When determining whether it is the right thing to do, make sure your family will actually use it, and then consider the costs. There are quite a few hits to the hip pocket that come along with a pool, so be prepared, know what you’re in for – and then think of the great times you are going to have in your new pool!

1. Pool

The pool is the most obvious cost, and these come in a variety of price ranges. You can select from above ground and below ground options, with a number of different sizes and shapes to choose from. Make sure what you choose is practical for your backyard, and if you’re looking for something long-term that will improve the value of your property, think about a permanent, in-ground pool.

2. Labour

In addition to the pool itself, you will need to consider the cost of labour to install it into your backyard. Go to a range of pool supplies stores and get a number of quotes so you can compare and find the best value for your dollar, and a price range that will fit in with your budget. Make sure, when comparing prices, that your labourer is reputable and hasn’t had any complaints in the past. One who is recommended is always your best bet!

3. Landscaping

After putting in the pool, your backyard may be in a slight state of disarray. If you are investing the dollars to put in a pool, you should also consider putting in the dollars to make the area appealing. In order for it to add value to your home, it needs to look good. The landscaping around the area, even the surface you use around the water’s edge – cement grass, pavers, timber, or others – can really make a difference. If you can afford it, talk to a professional about how to make the most of the area and make it look its best. If not, head online and look at ways others have made the most of their area and look into quote for similar finishes.

4. Safety

Another element to take into consideration is the safety of your family when it comes to the pool. Legally, for safety reasons, you are required to put in a fence around the pool area. Look into a range of options and quotes and consider something that suits your landscaping and garden.

5. Maintenance

When you buy a pool, you also need to consider there will be ongoing maintenance costs and accessories like your pool filter and pump. Your pool pump will add to your electricity bill and you will also need to purchase chlorine on an ongoing basis.

While there are ongoing costs, the benefits definitely outweigh them, think of all the great summer fun you will have!

Many household paints contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – these are the ones you want to avoid. Normal household paints can contain up to 10,000 chemicals and many of these are toxic. The most harmful are VOCs which vaporise easily and react to produce ozone which is an air pollutant. VOCs have been linked with cancer, kidney damage, respiratory problems, headaches, watery eyes and nausea.

As paint containing VOCs dries, the VOCs are released into the air – and household air contains much higher levels of VOCs than outside air. It doesn’t stop when the paint is dry either – VOCs will continue to seep into the atmosphere for several years.

Now you can choose to avoid VOCs in paint by buying one of the many organic and natural paints available. Although these paints are more expensive, it’s far more comforting to know that if you use them your family won’t be at risk of breathing in any more VOCs.

Of course, you can do the same with the furniture you buy for your home. You can choose to buy products that are made with naturally-sourced materials and don’t contain toxins. Many furniture stores sell cheap furniture that isn’t green, and you’ll have to weigh up how much you can afford to spend to be green when buying big items such as sofas and chairs. Even in a sofas sale, you are unlikely to find soft furnishings made out of eco-friendly materials at a low price.

You’re more likely to be able to stay green while spending less on wooden furniture – especially if it’s made of bamboo. Bamboo is in plentiful supply, and is a renewable source of wood, so you’ll be helping reduce the impact of global deforestation by buying products made from it. Bamboo can be cut without the whole plantation being destroyed, and regrows very quickly. Bamboo plantations also put 35% more oxygen back into the atmosphere than other tree species.

So there are ways and means to be green while decorating and furnishing your home, but generally it will be more expensive.

That’s because they’re loved by their owners as opposed to created perfections designed only to impress others.

The final irony is that the homes which truly most impress other people are those created by their owners without visitors in mind.

You see so may TV programs these days from rock stars’ homes to people looking over new houses to buy – to wealthy people undertaking grand architectural programs to achieve a perfect look, that we forget the fundamentals: A home is a home is a home. It isn’t just a “house”, it isn’t a piece of architecture, it isn’t somewhere to try and be perfect or to present to other people, or to impress them; it’s somewhere for us to live in – to truly “be” in.

If others love it great, if they don’t, do you really care? And if you do really care, perhaps the best approach is to try and really look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why that is.

Similarly, if you don’t really care, but finding yourself really trying anyway – then why is that?

There’s nothing wrong with trying to create a nice home. But maybe there is something amiss if you’re merely trying to create a great house. And there’s a whole world of difference between the two.

So make a promise to yourself and your family to create a real home, with real comfort and you’ll all be happier for it. And because you’re doing this, you’ll also find it a greener place to be as you aren’t using up resources continually buying new stuff.

So be happy with your old cheap dining table and chairs. And stop trying for perfection.

