Do check the link Becky posted before you dismiss it out of hand. Their "modern" examples might have something in it you'd like.

ETA: In part because the real stained glass there is going to, by it's nature, look more "high end" than the films I posted. The film would serve the purpose, but it's going to LOOK like a film.

Older house plan books, from the 1900s to around 1930 pretty much always had windows on all sides. Google "old house plans"...

@Virgil they also weren’t generally 5’-10’ away from neighbour and had more closed rooms - open plans of today have light move more across rooms since they are open to each other. Windows - even if only one one wall - also tend to be larger now - including floor to ceiling - than on many of the older houses.

Here is a house for sale in my city built in 1893 with current neighbors who are actually quite a distance away here....and photo of area when it was built (the white spec). It does have a few side windows but as you can see they added a lot of privacy hedges since neighbourhood changed since it was built!

Here is a house built in 1911 by a school principal that already then had much closer neighbours at time of building as density was getting higher...only one window on one side where there is a neighbour with a house built around same time. That window is in entry way. Other side is an alley and when I toured it I noticed it had two windows on that side...one in kitchen and one in dining space. All bedrooms only had windows on one wall - two bedrooms with one each, and the “master” with two - the two second story front windows you see in photo. Obviously it has been renovated a bit but the window placement was not changed.

Great idea, Mark! I was thinking of a trellis but perhaps I should sell advertising space instead!

I am kinda close to my neighbors garage. Since he has no windows on that side I have plenty. (kinda close - 40 feet) But I also have a high transom over my bed, so the view into the room is fairly impossible, but the light is welcome.

clerestory, transom, etc - do the windows, but place the strategically.

The only homes that shouldn’t have windows on the sides are rowhouses. Even apartments manage to have buildings that maximize light and air for their occupants. And you can’t get more smashed together and less privacy than a warren of identical little apartment buildings.

We're building a house in the city, as well. The required setbacks are 5 feet, and no requirements or restrictions on side windows.

We're carefully thinking through the locations of our windows. In the bedrooms, the windows on the side are high clerestory windows. In our kitchen, we have realized that the side windows may look into the neighbor's kitchen (though there will be a fence in between); once we get to the framing stage, we will see if we need to make our windows smaller, or move them from side to side to lessen that view.

For privacy on some of the windows, I have considered Smarttint, which allows you to opaque the windows to the degree that you desire.

@just_janni - not sure I think of 40ft as kinda close! Like I said...we are more like 5-8’! 40’ is enough for another house to go in middle here! Wider than my lot....

@lexma90 - lucky you can reassess as you go. We can’t here as changes to envelope have to go back for energy audit ($450 each time) but of course we also have limits on openings here that close to neighbours (a % basis rather than a number).

I have lived in a few apartments and almost always only had windows on only one side of the apartment altogether (inner apartments)....so not sure of that comparison. One exception was a corner apartment but I still ended up with only one wall with any windows in each room.

Sarah Susanka designed her Libertyville house - on a narrow 29’ wide lot - without windows at all on one side do keep privacy between the two houses:

Libertyville Not So Big Showhouse · More Info

Just look how dark and depressing the living room is sooo far away from a window /s:

Libertyville Not So Big Showhouse · More Info

Libertyville Not So Big Showhouse · More Info

I like cross ventilation. It's not always appropriate to be running the HVAC. I like the added light. I dislike the aesthetics of houses that lack at least a window or two on the sides. One can always use frosted glass or blinds that allow light to penetrate, for privacy reasons.

Clerestory windows above cabinets is one easy way to get light with windows and yet not have the vision of a neighbor in underwear. Stained glass, obscured glass, curtains. Those were all used here in the 1911 first city subdivision on the trolly line that even had no driveways to separate. I cannot think that they were exclusive to this area, or that good design was exclusive to over a century ago. But looking at poorly designed new houses, maybe we just have a generation of vampires glued to the artificial light of a 4” screen.

Or maybe Alison you keep trying to justify your choices because at this point you don't have a choice.

Again I have windows on my one side in my bath and upstairs guest bedroom and my house is 5' in from the lot line.

My first house was a 1927 bungalow on a 40' x 100' lot and we had lots of windows on both sides. As for the idea that the house was built with no houses near it, NOPE. The house right next door was built 3 years before my first house. On that side we had windows in the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and the mudroom, or as it was called then, the back hallway.

Rai I'm a huge fan of Sarah Susaka but that house is dark. Note that every single light is on in the house and Im sure the photographer added some additional artificial lighting.

