Feng Shui Tips

Get only the best tips, news, and advice from the world of feng shui. Get a helping hand in what can be an otherwise complicated and confusing way of life (as opposed to harmonized and balanced which it should be) - feng shui!

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

How to Buy a Home with Good Feng Shui

How to Buy a Home with Good Feng Shui
By Kathryn Weber:

"Buying a home is usually a stressful experience. So much rides on a new home because this is where you relax, have fun, sleep, eat; in short, it’s the place central to your life. Not only that, but homes usually cost a whole lot of money and represent our single largest investment. Most homebuyers can usually find the objective requirements of house hunting, such as location, size, and price. But, there are also intangible factors when searching for a new home, but most people don’t know what to look for.

Helping you find the flaws
This is where feng shui comes in. Using feng shui, you’ll be able to spot the problems –or the potential -- in a house that exist outside of the objective requirements of number of bedrooms, amount of storage, etc. These are features that you might not notice, and a realtor will seldom, if ever, point out to you. But, with this checklist, you can at least feel more confident about your decision to go with a particular property.

Look at the space with “feng shui eyes”
When you are looking at a house – or any space for that matter – and considering whether to buy it, it helps to look at it with “feng shui eyes.” You will want to do this once you have considered all the other objective aspects of the house, such as square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, living areas, location, price, etc.

The next step is to run down a checklist of the subjective feng shui considerations that will help you make a feng shui assessment. Even if you aren’t house hunting, this list can give you some important information that might be very revealing about the house you are already in!

The list below provides some of the more serious feng shui problems.

Exterior
Street: Is house at the end of a cul-de-sac, dead end or T-junction?
Topography. Is the lot sloped away at the back? Avoid yards that slope down toward the rear. Select home with a rise at the rear. Is house below street grade? This will make for a constant “uphill” struggle while you live here.
Landscape. Is there a tree or pole directly in front of the front door? Dead trees or shrubs? Dead lawn?
Garage. Is it ahead of the house or front door?
Neighbors. Is this house smaller than houses on either side? Do neighbors’ houses have sharp angles pointing at this house or appear to overpower or dominate the house?
Views & proximity. Can you see or is it close to church, temple or other house of worship? Can you see or is it close to funeral home, cemetery, hospital, police station, sewage treatment, abandoned building or run-down house?
Water. Is water, lake, river, ocean at the back of house or too close to front?
Lot. Regular or irregular-shaped? House sits too close to the front of lot? Does backyard fall away from the rear of the house?
Paths. Driveway ends at house instead of garage? Walkways end straight at door?

Interior
House style. Split, bi-level, or center hall colonial?
Front. Front door lines up with back door? Does front door face stairway?
Structure. Overhead or exposed beams? Ceilings too high or are they low and slanted? Skylights over sleeping areas or kitchen? Foundation cracks or problems? Serious plumbing or electrical problems?
Entrance. Do you see toilet/bathroom door from the entrance? See the kitchen/stove from the front door? See the dining room from the front door? See the bedroom from front door?
Toilets. Located in NW, SW, center, or corners of the house? Bedroom, dining area or kitchen located under or over toilet?
Staircases. Spiral staircase? Staircase stops at front door? Split or scissor-style staircase?
Hallways. Too long? Divide the house into two sections? Too dark?
Bedrooms. Over garage? Over bathroom or laundry? Have empty space below, i.e., patio area? Is master bedroom too close to the front door?
Fireplace. In the NW portion of the house? Is it in the Southeast (wealth) sector?
Major locations. Problems with or missing sections in Northwest (man), Southwest (woman), North (career), or Southeast (wealth)? Bathroom, laundry, kitchen in center of house?
Odor. Smells musty, smoky, putrid?

Enlist a professional
Still not perfectly confident? Well, a home is a major purchase and we must always consider that important point. Most people take a used car to their mechanic before buying it — and its purchase isn’t as important as a house. So, if you’re still confused or just want to proceed with the sale in confidence, why not talk to a feng shui specialist about looking about the prospective house?

