Buying a home can be an exhilarating and fun experience, but it also can be daunting and well scary.. Using these Feng Shui tips you can ease the process and feel confident in your decision on which house will make your BEST home!
Before you begin your search
Take a quiet moment to reflect on where you are in your life and think about what goals and aspirations you have for the upcoming years you will be occupying the home.
This is the time to set your intentions for the whole house hunting experience and open your heart to the possibilities.
Be clear about your goals for the space.
- Is this your forever home or just for this next phase of life?
- Dream home or investment/stepping stone?
- What do you hope to achieve while living here?
- What kind of support will you need?
For example are you trying to have a baby? Are you looking to downsize and travel with more? Working to graduate school or launch a business?
Keeping these goals front of mind will help you recognize when the energy and layout of the home is in support of those goals or not.
Write them down! If you keep a journal, this is a great place to preserve your intentions and feelings so you can look back on the experience.
Finally, once your intentions for your new home are set, visualize yourself in your new space and achieving those goals.
Take note of how it feels and the emotions that come to mind… Joy? Excitement? Serenity?
Let these emotions carry you through the next step of the process – the fun part – house hunting!
Searching for THE ONE
House hunting is exciting, I love seeing new layouts and getting design ideas and overall just the experience of anticipation of seeing a new space.
But it can also be unpredictable and exhausting… be prepared to hate your favorites and be pleasantly surprised by others.. it always happens.
Those darn professional photos can be so misleading.
As you begin your search and enter the homes you are touring pay attention to the energy and how the space makes you feel, not just how it looks.
Looks (cosmetics) can be easily be changed to fit your style.
First Impressions
Good Feng Shui starts with the front door.
Make sure the entry / front porch is inviting and dominates the facade with a pop of color that draws the eye in.
The garage should not be the dominating feature. If you can’t find the front door at first glance from the street then neither can the chi.
They say don’t judge a book by its cover (or a house by its front door). But in Feng Shui, the front entry sets the tone for the chi entering the space and therefore is not to be overlooked.
I heard a tip recently that I LOVE and plan on doing at our new home and that’s to make your very first project to give that front door a fresh coat of paint, preferably in a fun bright color that brings you JOY.
This will not only help you make the home feel uniquely yours but also help to usher in fresh positive energy!
If something feels off, it probably is.
If you are able find out why the current owners are moving. Take note of bad circumstances that their homes’ Feng Shui May have contributed to (divorce, bankruptcy, illness/death) and if you can correct it (you usually can).
It could be something as simple as a missing corner, protrusion, or just elemental overload in the wrong gua. All these things can be remedied, so don’t let it scare you away.
Speaking of, the shape of the home / layout can be very auspicious or well.. not.
A square/rectangle shape is best, but in today’s architectural styles not very common. So note where missing corners lie and be prepared to remedy them.
Many newer homes listed today have floor plans available in the listing. Do your homework and see how the Bagua overlays (like the example below).
In the example above you can see the layout of this home is missing the bottom right corner, which happens to be the Helpful People / Travel Gua. If not remedied, the occupant may experience constraints against their travel plans or even find they have people in their inner circle that are not so helpful or supportive of them and their goals.
Other examples could include a single person having trouble finding romance with a missing Relationship Gua, or a missing Career Gua making that promotion difficult to earn. There are so many examples I could give, but ultimately do your homework or hire a Feng Shui consultant to ensure your unaffected by any layout challenges in your new home.
Taking the Party Indoors
Inside, be aware of chi draining features, such as staircases that flow right out the front door, or rear windows that line up with the front door that can usher good energy right out.
Keep in mind how you might place your furniture to gently correct the flow and generate positive chi that wants to stick around.
When checking out bedrooms and office spaces make sure they are conducive to the power positions of those areas. Can you place the bed or desk not physically in line with the door but you can still see it?
Next steps
Can you see yourself becoming who you want to be in this home?
Do the changes or upgrades needed excite you or terrify you?
Ultimately it has to feel right.
Much like a “say yes to the dress” experience, sometimes you will just know when you’ve found “the one” (and break down into happy tears like a baby!).
Don’t settle if you feel you have exhausted every option and still aren’t feeling called to a specific house.
When your heart is open and you are ready to find the perfect place it will present itself to you with such crystal clearness you’ll forget every other home you toured.
There are many more principles you can apply to ensure your new home has great bones and energy in Feng Shui speak, but ultimately keep it simple with these basics.
Try not to over-complicate an already complicated process, and know that if you run into issues down the road, there’s always a Feng Shui cure to help!
Want to learn more about Feng Shui principles as told by my amazing mentor Sharyn Jordan Hathcock aka “The Home Whisperer”? Check out her book The Home Whisperer Feng Shui Simplified on Amazon!
For my personal example of applying these principles on my recent house hunting adventure with Feng Shui, read on…
My Firefly experience
If you would have asked me 2 months ago if I thought I would be writing a post about moving I would have chuckled rolled my eyes, wrote it down on my laundry list of potential posts to write and probably moved on.
But 1 week in my hometown for a June wedding changed everything.
I grew up in Sacramento, well a tiny little town called Antelope just east of the city. Don’t get me wrong, the valley gets hot in the summer. And maybe that’s why I adjusted to Phoenix life so easily. But somewhere along the last 13 years I had forgotten how pleasant the cool mornings and evenings were as the delta breeze came rustling through the trees. Oh those beautiful and grounding pine and oak trees everywhere! I could feel their energy just constantly calming me as I went through the stressful days pre-wedding helping my bestie get ready for the most amazing day or her life.