Now having said that, the house was basically designed as a row house

There’s this new development across the street with postage stamp lots and 3ft side “yard” setbacks. The view out the side windows is a lovely brick wall of the next house.

I think I’d rather have no windows (better usable wall space).

the OP wrote, "...but I was wondering what the norm is for windows on the sides of a house..."

There's a lot interesting opinions in this thread about the personal desirability (or not) of windows on four sides of a house, even in tight, small urban lots.

But that's not what the OP asked. The OP asked "...what's the norm?"

And clearly, as I and others have posted, the "norm" was to build single family homes (albeit small ones) with windows on 1, 2, 3, 4 sides!

Check out this small beauty, with no indoor toilet. But the price is right...:-)

OT: I want to start a campaign to wipe out the ugly term "Mudroom". I, personally, have a "Back Hall".

That Susanka plan is too dependent on artificial light. There are brighter 'shotgun' homes on narrow lots all over the world -- with side windows. (Nice to track through the entire house with your groceries.)

@galore2112 - useable wall space versus a view of side of house is just it. At 26’ wide and 5’-8’ away from my neighbours my house *is* essentially a rowhouse with a bit of extra airspace between us for the privilege of being able to say we have a “single family house”.

I am building a small house compared to many on here, and the following spaces are the ONLY places I have for art or other hangings in my entire open space kitchen, dining, and living room. Which is why I did not put any windows there (aside from aesthetics I mentioned earlier about not liking built ins or windows next to fireplaces). I would rather have room for my art than a view of my neighbours siding or of the blinds or whatever else I would need to put up to avoid the view and add privacy.

I don’t tend to want to post photos of my “builder basic” home here for many reasons but here we go...(ETA: all my photos ended up squashed and making everything look wider than it is..click for more realistic view!)

Dining nook wall (cabinets end about a foot to left of that upper switch plate) - art will be placed between switch plate and back window:

Fireplace/living room wall standing from that dining nook wall. Stairs are to the right. Those two narrow spaces on either side of fireplace are only “blank walls” in this space for art in this room as windows run all across back wall. Try not to gasp at horror of having backing and electrical for TV over fireplace, we are not 100% on putting TV in living room at all. Might put more art. Behind that exterior wall is our neighbours gray vinyl :)

We rely a lot on “added” lighting here, irrelevant of how many windows one has, because of our long winters. For much of year I leave for work in dark and come home in dark. Aside from having windows all across back (and two levels in the living room) we have added lots of LED cans, a chandelier for living room, and will be adding floor lamps for more ambient lighting. I actually like “added lighting” as I like dimmed lights.

Here is where I do have side windows. All windows are poly’d after insulation & waiting for drywall right now!

Entry and sliding egress in office (framed in on wall there between for an interior window too). For reference, to left of the office is the stairwell (up to second floor and down to basement) and then living room.

High window in upper den loft area which is “open” to two story area. This will be our lounging area (ie want privacy from neighbour) and we wanted to have furniture be able to go against that exterior wall so went with the high window. To left is my walk in closet from master bedroom and to the right is the secondary bath with guest room beside that.

Oh, and basement windows which are terribly unexciting. I actually did want more windows down here but husband wants to do a dark man cave/theatre in back part of basement so we did not go that route:

Transom windows over built ins flanking a fireplace is a handsome and traditional addition. It still allows room for art. Ditto in a dining room. Transom windows up high allow for furniture placement and art. And natural light.

I love windows and think you should have as many as possible, however, in this area it seems that the majority of people keep them covered all the time with either closed blinds or heavy draperies- so it hardly matters whether the windows are there or not.

My previous house was on a narrow lot and it had windows on each side which looked out on the brick wall of the neighboring houses. It wasn't much of a view but I didn't mind, as they did let in some natural light. However, none of them looked directly into the neighboring houses, as other people mentioned above.

@Virgil $874 then is probably today’s $450,000 (at least!). I will still add on that plan many rooms only have one window or one window wall, even if windows on all sides of exterior. No one here is advocating taking out a side window if it leaves a bedroom without a window or anything!

@Sophie: yes, I agree with you that such a window placement works, though we personally are not going for a traditional or “handsome” look. I personally do not like the aesthetics of windows or built ins next to fireplaces, though I know it is for example very characteristic to a Craftsman style. Which can look lovely, but again not my own personal taste.

