Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jan 15, 2009 9:37 pm Just wondering if there is anyone which has their house positioned in a way in which their living/alfresco area was not facing North, and could comment on things such as where your livings areas face, morning/afternoon sun, heat and cooling etc
Thankyou Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 2Jan 15, 2009 9:57 pm all north except for my theatre room.. but I want that puppy to be as dark as possible so south side worked in perfect. Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 3Jan 15, 2009 10:07 pm Our living areas and alfesco will face west in our new house. Not the best aspect but we will have a huge covered pergola extension all down the side of the house to protect those windows. We are also having wall insulation and have made some of the windows a shorter drop.
The bedrooms will face east and we have made the windows 700mm drop (kids bedrooms) and they will have block-out blinds fitted. As far as heating/cooling goes - we will have ducted heating and split system air con in the main living areas and bedroom areas. The alfresco will also have a ceiling fan and a patio heater for winter. The alfresco will also be fully enclosed with tinted bistro blinds. Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 4Jan 15, 2009 10:10 pm ANy reason in particular you had bedrooms east and living areas west?
What do you mean by "shorter drop" on the windows? Hope you dont mind me asking, just doing some research Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 5Jan 15, 2009 10:22 pm Bam ANy reason in particular you had bedrooms east and living areas west? What do you mean by "shorter drop" on the windows? Hope you dont mind me asking, just doing some research I don't mind you asking Our block has a north backyard and we only liked the Illoura plan by PD which has living and bedrooms on each side. We couldn't find a block with the north to the side, and land was quite scarce at the time so we had to settle for what we could get. Some of the windows on the west side were 1800 or 2100 drop so we have made them 1200 drop which means less glass etc. Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 6Jan 15, 2009 10:34 pm Thanks for replying
Btw, where did you get your BBQ? FH is mighty impressed! Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 7Jan 15, 2009 10:35 pm Hehehe, Bam, you poor girl..still struggling with this one!
To tell you the truth, I couldn't find one room in this little rental I am currently in on Tuesday that wasn't DAMN hot! But....those rooms that faced NORTH were probably the warmest! Only the kitchen and dining room windows face West here, but they are on the dead side, so only about 2m to the fence line which has a row of very tall pittosporums in front of it...quite shady! I have one minor bedroom facing East, the other faces South. I don't notice much of a difference in the temp, but the one that faces East is much brighter at all times of the day...Master, Lounge and the minor bedroom that face South are all quite dark rooms. Have a think about the house you are currently in and think about the heat/natural light in each room. Which rooms do you avoid in the afternoon? Which rooms are glarey in the afternoon? Which rooms are nice all day? I would definately avoid all of my main living areas facing South, but If I couldn't have them facing North, and I found an area that I really loved, and waiting for the perfect block wasn't an option ( and it may never come along anyway)...then I don't think that facing East is such a bad thing. You get nice morning sun, the room warms up to a comfortable temp. and it stays quite bright. Remember too what H2B said... you need to love the house you are living in, and adjust it suit your needs. Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 8Jan 15, 2009 10:39 pm in our current townhouse our main lounge and main bedroom face west and get bloody hot!!
especially the first two summers here when we didn't have an aircon.. with aircon the west facing doesn't matter much.. but the sun glare is still annoying.. but if we owned the place I would probably get something better than venetian blinds that let light through. Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 9Jan 15, 2009 10:46 pm Bam Thanks for replying Btw, where did you get your BBQ? FH is mighty impressed! Thanks The BBQ came from; Fireside Gas Heating & Barbeque Supplies 841 Princes Hwy Springvale, Vic 3171 It is a Sunco SC29 http://www.sunco.com.au/pages/view.asp?productid=114 Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 10Jan 15, 2009 10:47 pm Aah Grace, its just all so hard! I will die when it comes to the house!
Thanks for your reply, you've been a gem today The house we are i currently has practically no natural light, seriously. Ill describe it: The entire left side of the house is garage. You walk in; on the right you have the spare room with toilet. Left is the entry to the formal area which runs right to the back. on that wall is the stairs to go upstairs (just to the left of the entry). Walk in the hallway; after the spare room on the right is the bathroom, then comes the laundry (so all of this is just wall). Walk through a sliding door. You have kitchen, meals dining. The whole right hand side is wall minus a little window above sink - 1m by 2m approx? And on the left of the room is a window near the table - 2mx1.5m but outside are the tallest trees you'll ever see, therefore blocking the sun (North) So anything is better than this. We cant even use this to compare as its a giant enclosed block And, as you mentioned and I didnt even think about, we can always use trees as a shading tool also.. Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 11Jan 15, 2009 10:49 pm Thanks for the input Andy! Glare is definately something to think about
And thanks for the link HG! George wants to buy it now Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 12Jan 15, 2009 11:12 pm OK...just to confuse you more.....!
