Where to position the house on the land is the next big question. Ideally we would want the house to sit in the lower half reasonably close to the road and for the back of the house to face due north. This way we would make the most of the space and have the best orientation to the sun to the north and views to the east.
The problem is that the land has a slope running up to the north-west. To keep the costs of removing soil and building retaining walls down, we should build in this direction. This puts the house 45 degrees west of north.
In order to get the most out of solar panels (either for hot water or electricity) they shouldn't be positioned any further than 30 degrees west of north. So that's my starting point (see below). If we can afford to build any closer to north that would be great.
To make sure that we get the most out of our views the house needs to be positioned as high up the hill as possible. I have placed it about half way up which creates a 40m driveway!
Now we will just have to wait and see what the builder thinks and the soil tests uncover.
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