A professional feng shui consultant should be able to tell you what you can expect from this location, such as good financial or business opportunities. Or, maybe you’ll find out that buying this house means your health will suffer, you’ll discover an afflicted portion of the house, such as a toilet in the SW sector that can hurt your marriage. Give serious consideration to hiring a professional.

Fortunately, most problems have a feng shui fix
It’s important to know that every house has “feng shui flaws” and that no house is perfect. However, you should be aware of what you are buying so that you are knowledgeable about what kinds of problems might be associated with the house. The good news? Most feng shui flaws can be corrected.

Kathryn Weber is a certified master practitioner in classical feng shui and the publisher of The Red Lotus Letter a weekly feng shui E-Zine. She has been featured and quoted by publications and websites, including Seventeen Magazine, First for Women, Martial Arts Professional, the Indy Star Newspaper, Self-growth.com, and Transformations.com. Log on to www.redlotusletter.com to subscribe or to contact her about a personal consultation, speaking engagement, or workshop."

Yes, it's another one of those "not again" posts. I keep dwelling on this one because my partner and I are trying to look at creative ways to buy our first home. Why creative? In Australia, like in England, unlike in North America, house prices are stupidly expensive. I'm on a good salary and still I can't afford a family home. If you can, then this article should help with finding one with good feng shui.

Best wishes,

Sam, Feng Shui Tips

Using Candles in Feng Shui Decorating

Using Candles in Feng Shui Decorating
:

"The basic belief behind Feng Shui is that there are five elements, some combinations of which create a productive cycle, and some a destructive cycle. When one of these five elements – water, wood, fire, earth, and metal, respectively for the productive cycle – are combined with an element adjacent to the main element, a productive cycle is perpetuated. The reason being that water sustains wood, wood feeds fire, ashes create earth, earth creates metal, and metal holds water. So if you have a room where wood is the main element, it would be good Feng Shui to add a water or fire element to the room, as water feeds wood and wood feeds fire. This is where candles would be a nice touch of good Feng Shui.

A look at the destructive cycle will show which elements do not work well together: water, fire, metal, wood, earth. And we can see that water puts our fire, fire melts metal, metal cuts wood, wood clogs earth, and earth muddies water. Although these elements are generally considered bad Feng Shui combinations, one can be used with an adjacent element in the destructive cycle to minimize an overpowering element. For instance, if a room has overpowering metal elements, maybe filled with modern metal furniture, you can minimize that with wood elements like some green leafy plants, or with fire elements such as red throw pillows, a fireplace, or even candles.

It is beneficial to bear in mind the productive and destructive cycles while decorating, but for optimum Feng Shui, a room would have an equal balance of all five elements – none being too overpowering. If this isn’t the case and there is not one overpowering element, then the productive cycle is a good place to start when decorating.

Now that we have a basic understanding of the elements, we can see how to best utilize candles in our decorating. In areas with predominately metal or water elements – rooms which would have a lot of blue or silver colors or metallic furnishings – a candle would help minimize the overpowering colors and add balance. If you want to start using Feng Shui in a room with no overpowering elements, you could bring in a candle and a complimentary element like a plant or a brown oval rug since that color and shape are associated with the earth element.

Candles can be an easy way to bring a natural element into your home and can be a good starting place for implementing Feng Shui design. Not to mention that scented candles are often great Feng Shui because of the mood-enhancing qualities certain scents have. Candles provide a simple start in creating a pleasant ambiance and good decorating style.

About The Author

Jennifer Hall is the founder and editor of Candles 4U featuring scented soy candles and much more. When she's not online, Jennifer's spending time with her family, gardening, or playing the piano or accordion."

I honestly love candles! I don't know what it is. I do tend to have a fair amount of wood in my home, but probably only as much as I have metal. I have to admit that the rooms I prefer to have candles burning in do tend to have more wood and plants in and around them.

Sam, Feng Shui Tips