Which La Crosse Rooms Feel Exposed When the Bluff Trees Go Bare?

Rooms that face the hill usually feel it first. Think upper rooms and the big living room window. Bedrooms come next. Then the kitchen and the lower level. If a neighbor's deck or a road sits above you, cover the top of the glass first. Light-filtering shades keep the bluff soft during the day. Once the lamps come on, a darker layer takes over.

That's the short answer. Here's the longer one. It's for anyone in La Crosse, La Crescent or Onalaska who looked out one November morning and saw the trees had quit doing their job.

Why do bluff homes around La Crosse suddenly feel so exposed?

Because the screen you had all summer is gone. Fall color in the Coulee Region usually peaks between October 10 and 15. It can shift about a week either way, says the National Weather Service in La Crosse. By early November most of those leaves are on the ground. The hillside behind your house turns into a set of open bleachers.

Our valley is built on slopes. The Mississippi Valley Conservancy has protected nearly a thousand acres of La Crosse blufflands. They sit along the eight-mile stretch of river bluffs that overlook the city. Miller Bluff and Cliffwood Bluff are two of them. Grandad Bluff Park has looked down on the city since it opened in 1912. Across the river, Apple Blossom Drive winds through La Crescent. Federal byway records note it for its rolling hills of apple orchards.

So lots of homes here sit above or below their neighbors. In summer, a band of oaks and maples between two houses hides both. In November you can see right into each other's kitchens.

The timing makes it worse. In early December, La Crosse's sun sets around 4:27 p.m., per the U.S. Naval Observatory. That's just a few weeks after the leaves drop. More hours of lamplight. Fewer leaves. That's the season this guide is about.

How is being seen from above different from being seen across the street?

On a flat street, privacy is about the bottom half of the window. Someone walking by looks straight in at eye level. A shade lowered partway does the trick. So does a café-height covering.

On a hillside, the angles change.

When the onlooker is above you, they look down through the top of your glass. They might be on a road cut into the bluff, a deck up the slope or a trail. A shade pulled halfway down covers just the part they can see through. You keep the bottom open for your own view down the hill.

When the onlooker is below you, they look up. In daylight they mostly see ceiling and reflections. After dark it's a different story. From below, a lit room shows the lights, the ceiling fans and anyone near the glass. And it shows them a long way down the slope.

So figure out which way the eyes come from. That tells you which part of the window to cover, and when.

Lots of homes have both at once. A house partway up a slope can have a road above the back windows and a neighbor below the front ones. Each side of the house then gets its own answer. That's fine. Keep the fabric color the same on every window, and the look stays consistent even when the coverings work differently.

Which rooms usually feel it first?

Every home is different. Treat this as a common pattern, not a rule. Here's the order many hillside homes around here follow once the trees go bare.

A quick test for your own house: stand at each window at night. Ask yourself, "Can I see a porch light, a streetlight or a pair of headlights from here?" If you can see them, they can see you.

1. Upper rooms facing the hill

Second-floor rooms and lofts on the uphill side are often closest to the neighbor's line of sight. Sometimes they sit at nearly the same height as the road or yard above. A home office or primary bedroom up here is often the first room people notice.

2. The big living room window

Most bluff homes point their biggest window at the view. That same window is the easiest one for others to see into. It's also the one you least want to cover. That's why it takes the most thought.

3. Bedrooms

Bedrooms move up the list in winter because you use them in the dark. Even a bedroom with a small view of the slope is in plain sight from above once the lamps are on.

4. The kitchen and eating area

Kitchens often face the backyard. In hillside neighborhoods, the backyard is the slope. From November to February, morning coffee and dinner both happen in low light.

5. The lower level

Walkout lower levels feel exposed in a different way. They often face down the hill toward a street or a neighbor below. The big patio door is the weak spot.

Example (a made-up home, for illustration only): picture a two-story house on a La Crescent hillside. A road climbs the bluff behind it, and a neighbor's home sits below. In summer the owners never think about privacy. Then November comes. The upstairs office on the road side feels watched by every passing car. The bedroom above it shows every lamp. And the walkout family room looks straight at the neighbor's back deck. That one house hits three spots on this list. Each one needs a different fix.

What works when the onlooker is uphill?

Cover the top first.

