I hope you'll have a "widow's walk" atop the house to enjoy all the views. :)

Pretty views!

I'm with Virgil, whichever view allows you to orient your living room, dining room/area, and kitchen to the south.

Not only will the rooms be brighter in the evening, but you'll have the benefit of Mother Nature helping to cool the house in the summer and warm it in the winter. And you won't have to spend a small furniture in light-blocking curtains and shades that you would with a west-facing exposure.

We did this, and also have windows on all three sides of our dining room, to help bring the outside in year-round.

Good luck with your new adventure : ) .

Well, the first one is stunning BUT the photo has been highly edited and taken when there were leaves on the trees. I just love rolling hills......

However, I'm sure the other two views would be equally as beautiful if the photos were taken during "golden hour", highly edited and color saturated, and it was late spring with leaves on the tree ;)

For security reasons, I would NOT have my screen name be my real name and have photos of my family on this site. There's just way too many creepers out there.

@shead ... how would having one's real name and family photos be a disadvantage? What is the mechanism this enables?

@Yardvaark, it took me all of 30 seconds to discover that the OP is a photographer in (blank - deleted city for OP's security). Per her website, she even went to medical school. Her photos show that she is attractive and has two small children. If I wanted to keep digging, I'm sure I could find her partner/husband's name, her address, search county records to find out where she owns this property (which is where her future home will be), her parents' names, etc. Again, there are creepers out there with far more computer saavy skills than I do. Maybe I've watched too many Criminal Minds..I dunno.

The rolling hills view would be my first choice.

@shead. starting with a tidbit of information, anyone can dig up information about anyone else, But collecting this information, does not cause any harm. A dedicated stalker, is surely going to subscribe to one of the services that tell everything about everybody, including the family genealogy. And there's nothing anyone can do to keep their records out of those things. Stalking can actually cost a lot of money and isn't likely to be worth it except to an x-spouse or boy or girl-friend, and they already have the information they need. The only way one can be harmed that exceeds the dangers they face is everyday real life, is to answer "Yes, I'll send you the bank draft for $10,000 US, so I can pick up my winnings from the Scottish lottery," and then do it! If someone wants to harm someone, the chances are infinitely greater that they're going to do it the old fashioned, less expensive way ... by running across that person's path in real life.

Beautiful family! And wonderful views. I'm no help as I love all the views, but I second (third?) Virgil on being mindful of the orientation. You can plug your GPS coordinates into this site to see the path of the sun at your property: https://www.suncalc.org/#/39.7644,-104.8548,11/2019.06.21/14:30/1/3

Also have your architect walk the site with you. What a great place to build your family home!

I use my real name because I detest when people spout nonsense while hiding behind a screen name. I own my nonsense.

My wife has appeared in pictures here, I may have. Anyone wanting to pay me a visit would have no trouble finding me. It may get pretty loud if they do.

Oh, view #1 OP. That is the spot. Don't listen to Virgil!

YIKES how do I change the username?! I clearly don’t know what I’m doing. I didn’t intend for that to be my username.

Thank you you all for the input. The farmland faces west and the mountains face east. I understand the recommendation to have living areas facing south; however, that’s our one view with a neighbor!

Planning for a wrap-around porch. :)

Changed it :) thank you.

My husband prefers the mountain views while I prefer the rolling hills. I feel lucky to even have this debate!

We are very early in the planning process and have no worked with an architect yet. But I’d love to get some thoughts on this- would a covered porch facing west dissipate some of the harsh afternoon lighting? It would likely be at least 10 ft wide as I like large porches.

Or I guess said another way, is there ever a circumstance where you feel the view would trump ideal lighting orientation?

But I’d love to get some thoughts on this- would a covered porch facing west dissipate some of the harsh afternoon lighting? It would likely be at least 10 ft wide as I like large porches.

It would, but if it's quite deep and you want it to be effective against a western-exposure, it will make the house very dark.

Or I guess said another way, is there ever a circumstance where you feel the view would trump ideal lighting orientation?

For me, no. My prime consideration would be livability inside the house, and it was when we planned the new house we finished building last year. Other people's mileage will vary...

"Other people's mileage will vary... "

Yes, this is so true. Our house faces west but our yard has a lot of mature trees so the western sun is never really an issue in the summer. In the winter, yes, it can be a little more glaring but it's still filtered somewhat by tree limbs. Our last house also faced west and the afternoon sun was BLAZING. We had some trees but not as many. I also had a 9 ft. picture window that had no window coverings so that didn't help the situation.

Which direction is the rolling hills and which direction are the mountains?

Our main living areas are west facing. We’re on the side of the mountain and that was How it worked out, and we have amazing views that direction.

We we have a deep covered deck across the whole space. the Darkness factor was mitigated by multiple sliders, transoms, lots of big windows, and a large clerestory stained glass window that is above the deck roof.

It’s possible, but you’ll want a good architect involved.

Hills are west and mountains are east. Our only visible neighbor is directly south.

"...would a covered porch facing west dissipate some of the harsh afternoon lighting? It would likely be at least 10 ft wide as I like large porches..."

