I have an east facing house. You mentioned that your house will also have the kitchen in the front to get the morning sun. I love that combination. Here’s something else to think about...the master bedroom. Do you like morning sun and will your master be facing east as well? I always liked having the morning sun in my kitchen and master bedroom (that’s a pro for me - you may feel differently) We now have gorgeous sunsets from our west facing back patio and that’s a big plus. The cons are that same west facing back patio can get hot in the summertime. So it’s really a matter of life style, views that you see from your windows and personal preferences.

To me, it's a lot more important which direction the main areas of the house face, rather than the front of the house. If your main areas like the family room and patio will be on the west side, that will be the hottest and sunniest area. It depends on your climate, and the interior layout of your home. The main thing I would ever avoid is having the open part of the house on the north, where you won't get sun coming in. You should also think about which rooms will have windows facing the road.

Pros and cons of the front of a house facing east?

Pro: Morning sun, if that's desirable, for the rooms in the front of the house.

Cons: The rear of the house faces west. That is the very worst possible orientation due to the afternoon sun, which is constantly getting lower throughout the day and creating glare and heat gain inside the house. Because the sun in constantly getting lower and lower, during the afternoon, there are no architectural features that can be created to keep the sun out of the house interiors. The only option is to use drapes or shutters, keeping them closed until sunset. So why have windows on the west elevation if one has to keep shades drawn all afternoon?

From a passive solar and natural lighting perspective the very best orientation for a house's main public spaces is to the south. This enables various architectural features to be designed to keep the hot sun out of the house in the summer, while allowing the warming sun to enter during the winter.

Good luck!

Why not have the common areas of the house on one end, and give them 3 exposures? I suppose you want to separate the bedrooms, which could easily be done with a T shape.

The garage can be used as a buffer against the west heat and wind. I’m not sure where in Illinois you are, but we are also in IL. Our garage faces north (well, the house itself does), and the snow can pile up against the garage door. OTOH, my father’s garage also faces north, but it has a 4’ eave, so nothing piles up there.

Our last house had the living room facing west, my dad’s has family room, kitchen, dining facing west. We all had 3M film put on the west windows. It helped. I didn’t have to close my living room curtains till 3-6 on summer days. In the kids’ west bedrooms, we used vertical blinds for the best light (and heat) control.

Our home faces east, with formal rooms in the front, and family room, kitchen and eating area in the back, facing west. Lovely, large windows, which we have to keep covered with heavy curtains all afternoon and evening from May-September because the sun is HOT. Backyard has only one tree of any size, beyond that is a cornfield. We're in Michigan, so not a particularly hot climate, but it's miserable. miss the south-facing living areas of our previous home.

We had an east facing house previously. Never again due to the back being so hot. Our patio was in the back and it was basically not useable at the times we would want to sit out there because the sun was so hot. We currently have a west facing house. The land at the front slopes up away from the house(mountain community) and there's lots of trees on the hill so the west sun isn't too bad at the front when the sun is setting. The back deck/porches are pleasant during the times we would want to sit out there. I love the east sun coming into our great room area in the morning. Our master bedroom is on the north side of the house which we also like because the bedroom stays cool.

The sun is lower in the winter. South facing rooms with windows get warmed in the winter not those facing west. The sun goes all the way across 28' of our great room and other rooms from the south windows in the winter. Nothing in summer do to the overhang.

So the covered back porch which would cover the area in the living room wouldn’t help at all with the sun?

No. The sun starts lowering in the sky and the sun comes in under the roof.

we did our house with front east and back west. strongly advised against on here and all that. we are ok because we have trees in backyard and a large covered porch...BUT

here's what I would do differently...

I would keep the backyard west but orient the living rooms [kitchen or great room] so windows faced south and east. And any rooms that face west would have covered porch area or options for coverings

so work with an architect and discuss your lot and layout etc.

Best of luck!

Passive solar works best with a S facing house I have aa 50s ranch that faces south with a larg overhang that blocks the summer sun but allows the winter sun to heat my main part of the house and 2 of the bedrooms. IMO find a better house plan you have a tone of space use it wisely. Look at MCM ranch homes ours is 75’ long and 25’ deep with that overhang all along the 75’ I never like kitchens in the center of a house and our LR is the whole depth of the house and 16” wide out kitchen is large and has big windows facing S.