Rai Kai, yes, the Alberta Building Code was changed about 10 years ago for improved fire safety (to keep fires from spreading from house to house), with restrictions on exterior siding and glazed opening sizes for houses 1.2 meters (4 feet) from the property line. Those houses are still allowed to have seven percent of the side of the house open, but each window can be just a maximum of 3.5 percent of the total side. However, if the house is in an area where the fire department can't reach it in 10 minutes or less 90 percent of the time, one must build as if the distance between two houses were halved.

One purely anecdotal observation -- my husband and I have each needed reading glasses since turning 45, and have found that even with those glasses, more light, natural or artificial, is tremendously helpful for any activity requiring good vision -- reading, cooking, sewing, etc. So naturally bright rooms have been helpful in this regard as well.

We had several neighbors over to the new house the other week, and they kept exclaiming about the view of the sunset. The thing is, they have pretty much the same view , but they have fewer and smaller windows in their houses : ) .

Virgil, love that house plan. If I recall correctly, almost all of the old T. Eaton catalogue houses (similar to Sears and Aladdin) all had lots of windows. The emphasis on windows and fresh air, also if I recall correctly, came out of the 19th century sanitary hygiene awakening, promoted by Florence Nightingale and others (her miasma theory), which also helped lead to bathrooms with porcelain tiles and fixtures. This meant apartment buildings, particularly tenement buildings, with proper exterior windows instead of merely air shafts, for natural light and fresh air ventilation. For me, growing up in NYC probably influenced my views about windows -- the more windows an apartment had, the better, for the apartment and for the people.

My first house was a 1932 cottage 40’ wide on a 50’ lot. It sat on the property line on one side, with a 10’ drive on the other. The whole neighborhood was built like that. Everyone's side windows were just 10’ away from their neighbor, over their driveway, or their meighnor’s. Yes, there were lots of windows on the sides. Pebble glass in the bathroom solved that privacy issue there.

Bedroom 1 had sheers for daytime, and blackout drapes for the evenings. Bedroom 2 had the coveted windows on both sides, and I set it up as more of a sitting area with a couple of extra dressers for storage.

It faced my driveway, and the nosiest old lady in the neighborhood. She would sit there, under her awning, and watch the comings and goings. In the daytime, the sheers didn’t allow anyone to see in, so that is when that got used as the sitting room, so I could enjoy the extra light of the windows from two sides.

The actual living room was right next to my neighbors drive, and their vehicles blocked a lot of the view in after dark. Adding drapes helped my TV viewing to not light up their porch. Yes, I could hear them if they sat out on the porch. But that’s just part of what you accept when choosing urban living.

It never occurred to me to not want a home with windows, even if they were very close to neighbors. Privacy can always be created. Natural light cannot.

From a mental and physical health standpoint - sunlight and thus lots of windows is critical. Numerous studies have shown a very high correlation to the amount of light people get and their mental state and mental acuity. The less natural light people are exposed to the higher the incidence of depression and Alzheimer's.

Both this and Vitamin D impact physical health.

It doesn't need to be direct sunlight. A window with sheers or similar can provide critical sunlight while still providing privacy from nearby neighbors.

From a resale standpoint - windows sell. Windowless doesn't.

From an energy standpoint - In most environments fewer windows (but still some) on north facing walls, many on east & south and moderate window surface on west facing. This is very rough though and depends on house design and latitude.

Personally Id prefer light coming in from all directions.

Ditto for me. You can always close the window (or filter the light) with any number of window treatments ranging from sheers to drapes to plantation shutters ... but if you don't put in the window, you're saying "No" permanently to one of the big things that makes a room pleasant.

when I don't want the fish bowl effect.

My husband worries about people looking in at us. I don't worry about it much, and I tell him frequently, "They won't look for long. We're not very interesting."

if nothing else, why not consider a high, wide but 'short', i.e. not very tall, window simply for light.

I think this shorty-windows-over-bed idea can work particularly well in a bedroom:

I’m not adding them because my build is too far ahead. So the cost of
delaying the build, going back to permits because they are needed for
new side windows here, waiting 4-6 weeks for windows, just isn’t worth
it for me.

Two thoughts:

- Sometimes you can't fix things, but you can always serve as a cautionary tale. Perhaps someone else who's still early in the process will read this and add windows while time is still on his or her side.