I remember 1 morning in particular, we had no plans so we took little miss E to a playground and sitting there watching her play happily in the cool morning air with the other kiddos, and observing the SAHMs sipping their morning coffee and chit chatting I just broke down.
All at once it hit me, AZ was never the place I thought I’d raise my babies. I came for school and for some reason stuck around. Scorching hot summers with no relief even in the early mornings and late nights, but the winters made it all worthwhile. But I looked ahead to kids summers off spent indoors due to the heat and longer trips just to visit family (his family being on the east coast and mine now moving to Hawaii) and I was filled with dread.
Of course I miss home but I wasn’t sure California would be in the cards for us. So we resolved to think about it. No decisions made yet we returned home both feeling the call to leave AZ for someplace green.
To Move or not to Move…
1 week and a big spreadsheet later I had mapped out all the possibilities. Places we like, places we love, places with family and friends nearby, everywhere we could think of. All ranked by affordability, education, vicinity to friends and family and other things important to us.
Ok it was less than a week…but the data was super clear right away that Raleigh NC was emerging a clear winner. On paper it’s actually very similar to Sacramento CA but at a much lower cost of living. Great schools, 2 hours from beaches or mountains, lots of hiking and lakes nearby to explore and we have family right there.
So we started looking online at what the housing market was like and we fell in love. The older architecture, the massive trees, the character, the Southern culture, we could actually see ourselves there.
Getting in touch with my intentions…
The whole decision took place so quickly, I began to panic and turned to my Feng Shui lessons to calm to my heart. I closed my eyes and set my intentions of what I wanted our lives to look and feel like.
Suddenly a scene of our kids running through a lush green yard chasing fireflies popped into my mind. It was beautiful.
Now, growing up on the West Coast, I have not had much experience with fireflies, nor do I really know where they normally show up. I barely recall seeing them when I was maybe 10 at a family reunion in Alabama.
So I resolved that the Firefly was my symbol for this move. And we would go where the fireflies are.
Jokingly, I told my husband he needed to call his sister and ask if they even get fireflies there in Raleigh or we aren’t moving there… he gets my sense of humor so he made the call.
Yes. Fireflies occur in North Carolina, typically in the early summer months at dusk (in case you were wondering).
Relieved, but also still troubled, that night as I laid in bed I continued my intention setting exercise. I pictured what our new home would look like, feel like, and the memories we would make there.
Where my career and side hustles would lead us, and what new adventures awaited us.
Finally I closed with an ask of God and the universe. Send me a sign. Something that will reassure me that this insane move across the country while pregnant with baby#2 I might add, is not crazy.
Crazy coincidence or a sign?
The next day, Monday.. life continued on as normal. After work I drove to pickup little miss E from daycare unsuspecting of what would happen next.
I walked in the door and her giant smile warmed my heart after a rough day as it always does and she handed me her art project for the day, very proud of herself.
Giggling, I looked down to see… a mason jar of fireflies she had colored for me.
Well there’s my sign if ever there was one, delivered in the sticky hands of my jovial 3 year old.
Yup, I cried the whole way home. North Carolina here we come!
And now the house hunt
About a month later, we made it out to Raleigh to visit Jimi’s sister and begin our house hunt. It was Go time!
We had exactly 3 days to find a home there. Our goal being to move and be settled in before Baby #2 arrives in December.
On day 1 we saw a dozen homes, most of which were beautiful! Towards the end of the day, my pregnant little self was DONE and exhausted.
There were just too many good options and we still weren’t sure which neighborhood was the best fit.
So we looked at what remained on our “A List” of homes to see and picked 2 more before calling it a day in Wake Forest.
The next home was a bit of a funny story, but since we changed our route around the owner’s weren’t quite out of the house yet and ready for us. But we didn’t mind.
We actually talked to the mother of the house for a few minutes and she told us all about the neighborhood and the ages of kids that lived in the surrounding homes, seeing that were a young family.
Assessing THE ONE
When we finally walked into the home, everything came into focus. I was overwhelmed by the overpowering energy of pure JOY flowing as I entered and opened my heart.
The front curb appeal and porch were beautiful!
The layout was perfect for us.
The style was on point, and with a quick scan I could see where the Bagua would map to each room and it was fantastic.
There was a protrusion of the garage in the helpful people/travel gua, but I knew I could correct it.
All bedrooms had great power positions too.
Last, we stepped out on the deck and walked down to the yard. Lush, green and full of trees just like I imagined.
Then it hit me. That wedding dress moment. I started to cry. This was THE house. I could feel it without a doubt.
The next day after half a dozen more homes in other parts of town we were done and sure of our decision.
We took our family to see our “top 2” saving THE home for last.
Low and behold, just seeing the top 2 back to back – the first home while it was beautiful and no doubt would work for our family we both admitted there was no emotional connection walking through the home.
And once again, as soon as I walked into THE home again, I could not choke down the tears that instantly emerged. Once again, the energy was speaking to me and confirming this was the right choice.
The next day, day 3.. we placed an offer and by end of day we were under contract!
And now the real work starts…
Now, back home in AZ I have been a busy bee getting our home listed to sell and packing up so we can start our new East Coast adventure.
But I have been setting aside a little time each night to work on my Bagua map of my new home in Wake Forest, planning out my interior design to ensure the elements are balanced and the right occupant is placed in the right room to support their energy. SO FUN!
Don’t worry I’ll be posting many more posts as I work to Feng Shui each room of the new house so you can follow along!
In the mean time feel free to check out my other Feng Shui posts like How to Increase the Positive Energy in your Home with Feng Shui and 3 Important steps to Cleanse your home befor eyou Feng Shui.
Feng Shui tips for selling your home is coming up next! Check back soon!