Instead, have a look for things you love. The Harveys Furniture stores are choc fill of great ideas for homes rather than just houses.

Photo: utnapistim

What we shall discuss below is the philosophy of feng shui and how the colours and objects in your home can be orchestrated in such a way as to avoid the negative energies of bad feng shui.

The Practice of Feng Shui

The origin of the feng shui dates back to ancient China (over 4000 years) and has since branched out into a number of different variations. However, the main connecting principle behind feng shui and its various incarnations is to create balance or harmony between a person and their environment.

Feng shui is heavily influenced by the five elements: fire, metal, water, earth and wood. Those who practice feng shui believe that the elements represent us and our surroundings — that each element corresponds to certain colours, objects and aspects of our life.

When practicing feng shui it’s important to understand the productive and destructive ways that these elements interact with each other (i.e. water is destructive towards fire by dousing it).

You also need to learn your own particular element, which is usually determined by the year and date of your birth. So, when decorating your home with colours and objects it’s best that they represent the elements that are productive towards you. Feng shui is all about bring positive energy into your environment.

Feng Shui and Colour

When choosing what colour to paint your walls or what coloured carpet to buy it is very important that you choose colours that don’t have clashing elements or clash with your own personal element.

Below are the elements and their assigned colours:
• Fire: red, pink, orange, bright yellow and purple
• Metal: white, grey and silver
• Water: blue and black
• Earth: light yellow, tan and light brown
• Wood: green and brown

As mentioned previously, the elements and their subsequent colours represent different aspects of our lives. It’s important, therefore, when considering what colours to use in your home that they correspond to those parts of your life that you need to harmonise or add some positive enhancement. Below are the elements and what aspects of your life that they represent:

• Fire: wealth, love and reputation
• Metal: children, clarity and creativity
• Water: career path, purity and wisdom
• Earth: stability, nourishment and physical health
• Wood: growth, hope and rebirth

It’s always suggested that the colour of the wall facing your front door is one that represents your own element. This is to ensure that as soon you walk through the front door you will be overwhelmed with positive energy.

Feng Shui and Furniture Layout

With Feng shui, objects in a room and the organisation of furniture should never interfere with a room’s functionality. For example, bad feng shui can be established in the bedroom by having heaps of electronic devices, which generate distractions. These objects interfere with the bedroom’s function as a place of sleep and relaxation.

The living room should never be cluttered. The furniture should be organised to facilitate conversation and other social activities because the living room is where family and guests socialise. Chairs placed around a circular table are good for establishing positive energy.

Furniture and objects in a room should never be placed in such a way as to block the flow of positive energy or ‘reflect’ negative energy back onto its users. Having a mirror facing your bed is a perfect example of this! If you have a mirror facing your bed it can drain your personal energy or even disrupt the sexual energy between you and your partner.

Objects, in representing particular elements, also need to exist in harmony. You should never have your stove (embodying fire) right next to your sink (embodying water) as both of these have clashing elements and generate bad energy. To help balance out the elemental harmony in your rooms and gather objects that represent your element, some common feng shui objects can include:

• Water: fountains, mirrors and aquariums
• Fire: candles and fireplaces
• Metal: metal frames and vases, metal wind chimes
• Earth: stones, pebbles and pottery
• Wood: lucky bamboo plant and money plant tree

Once you have built the basic frame into floor, walls and ceiling to attach the door fronts to you will really start to see the wardrobe take shape. There are many options available on the market for ready-made doors which can be anything from glass, mirrored, wood or metal. The economical options are recycled doors or MDF which can actually be beneficial for the amateur as it is often easier to cut and deal with than natural wood which can flex and expand.

The best bit, however, is deciding what the interior space is going to look like. You can hide anything away from a television, to a complete mini office and I have even seen a washbasin and vanity unit behind a wardrobe door! For many people the hanging space for clothes is important, plus drawers and shelves to tidy away smaller items and accessories. Shoe racks are very useful too, keep everything in pairs from your men’s sports sandals to your best ‘going out’ high heels and have everything to hand when you need it. A good range of fitted units in your bedroom will make all the difference to the look and feel of the room and you will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Doing the work yourself will mean that the project will cost less than paying a professional, and you will also have all the job satisfaction too. What are you waiting for? Get out those power tools and give it a try!

Photo: ooh_food

When it comes to choosing the flooring for your bedroom, you’re bound to be able to find some environmentally-friendly products. If you’re going for wooden flooring, the best thing to look for is bamboo. This is actually stronger than oak and it is far more sustainable than hardwood, making it a great option. Cork is another good option and it can often be quite attractive. Once you’ve chosen your flooring, you can start looking for eco-friendly beds for sale. You want to find ones which use materials from sustainable sources and look for a mattress and bed linen which do too, in order to really boost your green credentials.