- I personally would consider waiting 4-6 weeks to obtain the permits for the windows. You -- or someone else -- will live in this house for decades upon decades, and the windows will make the house better every single day. In the grand scheme of things 4-6 weeks isn't much (though I'm sure it feels different to you, given that you're in the middle of the process, while I'm speaking hypothetically).

As with everything in life, there are pros and cons. My first house I owned was a 1930s - 850 square foot bungalow that was 10' away from my neighbor. There were lots of windows on all sides of the house. It was basically 4 rooms in the corners (2 bedrooms, kitchen, & living) and a bath tucked in, but it was a very bright and happy house. Every room had large windows on 2 walls.

Our bedroom window lined up directly with our neighbor's bedroom window 10' away. My neighbor used to fall asleep to his TV in his bedroom. Many, many, summer nights when the windows were open because we didn't have AC, I would get up and yell over to him to wake up and turn the TV off. Good thing we liked each other LOL.

beckysharp

Rai Kai, yes, the Alberta Building Code was changed about 10 years ago for improved fire safety (to keep fires from spreading from house to house), with restrictions on exterior siding and glazed opening sizes for houses 1.2 meters (4 feet) from the property line. Those houses are still allowed to have seven percent of the side of the house open, but each window can be just a maximum of 3.5 percent of the total side. However, if the house is in an area where the fire department can't reach it in 10 minutes or less 90 percent of the time, one must build as if the distance between two houses were halved.

Yes, exactly! I knew we had Code requirements here that limited what could be added to sides but could not recall specifics. Thank you :)

I'll have great views of the sunset...until they fill in all that space behind me (already out there leveling, so it will be only a few months).

Mrs Pete

But if you don't put in the window, you're saying "No" permanently to one of the big things that makes a room pleasant.

Not really. If someone regrets it that much they can pay someone to come in to frame and add a new window. May cost a little more than if doing at start, but unless you are dealing with brick or something, it is not that crazy difficult to do later. This is done rather regularly here when people need to add egress windows in basements, etc to old homes.

Also, again, it is a matter of some subjectivity as to what makes a room pleasant. I don't want a lot of light for example in a dark theatre room. I don't want my neighbours staring in at me at anytime. I would rather look at beautiful art than closed drapes or privacy sheers in some spaces. I would rather not have windows on every little bit of the small amount of wall space I have as to me it ends up looking cluttered instead of "light filled".

I think this shorty-windows-over-bed idea can work particularly well in a bedroom

Personally, I find windows behind or above my bed very unsettling. Had this in one of my houses and ended up keeping them blocked off with blackout shades 100% of the time (so again, why did I have them?). Plus they did not let me put a large comfortable headboard or art back there: maybe that would different if I had 10' ceilings in bedroom, but I didn't/don't. An oar does not count.

beckysharp , you must be on a different end of the prairies than me!

"I live on the Canadian prairies where air conditioning historically hasn't been necessary, and cross ventilation from April to October is a lovely thing."

Were on week 2 of +30C (feels like +35 with the humidex) and 50%+ relative humidity, its AWFUL!

Were in central Canada, landlocked. So Nov-April the windows are closed due to snow, and mid-may-late august they are closed because we're sweltering and humid (and the tiny bugs come right through the window screens!)

For the 4 weeks of non-AC, I just keep my windows closed. I do love the light they let through tho!

Allison wrote, "...We don’t want windows at the sides..."

Yes, you've made that very clear. And it appears your posting was an effort to justify your decision.

But you asked, "... I was wondering what the norm is for windows on the sides of a house..."

Many of the responses in this thread indicate that having windows on all four sides of a house is not only a historical characteristic, but a highly desirable one, for many people.

Of course, you may certainly do whatever you want with your own house.

PS: Have you noticed how directional the lighting is in the photos you posted of your house under construction?

you must be on a different end of the prairies than me! ...

Were on week 2 of +30C (feels like +35 with the humidex) and 50%+ relative humidity, its AWFUL!

lookintomyeyes, I think we're not too far away from each other : ) . We're about two hours east of Edmonton, waiting for today's severe thunderstorm. According to Environment Canada, the nearest location, about an hour away, is 27C right now, Humidex 31, and humidity 47 percent. Yesterday morning when I checked the humidity was 78 percent!

mid-may-late august they are closed because we're sweltering and humid (and the tiny bugs come right through the window screens!)

We did this for the past 25 years in our old house, a post-WWII bungalow built to keep the heat in, which works well the winter part of the equation lol. My mother-in-law taught me to keep the windows closed and draw the curtains in the heat of summer. I start to open the windows regularly in March and keep going until the end of October or so.

