ARE YOU LOOKING TO BUY OR RENT A NEW PLACE? After moving in, would you rather hear this — “This house has been so lucky for us! Since we moved in all good things have been happening!” — or, “Since we moved here it’s been just one bad thing after another”? Obviously you want to feel that moving into a new place has enhanced your life. Feng Shui can help!

Buying a house can be an exciting experience, even if you are sometimes filled with fear and doubts. Applying Feng Shui to the process of buying a house is a wise investment on many levels; it will give you peace of mind, as well as assure that your house is a good financial investment. Good Feng Shui means good energy, and people are always attracted to it! This will also help with the house sale in the future.

Recently I had the fun of looking for houses for my daughter, who is thinking of relocating from Southern to Northern California. In the process of going through numerous open homes I found myself focusing on the positive as well as the potentially draining Feng Shui features of each. That experience is the basis of this article.

Use the following checklist when looking for homes or apartments, whether buying or renting:

What to look for outside of the house

1. Location and Lot Placement

Be sure your house receives good energy from its surroundings: a clean street, neighbors with well-kept homes and a nice front and back yard. You also want to try to have a pleasant view from the front of the house. Even if the house does not have an actual view, are the other homes well kept, and are there trees or flowers to enhance the view?

What to try to avoid: No downward-sloping land behind the house. You want the house to have a good backing. In Feng Shui, this is the classical armchair design, with trees or a slope/hill to your back, and trees/shrubs on either side, keeping you grounded and protected.

• You also want to avoid houses close to a power generator, utility pole transformer or high tension wires. An electromagnetic field within 25 to 50 yards of your home can be highly detrimental to the health and nervous system.

• Houses close to excessive noise: The presence of loud noises will disturb rest, distract from work and affect intimacy.

• River, rain water drainage ditch or roadway behind the house: A river, rainwater drainage ditch or roadway behind the house also weakens and undermines the stability of the house. Prosperity and good opportunities are easily “washed away.”

2. Doors

The front door is very important in Feng Shui, as this is the entrance of Ch’i, or positive energy. Good colors for front doors are any shade of red, which signifies protection and prosperity (and is easy to see), or black, which signifies water and the flowing in of Ch’i, the life force energy.

Doors also should be sized proportionally to the house. Ideally there will be a curved path leading to the front door. Even if the path is not curved, be sure that it can be lined with healthy flowers or plants, lights or additional elements to create positive energy as you walk to your front door.

What to try to avoid: Front doors that are blocked by trees, walls, brickwork, etc.: The energy needs to enter freely. If the entry does have blockages, consider how much work it would take to these have removed.

• A front door that is directly aligned with a back door or large picture window: When you open the front door, can you see straight out the back of the house through a large window or sliding glass door? This may sound like a good thing, but in Feng Shui it is considered negative as it allows the energy to rush straight though the house, resulting in a loss of “good energy.” There are corrections for this, ways to slow down the energy, but the ideal house would have some walls between front and back doors.
 
What to look for inside of the house

1. Main Entrance and Foyer

The entrance foyer is one of the most important areas of your home. How well the house is able to maintain and nourish good energy is very much determined by what is happening in the main entryway. What do you see as soon as you come into the house? Ideally you would want to see a pleasantly designed living room or hallway. If the first thing you see is a wall, place a beautiful piece of art (waterscape or naturescape) and an arrangement that would lead the eye in the direction of the energy flow into the home. Avoid placing a mirror facing the entrance, as that would send the energy back out.

What to try to avoid: Stairs directly pointing to your entrance: Stairs leading immediately up or down directly from your front door create a “river of Ch’i,” flowing the energy away too fast. This is a particularly negative design in Feng Shui, and while there are corrections, it is best to avoid it all together.

• A bathroom or a closet door as the first thing you see: Bathrooms are known to be drains on your Ch’i. They are not conducive to good energy if they are the first thing you see as you enter. Closet doors indicate blockages. Remember that you want the Ch’i to enter slowly and meander through every aspect of your home, thereby nourishing you.

2. Room Positioning and Shape of the House

The floor plan is very important when buying a new home. In Feng Shui the ideal shape for a home is rectangular, with no missing areas. This way the energy remains in the house and each area of your life is nurtured. These areas, when missing from your home, create an impact on your life, and therefore it is important to use the Feng Shui Bagua map (above) to analyze the shape or location of rooms of the home you are considering.