There is a block for sale in Mernda Villages on realestate.com. 18m x 32m, Sumner Dve, Lot 416. It runs North to South, so the blocks run East to West. Didn't have a price. Just a thought..... Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 13Jan 15, 2009 11:24 pm Grace, Ive actually been to see that one! For some reason I didnt like it.... I cant remember why Ill ring tomorrow tho to see how much it is and check it out again Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 14Jan 15, 2009 11:54 pm I think the front of our house is north west......from where I live Bam I would be looking to the right side of your block (if standing on the street looking at your block). We get the morning sun through the back corner (alfresco) and two DD's rooms upstairs. Afternoon sun through the front (master up, study down). Now this afternoon my sister and I walked along the back of the houses opposite us (so closer to your block) and they all had the afternoon sun coming in through their Alfrescos. Would that not be a pain in the butt when sitting out there? So you would only get the afternoon sun through the family room and Alfresco? A good block out blind in the family room wouldn't be a problem. What about the Alfresco? Could you extend the roof out to give more shade? Morning sun through the bedrooms would be okay? You would get the afternoon sun through bedrooms 2, 3 and 4 plus the lounge room. Again pull down the blinds for a few hours if need be. I only have redi-shades at the moment and I put them down in the afternoon in the study and master and then put them back up again a few hours later. Probably not much help......just needed to write it down (or type) Happy at Home Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 15Jan 16, 2009 12:22 am Thanks Toni! Im thinking either way will work fine so Im not too stressed anymore *phew*
When we build, want to be our site manager? Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 16Jan 16, 2009 12:35 am Bam Thanks Toni! Im thinking either way will work fine so Im not too stressed anymore *phew* When we build, want to be our site manager? Good, glad to hear it I think you'll be right no matter which way you go. As long as you are happy, that is the most important thing. Sure, sign me up A friend came over for lunch last week and her BIL works for H3nley. My friend thought I'd make a good SS I am a pretty good organiser......I can easily make decisions for other people but really struggled with my own on this house. Happy to report that I love everything though so all the stress/anticipation was for no reason Happy at Home Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 17Jan 16, 2009 8:44 am Our previous house had the main living areas facing north and west. We had a huge L shaped patio /entertaining area outside though and it was lovely. We were pretty close to the coast. ( 5-7kms maybe?) On the bad points our eldest sons room was on the ne corner of the house. He had the hottest room of us all. Poor boy.
In our new house our entertaining will be s- se .. It's is going to be breezy and cool. ( to put it mildly) but nothing we could do about that. Our views are to the s, w and east and we wanted to make the most of them. We are planning on putting up a patio on the se side to connect up to the alfresco section and then we'll have those clear blinds to help as a wind break. The same son has his bedroom this time in the west corner but we have big trees shading that side of the house so he will be nice and cool. Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 18Jan 16, 2009 8:47 am Toni, Ill sign you up when the time comes!
Thanks kex Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 19Jan 16, 2009 8:56 am Most people will have a mixture as all main windows wont be on one side?
It also depends on where you live - where we live is clear and sunny most of the year and so facing south is not a problem, unlikely to be dark or cold anyway. In fact may be the best way to avoid the heat whereas in a cold dark location would be a bad idea. Anyway we have main bedroom and lounge at the front of our house facing North, no problems with that, large sliding doors/windows of family room face East, morning sun is ok and then no glare after about 8:00 am, we are getting pergola built across length of eastern side soon so that will reduce glare anyway, kitchen and meals face west, afternoon glare, need to angle the blinds in late afternoon, minor bedrooms face east with medium windows, son complains about morning sun waking him up - it is school holidays and he staggers out of bed around 11:00 am complaining of this - needless to say we don't take it too seriously Re: Anyone with living/alfresco areas not facing North? 20Jan 16, 2009 8:59 am I'm living in a two storey townhouse at the moment... no north or south windows at all.
Downstairs the living/dining is east..... the kitchen, laundry, toilet west. Upstairs master bed is east..... other two beds are west. The living room and master bedroom are so much easier to manage temperature wise. The living room only has to be shaded in the morning on the hottest of days (over 35 degrees). But the kitchen and back bedrooms are hot and unpleasant except in winter unless the blinds are closed. Put your living rooms on the east. Plant deciduos trees outside the west bedroom windows or get blinds. Easiest way. You want to be able to look out of your living room windows... if they're west they'll have to be shaded a lot of the time... east they won't be. That's what we'll be doing at the new house. The front of our block is North.... but we have views to the east so our living areas are on that side and bedrooms on the western side. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick The warning is on the sticker on the door too. Second the aluminium powdercoat 6 18176 thanks. the above one is white Mat tiles and have gripness so going for this Mat tiles for both indoor and outdoor. Beaumont told it can be used in both indoor and… 2 1614 It might be a bit darker in the mornings but the light is still light, so you should be getting it. Similar to what you see from your western windows 3 19969 |