• A standard shade lowered partway handles daytime privacy from above. The lower glass stays clear. On a lot of hillside lots, the bluff or river view sits in the lower and middle part of the window anyway.
• Light-filtering fabric lets daylight through and blurs what someone above can see. It suits living rooms you want to keep bright.
• Room-darkening fabric is the pick for upper bedrooms on the uphill side. Those rooms need privacy and real dark at night.

Top-down bottom-up shades get mentioned a lot for privacy. With the onlooker above, though, they often help less than you'd think. They open the top of the glass. That's the part the uphill neighbor sees through. They shine on the downhill side instead.

What works when the onlooker is downhill?

Here the daytime problem is small. The nighttime problem is big.

• A layer that closes at dusk matters most. Light-filtering shades show shapes and lamp glow after dark. A room-darkening shade stops that. So does a lined drapery panel closed over a lighter shade.
• Bottom coverage helps when a road or neighbor below can see into a walkout or lower level. Here a top-down shade does its best work. You lower it from the top, and the lower glass stays covered.
• Patio doors on walkout levels need a covering that clears the door fully when it's open. At night it should close edge to edge.

Headlights are their own small nuisance. Some homes sit just above a curve in a bluff road. Others sit above a county road climbing out of the valley. Every time a car comes around, a sweep of light crosses the ceiling. A room-darkening shade in the bedrooms on that side ends it.

So let the downhill view stay open by day. Then close up for real once the sun goes down.

How do you keep the bluff view during the day?

This is the part people worry about most. You bought a house on a hill for the view. Now someone's telling you to cover it.

You don't have to give it up. A few habits keep the bluff in sight:

• Pick light-filtering fabric for daytime rooms. It softens the outside without hiding it. You'll still see the shape of the bluff and the color of the sky.
• Mount above the glass where you can. A shade that stacks above the frame clears more glass than one mounted inside it.
• Use two layers in the rooms you care about most. Go with a light layer for day and a darker one for night. Then neither has to do both jobs.
• Leave the high windows alone. A transom that only shows sky usually doesn't need covering at all.

Winter has a bright side here, too. With the leaves gone, many hillside homes get views they never had in summer. You see the line of the bluffs against the sky. You catch the river through bare branches. At night you get the lights of town. You may find you look out more in November than you did all summer. So keep the view open by day and close up at night.

How do the main options compare?

For most hillside living rooms, the third option gives you the most room to adjust. That's a sheer or light-filtering layer plus a shade or drapery that closes at night. For bedrooms, room-darkening fabric usually wins on its own.

Does the cold change anything?

Yes. The state climatology office keeps 1991 to 2020 normals for La Crosse. They put the average November high near 46°F and the low near 30°F. By January, the average low is about 10.5°F. Bluff homes often catch the wind as well.

A covering that closes snugly at night does double duty here. It gives you privacy. It also puts a layer between you and the cold glass. Is your home older, with drafty windows? Our guide on whether insulated drapes help drafty old windows in La Crosse and Winona goes deeper on that.

Newer hillside homes have the same privacy question with bigger glass. Maybe you're in one of the newer neighborhoods going up around Holmen. If you're planning a whole house at once, our room-by-room guide for Holmen move-up homes walks through it.

What should you check before choosing?

Do this on a bare-branch evening, not a summer afternoon.

1. Take an evening walk around your own house with every lamp switched on. Stand on the street above and below if you can. You'll see exactly which windows show.
2. Note where the onlooker is for each room: above, below or level.
3. Decide what each room needs at night. A soft glow? A full block? Something in between?
4. Mark the daytime view you want to keep. Is it the top of the bluff, the river or the trees below?
5. Think about spring. When the leaves come back in May, will you want the same coverage? Or will a lighter layer do?
6. Check how each covering stacks when raised. You don't want it blocking the view you're trying to save.

You can browse fabrics and styles on our window shades page. It'll give you a feel for light-filtering and room-darkening choices.

What's the easiest way to get started?

Start with the one room that made you notice. For most hillside homes, that's an upper room facing the slope or the big front window. Sort that one out and give it a month of evenings. The rest of the house will show you its own weak spots.

Want help reading the angles on your lot? The team at Budget Blinds of La Crosse will come out and look at your windows from inside and out. We'll bring samples you can test in your own light. Book your free consultation.

Kevin Sill is CFO and co-owner of the family-owned Budget Blinds franchises serving La Crosse, Winona and the Coulee Region.