When you’re decorating, you need to try to find an eco-friendly paint to do so. There are plenty of different ones on the market nowadays, so you shouldn’t struggle to find the colour and style you want. Eco-friendly paints tend to contain far fewer chemicals and they’re usually made from plenty of natural ingredients, so you can be sure your decorating project will be as green as possible. You should also be able to find environmentally-friendly accessories for your bedroom as well, in the shape of curtains and textiles. Organic materials are available – you just might have to hunt quite hard for them – and if you’re good at sewing, you could even try making your own using the materials on offer.

With a bit of effort, it’s easy enough to make sure you manage to decorate your bedroom in as green a way as possible.

Photo: dorena-wm

Recycling is the easiest way for you to try to be more environmentally friendly around your house. Once a month – or maybe even more frequently – you should be trying to get rid of all the bank statements, receipts and any papers which have your personal details on them. The best way of doing this is by using a shredder. Not only are paper shredders a fantastic way of disposing of documents so they don’t fall into the wrong person’s hands, but they’re also handy when it comes to recycling.

Instead of just throwing away paper after shredding it, you should be looking to recycle it. Doing this can really boost your green credentials – it takes far more energy to create paper from wood pulp than recycled material. You’ll be doing your bit to save trees from being cut down in rainforests around the world, which will ensure there’s still plenty of CO2 still in the air.

Whatever documents you’re not shredding need to be hidden away safely within your home, so criminals don’t manage to get hold of them. If you’ve got a lockable drawer, use that to store papers away safely. And, should you lose or have something like your driving licence stolen, you should contact the issuing organisation straight away.

So if you’re looking to be greener around the home, as well as protecting your personal information, investing in a shredder could well be the way forward.

Photo: favaro JR.

1. Replace all the light bulbs with energy saving versions. Don’t forget the lamps by your beds as well as the main ceiling light.
2. Leave the lights off as much as possible and make the most of natural light when you can by clearing the window area and installing light drapes.
3. Turn off the television and any other equipment completely rather than leaving it on standby. This makes more difference than you might think.
4. Unplug electric blankets on the double beds when you’re not using them. They are real energy guzzlers so keep usage to a minimum as far as possible.
5. Keep the windows closed if the weather is cold and the heating is on. As my Mother used to say ‘I’m not paying to heat the garden!’ Keeping the door shut will also keep the room warmer.
6. Make sure your loft insulation is up to scratch above the bedrooms so that heat isn’t lost through the ceiling. A good tip is to look at the roof when it is covered in snow: any melted areas indicate heat escaping.
7. Wrap up warm and layer the bedding appropriately for the season. This will help to keep you cosy and the heating bill down.

Photo: vnoel

Barbecue
Every outdoor area needs a barbecue, and if you have a pool you can make this whole area central to your entertaining. You will find that you will have friends over a lot more often when you have a pool, and having a barbecue is an easy way to cook for lots of people. Make the barbecue the centre of your entertainment area so that the chef is included when people come over to socialise. You can even build one as a permanent fixture and have space to put trays of meat, barbecue tools and other bits and pieces.

Veranda
Create some shade out by your pool area with a veranda. Have this cover your whole entertainment area and keep your outdoor furniture under cover as it will help protect it from the weather and it will last longer. You can also train climbing roses or other creepers to grow up the side of your veranda to improve the look of it. With people being more aware of the importance of staying protected from the sun, it is a good idea to build a veranda to provide some shade.

Paving
You might not decide to pave the whole area, but certainly have some sort of flooring around your barbecue area or under the veranda. Most people tend to have some sort of paving around the edges of their pool. Choose something that suits the colours of the brickwork or weather boards on your house, and if you have children you might want to go for something that doesn’t get slippery when wet. There are plenty of options, including timber decking, concrete, tiles or paver’s. You might even want to leave an area of lawn next to the pool for sitting on.

Pool house
If you have the space and the budget a pool house makes a great addition to your pool area. Usually situated at the bottom end of the pool away from the main house, a pool house could include anything from just a toilet and shower, or have a whole entertainment area with lounges, a bar, a pool table, a bathroom or an open fire place so you can make use of it during winter. A pool house should give you somewhere to store towels, sunscreen and your pool equipment and pool toys, as well as have a toilet and shower, which is handy because it means people won’t be wandering through your main house with wet feet and bathers to use your amenities.