opinions Please: Direction to face a house?

I doesn't matter how you face it, just do what you like. But when I was placing my Modular I read that the BEST way to keep your heating and cooling bills down is to put it halfway down a hill, with trees on the up slope between you and the top of the hill. Keep the path of the sun clear, to get the warmth. Thats what I did, and it works out fine. I shake my head when I see houses perched on the top of a hill, they must be so hard to keep warm.

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We built our house facing East. All but one of the bedrooms is on the East side which guarantees everyone get up early! The kitchen window faces west and I had to put a blind up because in the evenings I was blinded by the setting sun. The garage is on the north side which I don't like. That north wind blows right into it during the winter. I do like having a front porch on the east side and a back porch on the west side. In summer you can enjoy the cool of the back porch in the mornings and the cool of the front porch in the evenings. In winter the brick on the back porch warms up nicely and it's pleasant to sit out there.

In a perfect situation I would have probably placed the house facing south, but in our real situation if we'd done that we'd have been facing our idiot neighbors.

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http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

House facing - try to take in the considerations that have already been given to take advantage of the environmental factors.
However and also for your consideration if there is an existing drive/lane on the property is to position the house so that the or one of the rooms that gets most activity like the kitchen is facing the drive.
This has been recommended for safety/security reasons in rural areas - that you can see if someone is coming in or up the drive/lane as opposed to not until they are already there.
If there is no existing drive/lane; you can take this into consideration while taking advantage of the other factors already mentioned.

We built our house facing south. The living, dining room, kitchen is all one big 30'x20' area with the 30' wall facing south. The kitchen window faces west. Our bedrooms are all north facing. In mid summer the sun rises at 3:00AM so we really don't want direct sunlight pouring in the window that early. The south wall is full of glass so we won't miss any of our three hours of sunlight this time of the year.

Our home faces east and west. There are identical roofed porches on both ends. That way one porch is always in the sun and the other is always in the shade. Consequently, we can pick which porch to sit on depending on the weather.

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It seems around here (upper midwest) it would make most sense to face your most window exposure south, the least north. Although ive noticed in practice a lot of houses around here (including mine) have large pictures windows that face...north?

To me the most important thing is the view out the window over the kitchen sink! Mine is eastern exposure for my kitchen sink window and also in my bedroom. (Both also have windows to the south.) I like the morning sun for prodding me up earlier than if I'd had a western-windowed bedroom, and I do my dishes in the morning while the tea kettle is heating up. I have a strawbale house, so it is always cool in the summer.

As important as orientation are skylights. I have an openable one over the shower stall: in the summer, whoosh goes the steam! Skylights give you tons more natural light than windows. I wish I had put in more. Saves on electricity because you don't need to turn on so many lights.

Just build it round on a big lasy susan. Then you can just rotate it which ever way you want for the day

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http://tnwoodwright.blogspot.com/

That would really be something special. Makes me think of those big, roung, premade houses with windows facing every possible direction. Isn't there a restaurant or something in Seattle that rotates?

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Alex, your cabin is wonderful, and so is your view. It reminds so much of the one I lived in, growing up in Northern Maine. Built low to the ground, good roof overhangs, and will last thru the ages. Our cabins were built in 1873, and with repairs, are still in great shape. Though my family doesn't own them any longer, I hear from the new owner upon occasion and he keeps me up to date. This was a fishing/hunting camp business my parents owned and operated - they purchased it in 1918 and operated it until my Dad's death in 1969. There were about 15 cabins total. The originals were buit with horizontal logs and the newer (after 1900) were built using vertical logs because it's so much easier to repair them.

What do you have for a foundation beneath yours? My Dad always used the wet rock/dry rock method. Placing one rock on top of another guarantees the second one will be dry and a good way assure you don't get a lot of rot.

I'd love to see more pictures and hear more about your cabin.

My old house had a kitchen that faced West. I hated it-----especially in the summer when the kitchen tended to be hot anyway. The sun seemed to make it hotter. That same house had the master bedroom facing East and you could never sleep late in that room. The front porch and entrance to that house faced north. We could never enjoy the porch. In the summer, there was no breeze and the house always felt cold in the winter.

So, when we did this house, I used a lot of Feng Shui and North American Indian traditions. Our front door and kitchen now face East. The master bedroom is on the North side. The living area faces South and gets wonderful light. The American Indians believed that if the entrance to your home faced East, it would bring good luck. Feng Shui thinks that South is the most ideal direction for the entrance to face.

Lazy Susan, LOL, Although I'm sure I've seen that before on one of those crazy building shows (long time ago)

Kitchen in the N.E. Corner (morning sun and afternoon cool)
My bedroom would have to face S.W. so I can lay in bed and watch the thunderstorms roll in at night (I'm creepy that way )
Everything else dosen't matter.
Oh, BIG trees on the S. side for shade.

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Rocky,

Foundation is rock, collected from on the road. We have no rocks on our land, lots of roots though.


Started with some blocks, mainly rocks, white stuff behind is Styrofoam.


Then cemented in, this is the north side.

This is really NOT keeping to the thread, but is about construction.

Good luck,

Alex

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You can find a million others googling.

I like to blend Linden flowers, borage, a bit of mint and whatever else I feel like at the moment for a relaxation tea in the evening

Hi,
Looks like you are getting tons of good advice -- I'll just throw in more item.
The house in this link below is in NC, and (to my mind) is one of the most carefully thought out energy efficient homes around. It has info on orientation, room arrangements, solar exposures, solar heating, good ventilation paths, ... They did a lot of thinking on where to spend there money to get the best return and the most pleasant house.

Richard Crume (the author) and Solar Today magazine were nice enough to allow me to make it free download here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...umearticle.htm

Gary
www.BuildItSolar.com

Wow, what great information and advice! This will be printed out in a day or two and filed in my "dream" home notebook! Thanks everyone. Debbie