With low interest mortgage rates holding steady, home ownership has continued to rise sharply with each passing year. And this rise also holds true for manufactured homes.
Many people opt for manufactured homes, sometimes called “trailers” or “mobile homes,” because of their appeal: low cost, easy to purchase, quick to move into, faster set up compared to traditional homebuilding, and ability to purchase more home for the money. But even with the benefits such as these, there are some drawbacks to owning a trailer.
According to the North Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition (http://www.nclihc.org/lgagen03.shtml), one of the major drawbacks is that manufactured homes are often not consider real estate, but rather personal property, because of a critical distinction between them and standard stick-built homes.
That distinction? A permanent foundation. Feng shui for these homes is also a challenge and for much the same reason. Because most manufactured homes are not “grounded” by foundation materials, energy flows underneath and away from the home too easily.
Challenging from the ground up
To benefit from feng shui, all homes must have a connection to the earth that is strong and grounded. Traditional homes typically have either a slab or crawlspace foundation to connect them with the Earth.
Both of these types of foundation require footings to be dug into the earth, and then filled with cement or other type of foundation materials. This is what trailer homes lack. However, if some kind of permanent foundation can be made, then manufactured homes – and their inhabitants — could enjoy better feng shui.
Another drawback to most manufactured homes is at the front door to the home. Because most of the homes are substantially raised off the ground, it makes it difficult for the energy, or chi, to enter the homes. Compounding this are the stairs, which usually have open risers.
This usually causes a loss of opportunities for the inhabitants of the home. That’s because these kinds of stairs are most often at the front of the home, which is the area of “opportunity” for residents, and energy cannot move up and down stairs that have open risers.
Making changes can help
Improving feng shui for owners of manufactured homes can be as simple as putting down a foundation for the home to be moved onto. This makes the home more rooted and will improve the feng shui of the inhabitants just by the addition of a grounding element.
Owners will get the cost savings benefit of having a manufactured home while having the grounding elements of a traditional home. A solid foundation may also enable the family to secure a standard mortgage versus taking out a personal loan to finance the cost of the home.
If a solid foundation is cost prohibitive, then adding some kind of covering around the base of the home would help. The key is not to have the underside of the home open and exposed, otherwise energy moves past the home – and so do opportunities.
Lastly, putting in light poles or other decorative lighting is an excellent way to bring a grounding element, as there is light and energy deep within the earth, something that outdoor lighting symbolizes.
The Goal: getting chi into a manufactured home
Again, a major challenge with manufactured homes is found at the front. The front door to any home is the “mouth of chi.”
This is a critical area in feng shui because this is where the energy enters the home – or doesn’t in the case of many homes of this type. That’s because many manufactured homes use steps with open risers at the front door.
What can help this? Concrete steps would be a good start. Usually, the steps used to enter the front door are made of metal and wood have open risers. Chi cannot go up or down these steps smoothly, so opportunities are lost.
Other improvements would be to add solid concrete steps to any exterior opening, but is most important at the front steps. This helps ground the energy and give it a solid place to move up and down on. Plus, concrete steps are also not as rickety as wooden steps and give a much more solid footing.
Getting the energy to move up the stairs can also be helped by keeping lights on at the front door and by adding lighting around or on the stair steps going to the front door. This will help move energy toward the all-important entry of the home, and is a simple, inexpensive feng shui fix. Just doing can help bring more opportunities to the residents of a trailer.
With the continuing rise in manufactured home sales, it is wise to consider the feng shui of these homes and those who own them. Making just a few changes can benefit the owners of manufactured homes so that they derive good feng shui just like those who live in traditional homes.
