are trendy but I would avoid them I think they make terraces look dingy in real life if they don't have much light.
I also loved my front north garden and back patio bits that were shaded, full of huecheras and ferns.

Edited for the appalling spelling

I think this is DH’s point.

I’ve always had E front / W back gardens which is to my mind ideal. But Im willing to accept a totally north front and small south courtyard to the rear.

There is a very open aspect to the front and it’s the second terrace along so the one beside “ours” gets westerly sun from the side ( they have got a table and chairs in the front). But they have a highish hedge (I guess to give privacy whilst they sit in front enjoying their afternoon sun) which reduces the amount that will go round to our front.

I think ultimately our actual front facade won’t ever actually get hit by sun ironically because the front garden is long & the house is 3 stories (and as it’s stucco that does affect how often it gets a bit grimy etc). And that’s weighing on DH’s mind. But it’s not overlooked at the front - much less so than his current house.

The courtyards of the houses on the side of the square with west fronts / east courtyards are all mossy and their kitchens must be quite dark.

The way this is you can only go in via the front which is a beautiful aspect but you do immediately glance to the right and see the other side of the square bathed in sunlight. Which is what happened on our second viewing and really tinged for DH a house we were both so excited about.

I was expecting it then to feel dark in the front both facing rooms inside - but it didn’t because there is a large amount of open area right in front still loads of light. And then the courtyard & kitchen both of which are small at back felt lovely & sunny.

Fortunately, ours is a rental.

South facing conservatory, 12x16, three walls floor to ceiling glass. Winter: so far in Dec and January, 11 degrees at 8.30am and 34 degrees by 10.30am* or 26 degrees if we don’t close the curtain separating it from our lounge/diner, which we generally do because the light level is blinding and makes those two rooms uncomfortable to sit in.

When we do open it, 26 is not bearable for me, so half our house becomes uninhabitable.

I was expecting the worst in summer, but apparently winter sun is lower and therefore closer.

February being overcast and rainy has made me happy.

Three bedrooms North facing at the front of the house, mostly too cold, bad light, and tomorrow I have the tedious job of trying to remove a decade’s worth of black mould from the window frames because we are both getting sick.

I would absolutely never North/South again, unless the rooms were so vast as to be able to cope with extreme heat.

I have four or five different types of slippers that I have to change several times a day to cope with the violent temperature fluctuations. It’s very tedious.

*there is nothing and nobody opposite us to block out sun so we get it from 8.30am-3.30pm in Jan. Other houses might block some of this out.

Our terraced house has the garden situation you describe and the inside as well, square rooms downstairs and even the stairs up the middle. It's pretty much exactly as you described.

The back yard is a fabulous sun trap, everything grows, we have a mini pond in an old sink with frogs even. Line dry washing out there in no time on a sunny day. It's just a square flagged yard but lovely.

The long front garden isn't as useable for sitting out as not private but I grow mini fruit trees, camellias, hydrangeas, hellebores, lavender. Lots more. Poor things are in the shade nearly all year due to north facing but they don't seem to mind and do very well. Daffodils opening up atm.

The front living room and my bedroom at the front are gorgeous and cool in the summer. Great north light all year. Artists studios have to be north facing because it's the best light, I believe. I agree.

I'm in a semi but north south facing, same as you are looking at. I end up pulling the curtains over the patio doors in the south facing dining room on hot sunny days or else it ends up being about 30 degrees in there. The front of the house is a lovely retreat, though and isn't too dark unless it actually is a dark day in winter as it has massive windows.

That’s exactly this type of house!! Built late 1840s! I’ve never seen this layout before …. but this is a new place for us.

your front garden sounds wonderful! I will make a note of that and all the other planting tips people above make.

He sounded slightly more positive when we spoke about it last night and will make a decision today whether we proceed.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts

https://www.suncalc.org/#/27.6936,-97.5195,3/2025.02.24/07:51/1/1

Use this to work out exactly where the sun will be at any given date and time.

The house sounds gorgeous. I have to say, despite not being a fan of the N-S orientation, and I can see why your husband is torn over the courtyard, it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me if I loved the house

Our house is the same - front faces North, rear faces south. It's slightly elevated so lots of sky out of the front windows, so it never feels too gloomy. However the north facing rooms are prone to damp/mould as they never get sun on them, so I'd bear that in mind when viewing again in case it's an issue.

Yeah I’ve got an app that does that too. We were frantically using it standing in front of the house - unfortunately we live far away so can’t go at diff times of the day. But basically only about 4 months over summer will front garden get any sun and not the actual elevation of the house we think

Yes this is like this - lots of sky visible. The front facing rooms defo don’t have damp interestingly. I’ve got a nose like a bloodhound for it 😂

The front of our house doesn’t get sun but that works for us. We have the snug / tv room there on ground floor and master bedroom on first. We’re in Scotland so don’t want dawn sun in our bedroom at 4am in summer. We sit out back, and luckily we do get the sunset over our garage into the back garden so the house isn’t a complete wall. But again, Scotland so when it’s warm enough to sit out sunset is very very late evening.

Yes! I’ve lived in Scotland previously and those 10/10.30 summer nights are awesome 😃