We are in Michigan and I crave sunlight in the winter...I’d love to have the south facing all windows! Yes, summer sun will be hot but we get so few hot days in a typical summer.

We have many houses in our neighborhood that face beautiful mountain views to the west but have giant roller shades on their covered porch for the sun when it gets over that side of the house. Even with the covered porch they still need roller shades to block the sun.

Wow learning a lot here. I'm constantly complaining to my husband about the poor orientation of our east facing house. Gorgeous morning light is not being maximized (minimal windows) and the afternoon sun scorches the back patio and yard. We stop using the back patio around June when it gets unbearable and move to the front yard which is south facing. I had no clue when we bought the house to even think about this but it's a real bummer. So if I were you I'd try to reorient. Or else get a good landscaping plan with some trees that will eventually block that summer sun.

My previous house faced east but it had two monster trees completely shading the roof and back yard. A deck or patio on the west needs quite a bit of shade, or it will get very little use. Be sure to design and budget for a mechanical shade.

I really liked the east facing front garden as I enjoyed working outside in the late afternoon and early evening and socializing with the local walkers. Now I live in a house that faces west and evening work isn't as enjoyable.

My house faces east with the back yard getting the hot setting sun. The worst is the horizontal sun just before sunset. Right in the eye at the hottest part of the day.

My parents` house has the big windows facing south with deep eaves, and it is so great. In the winter the low sun penetrates the house all day, and in the summer the sun hardly enters because it is high in the sky and blocked by the eaves, and by the time it sets, it`s hitting the non-window west side of the house.

You might find this useful https://www.suncalc.org/#/43.4463,-80.5515,19/2020.08.03/12:08/1/1

Houses I design face all directions. The path of the sun throughout the year, site topography, vegetation, and other factors effect the house's design and how it responds to the site. Find a local architect that will do the same.

• BrittanyOriginal Author1 hour agoSo the covered back porch which would cover the area in the living room wouldn’t help at all with the sun?Like
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• vinmarks
  1 hour agoNo. The sun starts lowering in the sky and the sun comes in under the roof.

We previously had a back screened porch that blocked out the SW and W sun pretty well. Yes, the porch got hot for a couple of hours when the sun was lowering, but we did use the solar shades when out there. Loved them! The inside of our house, where the porch spanned, did not get hot. Our bedroom did get hot because it was not protected by the porch. Wish now that we had put some of these on those SW facing windows.

Our new home will once again have the back facing the SW and W exposure. We will have a screened in porch that will span the living room. We can use solar shades on the porch, but will also have a fireplace wall to shade us from the SW sun.

This time, we are leaving the back wall of our bedroom without windows. We will have a long boxed bay facing NW.

Our house will be insulated with spray foam...a mixture of open and closed cell.

We will have a large front porch that will get morning sun. Perfect for afternoon drinks!

This is our middle of our layout with a covered porch where the gap would be but I still feel like it’s just in the west area and from what I read above won’t really make a difference

I have seen on Houzz a link to a website that shows you how the sun comes into the rooms of a house at different times of year. Sorry I can't find it but maybe someone can help.

In your plan, in winter when the days are short and we crave the sun, the only sunny room will be the one bedroom.

I understand that architects can and do design houses with every orientation, and they do their best. City lots like mine are an example of where you have little choice. But in a large lot like yours and a new build I think you can do better to bring the sun in when you want it, and avoid it where you don't.

My husband wants us to face East so we essentially have a larger
backyard. We will be starting a family after we build so also want to
try to keep kids away from the main road.

I would consider building an upside-down U-shaped house, with the garage on the west side, so that it can block the sun in the afternoon. Controlling western heat is super important. :-)

I had the misfortune of renting a small house with a west-facing backyard, and the kids could hardly play outside from March to October (I'm in Texas, lol), even though I constantly kept the back patio hosed down. Touching the door handle to come in the house risked burning off the first 3 layers of skin. :-O The kids only stayed out there for maybe an hour at a time, if they went out at all.