We built our new house with lots of insulation (batts of R20) and an 1.5" rigid insulation blanket over the entire house exterior, which helps keep the house cool in summer as well as warm in the winter. Our old house had a small uncovered deck, and no projection on the rake like many houses around here from that time because it was much cheaper to build. This house has projection on the eaves and rake, and we also have a front (covered) porch and a back (covered) porch; and the door to the back porch is a garden door with a screen which I'm making good use of right now. And lots of windows for cross-ventilation (though right now it's pretty gusty).

I can't say enough about our ceiling fans -- we bought out Lowes several years ago when they had builder packs of two white 52" fans on clearance for I think $75; we have one in the living room, one by the open kitchen/dining room; one in our bedroom, and one on the back porch. We also sited the new house better than the old house (and better than our neighbors' house, where the living room, dining area, kitchen, and back deck face -- ouch -- west).

Over the years we've tended to have all the teeny tiny bugs come in through the screen on one or two nights only -- the kids always called it The Night of the Thousand Bugs lol.

The humidity is a recent arrival, in the last few years or so, but since I'm originally from back east, I have to admit (shh!) I kind of like it.

I have had the opportunity to be deprived of natural light for 13 consecutive days (long story, don't ask). Ever since that experience, if a space in a home I design has an exterior wall, it has a window in it; unless there is some compelling reason not to. Privacy is not a compelling reason.

During our first build, we noticed that one of the newly-installed master bathroom windows was both inoperable and off-center. Weary of the process and eager to get into the house, we didn't raise the ruckus we should have.

That damn window has been driving me bonkers for fifteen years. Fifteen years, people... age 36 to 51, every day, the window...

Another thought too: with the new (Canadian building code, which is adopted province by province) they are moving from prescripting an R value for the wall, and instead into a 'whole house' R rating. Which means if you put giant windows on the front of your house, you need to either eliminate windows elsewhere, or at least beef up all the insulation surrounding them. So perhaps that is a tradeoff as well.

Y'all would die down here. This is just a normal summer day around here. Not even noteworthy for heat or humidity. In fact, the humidity is a bit on the low side. Before AC, no one did anything outside after about 11 am.

beckysharp - you must have a much higher tolerance for humidity than I!

I grew up in a house without A/C, opening and closing the windows, and the thermal blinds, and I soooo hated it. My parents finally got A/C after I left for university. :P

The Cook's Kitchen - indeed I would! My hubby had heatstroke every day he visited florida!

My friends laugh cause I can tell you the UV rating just by walking outside - my Scottish ancestry betrays me. ;P

Back before the days of air conditioning, it was common that houses of all kinds were designed to accommodate the regional weather conditions.

In the U.S. north east, where it's cold early and often, houses were small, inwardly focused around a central fireplace, low ceilings and few windows. In the U.S. south and southwest, conversely, houses were expanded, the "dog-trot" and "shotgun" regional houses were developed to facilitate cross ventilation, houses had high ceilings, many windows, and as many ways for cross ventilation and heat loss as could be imagined, including windows on all sides of the house.

Regionalism was the driving force for houses.

Mr. Carrier changed all that in 1902.

lookintomyeyes, I'm sure I do -- I'm originally from NYC and spent several years in DC where you needed a shower after walking to work in the morning. My inlaws' wedding present to me was a humidifier lol.

CK, I can't imagine what you'd make of our winters where it gets down to -40, which coincidentally is where Celsius and Fahrenheit come together : ) . We have lots of friends with houses in Phoenix, who say they don't do anything outdoors except for very early morning or late evening : ( .

One of the things that I have noticed in my build is that when the bedrooms have windows on two walls, the natural lighting is more balanced. Shadows are reduced because the light comes from two directions.

Bingo, Mike! And the light lasts longer as the sun moves from east to west...

Becky, after living and working in both Washington (7 years) and New York (6 years) I relate to your comments about heat and humidity. And 100-year snow storms! Manhattan is a special place at that brief time of summer when the setting sun over New Jersey shines directly down the east-west streets of Manhattan for several days.

I've never lived in a house that didn't have windows on the sides. Most of the houses were built on fairly narrow city lots. Yes, we were close but we never thought of windows on the side as something undesireable. When I see such houses, my first thought is always "cheap, builder-grade houses" where it is cheaper and easier for the builder to put no windows on the sides. I would not want to live in such a house.