The challenge with western orientations is that the sun keeps getting lower and lower as the afternoon passes. There simply is no horizontal shading device that will prevent the western sun from getting into the house and creating strong glare, as it drops lower and lower in the sky.

The deeper a porch is, the darker the house will be in the interior, until the sun drops low enough to create the dreaded glare.

The best solution is simply to orient all the public spaces in the house to the south. The sun, at noon, is in the direct south, but it's also at its highest elevation of the day. This makes summer shading an easy element to design to keep the sun out in the summer and allow it to enter the house in the winter when it's welcome.

Heh, our house faces West. Lots of windows- and a bunch of mature trees in the yard, so afternoon on sun isn't a thing. It's the windows on the East and South sides of our house that I need to put the heavy shades up on in the summer because of the blazing morning into afternoon hours. It's wonderful in the winter though to have all that sun. I had no idea our house was facing wrong apparently, it just faces where the road is, lol.

Anywho... I'm more of a fan of rolling hills than mountains. Is there some reason why you can't build your house to have both views accessible?

Because of my lot and the views, the back of my house faces directly west. I have an 11 foot deep porch and when the setting sun gets down to a certain point, the sun blasts in. This time of year it takes the sun a long time to set and we have hours of blazing sun in the house and I usually have to resort to closing the blinds and I can't really sit out on the back porch. I could plant trees, but then they would block the view. But, because of my amazing view, the trade off is worth it.

I also have amazing views to the east (front) of my home. I designed the home to take advantage of both views. I also have a porch on the front of my home. In the morning, I sit on the back porch in the shade, and in the afternoon, I can sit in the shade on the front porch and enjoy both views each day. It's the best of both worlds! :-)

Design your home to take advantage of both views.

I have a client that has a site with 355 degrees of beautiful view; sand dunes, Lake Michigan, forest, inland lake, and nicely designed homes. The five degrees of bad view is a neighbors house that keeps their garage door open. Standing in the center of the living room one has 250 degrees of beautiful view to the outside.

I agree with Suru, design your home to take advantage of all views.

Yes, I definitely want a house that takes in both of these views! I guess what I'm really trying to figure out at this point is which way to face the house and then let an architect go to town deciding where to place rooms based on which view we want from the front and which view we want from the back.

" I own my nonsense." Good man, you! Haha.

Farm Bound (which I presume is your real name) ... I like both your views (and both your names.)

Lucky you to have such a conundrum and beautiful property ! I love the view depicted in your family photo the best.

The bad part of a view like that is that the closest town is on the other side of that snow capped mountain.

I’d recommend what I did... we have essentially 270 degrees of beautiful views and the other 90 is beautiful woods.....

So, I hired an architect to design my house and he came up to the land and we walked and drove (in my side by side) all over. I can’t wait until we break ground! It’s going to be wonderful!!

You have both those views on the same property? Wow! How awesome. I think you could have various rooms have different views...and maybe even capture both those views from the living room. I would definitely consider a TV room to take advantage of one of those views that you may not get with the living room. What an amazing problem you have!

Yes, the pictures were taken from the same spot. I’ll upload a panoramic to give more context. Excuse the poor phone quality. Red is the mountain view, blue is the farm land and the yellow circle is our only visible neighbor (not visible now, but visible when that tree loses its leaves).

For orientation, and many more ideas on what makes a really great home, spend some time with the incredible book, A Pattern Language. It will transform your thinking.

https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1MC2I7FVTBYP1&keywords=a+pattern+language+christopher+alexander&qid=1560592094&s=books&sprefix=a+patter+language%2Cstripbooks%2C1201&sr=1-1

Do exactly what doc5md said. Get your architect in the car with you and drive all around the property. Then you three can discuss the house. There is no reason you can’t have both views unless your architect on designs townhouses in crowded cities!

Nothing says that you have to face Cardinal West, or Cardinal South. It’s not an either or, black or white, choice. You can tilt the orientation, and combine that with Good Design, to have a home that has much of its public space getting Southern Light and Western or Eastern Views. Clerestory windows, skylights in a covered porch, selected solar shading and a whole host of tactics can work when the property orientation is less than ideal, but you have space with which to work. Things like that are much more difficult to employ in a 30x50 lot in the city. In your location, road access and winter conditions will also play a major part in site orientation. All of those factors have to be considered, and a brief internet posting without the other 679 site factors will be more harmful to your process than helpful.

A much more Personal Response to the site conditions just needs the right Architect on the site with you, plus a topographic map, solar mapping, a well thought out Program, and Design Talent.

Plant some evergreens to block the house. :)

following...to see what you come up with, for our new build we tweaked the house 3x for the ocean view.

Oh my- the hundred of thousands builders that have bilt homes on roads that run east/west have done a horrendous error by building on the south side of the street- where the orientation is to the NORTH! 50% of the homes should not have been built??? Did I possibly read this wrong?

Or the West Side condo builders in NYC offering $20m.++ apartments facing the Hudson!

What's an intense, blazing west sun? After all it only lasts from around 3 until about 7 or 8 each afternoon for only about 6-7 months each year.