I currently have an east-facing backyard, with my main living areas facing south and the bedrooms facing north (we like to sleep super cold), and I absolutely *love* it. The kids spend their mornings inside doing schoolwork, playing, etc., and then by mid-afternoon, they can rush outside to play in the back, with the house providing shade. I wouldn't mind a north or south facing yard for the kids to enjoy... But never again west. :-(

Because you're on such a large parcel, reconsider the "backyard" concept. :-D Kids can enjoy expansive side yards, front yards, etc. It doesn't necessarily have to be the back -- Especially if you have adequate fencing to keep everyone contained.

All great comments.

Illinois is generally (there isn't much variation) with tough winters and summers.

As has been said - South windows can give great heat in the winter. And perhaps more importantly great sunlight cascading through the house. A west or east facing window will never get as much winter sun.

Most of us didn't have much choice on orientation with small city or suburb lots or views.

I want to repeat that it doesn't matter much which way the house "faces" if you house isn't shaped conventionally.

What you do want is the bulk of your windows facing south particularly in places that you will spend your daytime. Also the south facing covered patio will give you maximum winter sun and none in the summer.

Not a pro at all, but I'm also in Illinois. Regarding the garage, try not to face it north. North facing will take forever for ice and snow to melt by your garage door and it can get frozen shut.

I have a west facing covered porch. It catches a breeze easily which is lovely during the summer, and I love watching thunderstorms come in. I understand everyone's comments about the intense sun, but for us it's okay. You'll want to plant some trees for a wind break in the winter.

My favorite exposure is when the most used rooms (kitchen, family room) face SE. Sun all day long and none of that blinding afternoon West sun. This is how my last house was set up and it was glorious. No direct sun, but the sun moved along the back of the house so that it was light and bright all day.

We moved a few years back. The back of my current house faces East, which means my kitchen, eating area, family room (and 3 bedrooms upstairs) all get that morning sun. It can be blinding. I’m constantly adjusting blinds throughout the morning so that I can see. By 12 / 1pm, the direct sun is gone and my kitchen can get a little dark. I agree with avoiding West (blinding afternoon sun) or North (very little sun at all) exposures.

I always tell my husband I will never have another house where the kitchen faces west. As much as I like the morning sun the later afternoon sun is a killer....and we live in NW PA! My kitchen sits just as yours does (but faces west) and u less you are on top of every speck of dust on your kitchen cabs and appliances it will be glaringly obvious. We just wish switched to white with our kitchen redo so I am hoping that helps a lot.

"I designed the layout to have the kitchen at the front of the house......."

What you might find helpful here is for you and any other decision maker(s) to sit down with a person of design talent and explore/brainstorm not only your ideas but look at other directions you may not have thought of. I do these all the time and call them "charrettes". They're highly interactive "nose to nose" design sessions that last a few hours where sometimes the client commands the pen more than I do. At the end we have dozens if not a hundred overlays and sketches, some great, others not so great but we've looked at a large range of ideas.

I take a clients ideas seriously but at the same time they tend to be preconceived and centered on the obvious. These ideas, or parts of them, may in fact turn out to be perfectly valid but it's my job to weigh them against against other approaches. You don't know how many times a client has said "Wow! We never thought of that!".

And when it comes to preconceived ideas, I've quoted these two creative people here before regarding those: Henry Ford observed "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have told me 'A faster horse'" and Steve Jobs mused "Often, people don't know what they want until they see it. Nobody could describe the Iphone before it came out but when they saw it, everybody wanted one". I think you would benefit sitting down with a creative someone for some "outside the box" thinking and to look at a range of alternate ideas. After all you're in an endeavor involving a healthy six figures of your hard earned money where there's no "do overs".

So, with that said, I don't know where you are in Illinois (it's a big state!) but there's a talented designer I know that's based in Clarendon Hills, outside of Chicago. If you're a reasonable distance away, he might be willing to have a sit down charrette with you to do exactly what I described above. If you wish PM me and I'll provide his contact info and you all can take it from there.

In any event, the best of luck with your build. Exciting times ahead!