The Bagua (Ba-gua) Map is represented as a grid of nine sectors. The Bagua comes from the Chinese philosophy, “The I Ching,” and literally means “eight trigrams,” with the center area being for grounding. Missing any of these areas in the layout of the floor plan will create a void of energy in that area.

Room positioning is also very important to consider when relocating. For instance, the ideal location for a master bedroom is in the back right corner (the Love and Marriage area); kitchens work well in the center (the grounding area of the home); children’s rooms or craft rooms are auspiciously placed in the middle right area (Children and Creativity); and home offices activate the Ch’i in the Fame (back middle) or Career areas (front middle). These are not hard and fast rules, because in Feng Shui all areas can be enhanced, but if you can begin with a house that already has a good structure you are that far ahead of the game.

What to try to avoid: Extremely odd-shaped homes: The overall problem with odd-shaped houses is that they have no easily defined center and are therefore fragmented. They will also tend to have many missing areas.

• A garage under the bedroom, or in the Love and Marriage Area: Garages are very active spaces, therefore a bedroom situated over a garage also experiences the same level of activity and tends to disturb one’s sleep. Garages tend to also be uncluttered and unorganized, and harder to keep clean. If you are single, looking for love or struggling with a current relationship, the garage’s chaotic energy will add to the problem.

• A bathroom in the Wealth or Relationship areas of the home: A bathroom in your Wealth or Partnership corners tends to act as a drain, and you may see both prosperity and relationships “go down” the toilet or down the drain. As with any Feng Shui corrections, the appropriate use of colors, shapes and symbols can be used to strengthen these corners to overcome the bathroom’s draining influence; but given the importance of prosperity and the fragility of relationships, why not avoid these if you have a choice?

You can usually correct Feng Shui problems and overcome the negative energy by being mindful about it. Many corrections, enhancements and cures are in my previous newspaper columns, available at fengshuibymaria.com. The focus of this column is choosing the correct house with good Feng Shui to avoid having to make numerous corrections in the first place. Because if you have the choice, why not begin with the best?

Feng Shui at work (example of a problem house)

I had one client who had rented an apartment with a bathroom in the Wealth corner and a wall with a heater in the Career area. She also had an old yellow kitchen in the Fame area and a cluttered, wood-paneled office in her Love area. As you can imagine, she hated her job and was unhappy in her relationship.

I advised her to move. She found a new home with the master bedroom in the Love corner, the second bedroom in Wealth, a fireplace and patio in Fame and a beautiful entrance in her Career area.

With the Ch’i being able to flow effortlessly through her new home, her life changed quickly! She found a new job one week later that springboarded her to her current, thriving career. And she met a wonderful man and fell in love.

Affirmations

Remember that in Feng Shui, intent plays a significant role in enhancing any area of your home or business. That’s why all enhancements need to be made with intentionality; written or stated affirmations, expressed as if they are already happening, are very important.

Examples of affirmations for acquiring the perfect home:

“I found the perfect house with a floor plan that nurtures me.”

“I love my living room being in the Wealth corner, it is so elegant and prosperity is flowing in.”

“My bedroom in the Love and Marriage area is my romantic boudoir.”

Feng Shui on a shoestring

Feng Shui enhancements do not have to cost a great deal. Take your time selecting your perfect house. You will not be sorry.

For questions or home consultations, email me at mtmccull@aol.com and put “Feng Shui” on the subject line, or visit my website at fengshuibymaria.com, where you can read past columns, or Facebook “Feng Shui by Maria,” where I post pictures as examples to enhancements.

And check out my blog! Just go to the website and click on “Blog” and you can view many pictures, and I will respond to your questions quickly.

Come to my next class and receive $40 off a home consultation! My next class will be a series of three two-hour classes with practical instruction on Feng Shui principles, enhancing the Bagua in your home and balancing the elements.

The class will be three Tuesdays, Oct. 14, 21 and 28, from 1-3 p.m.

The Parks and Recreation Guide will be available in late July and registration begins Aug. 4. Mark your calendars and invite friends.

Until then … Blessings!

Benicia resident Maria McCullough is the owner and founder of Feng Shui by Maria (www.fengshuibymaria.com). She is a speaker and educator with more than 15 years’ experience specializing in residential, landscape and business consultations.