It should be understood that the areas of a house in which a person spends the most time are the areas on which they should focus. Typically no other room competes with the heavily used bedroom(s) or home office. And yet, we can take an entire floor plan apart and interpret the effects of other areas of the house as well. A badly placed bathroom or kitchen could affect the whole family.
Some of the energies in a house are invisible, but powerful, and were created when the house was built. Earth energies move upward as the foundation is laid. The energies of the sun and stars penetrate downward and are captured in the house when the roof finally encloses the house. The time when the roof is built is called the year of construction.
With a multi-story house or building there will be repetitive energies. For example, if you have a bedroom directly above a dining room, those two rooms will have similar influences. And so it is also true that basements and attics often contain a similar energy to the rooms above or below.
This becomes very relevant when attics and basements are remodeled into regularly used rooms. Like any other room in a house, they may require certain element remedies. Also, the yin-yang theory comes into play because attics and basements are often areas that may need more light than was originally provided.
Attics that are converted to bedrooms often have sloped ceilings, and sometimes the ceilings are lower than normal. Low ceilings are good for focusing, but not at the expense of being so low that it feels stuffy or claustrophobic in the space. Basement ceilings are sometimes left unfinished where joists and air ducts or exposed plumbing lines are not ideal for high usage area.
Another aspect of the yin-yang theory that becomes more apparent with tops and bottoms is temperature. Heat rises, so an attic can get uncomfortably hot and a basement can be perpetually cold. Like its portrayal in the movies, people are often frightened by their own attic or basement, as if each of these spaces is occupied by a ghost. It’s interesting that we instinctively anticipate that a dark, messy, and unkempt space might be inhabited by spirits.
If an attic or basement is only used for storage, then having plenty of lighting isn’t critical. People ask me all the time if they have clutter or storage areas in certain parts of the house, if that can have a negative impact on any area of their lives. Usually this is not the most important thing to worry about. In fact, we can say that if you are able to put all your extra miscellaneous things in the attic or basement, better there than filling the rooms you use regularly, where you need more open space.
There are no other mystical secrets to reveal about penthouses and foundations. They just need to be balanced according to the yin-yang theory to make them comfortable as living spaces. Not too dark, not too bright. Not too hot, not too cold. They must have ceilings high enough to function and floors stable enough to feel safe when walking. After that, they can be evaluated like any other floor in a house by applying all other Feng Shui principles.
