Waiting to exhale? One couple isn't. They chose harmony and simplicity over chaos and clutter.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published April 4, 2003
ARBOR GREENE - Welcome to the feng shui show house, where the ancient art of placement rules and visitors get to drool over a dreamy kitchen.
Mari and Al Fernandez designed their house in New Tampa from the ground up, guided by the principles of the 4,000-year-old philosophy.
Walk through the front door and feel soothed to the point of lingering.
Bamboo floors and porcelain tile create harmony of texture. Red accents add zing to an otherwise neutral palette. Televisions are cleverly hidden.
So is the clutter.
A room devoted solely to creativity and play is stocked with books, games and drawings by local artists. Much of the house is devoted to a cadre of nieces and nephews who so love to visit that they earned their own bedroom.
Even the location of the house - across the street from a community playground - was carefully selected with their extended family in mind.
"The overarching belief is that we're all interconnected," Mari Fernandez says. "The more mindful we are, the smoother life will be. This is not a mystical force."
The Practical Encyclopedia of Feng Shui, by Gill Hale, says feng shui has simple origins based on the interpretation of the natural world. "Practitioners use a number of different approaches to connect with the energy or feel of a place and fine-tune it to make it work for those living or working there," Hale writes.
The Fernandezes, who became interested in the philosophy a decade ago while living in Brandon, moved into the house last summer after working with feng shui master Rita Greenspan of Palm Harbor. It's a testament to their beliefs about creating a home in which they feel truly comfortable and at peace.
Much of it is common sense. An octagonal skylight in the center of the house represents career, knowledge, ancestors, finance, fame, romance, children and helping others. Location is key.
The couple decided against fussy plantings and big trees in the front yard, opting instead for a completely open design to coax in "chi, or good energy," Mari Fernandez explains. Corners are rounded because anything pointed, Al Fernandez says, symbolizes "a poison arrow."
The garage stands unattached to the house to prevent carbon monoxide fumes from leaking inside. Bathrooms are hidden from public view. The dining room is octagonal and built for use as a breakfast room. The round table was selected to bring a group together without hierarchy. Well-designed closets and shelving conceal clutter such as laundry sorting baskets and neatly highlight collections of knickknacks and books.
Their goal was to create a low-maintenance house that allows them time to spend on the things that matter. Like being together.
"If we are mindful of different components of life, then life flows more smoothly," says Al Fernandez, a longtime Tampa home builder. "It's kind of intuitive."
Mari Fernandez holds a doctorate in child psychology and serves as associate director of a research center devoted to children's development and learning at the University of South Florida. She defines feng shui like this: "It's what you feel in your gut."
One thing the couple feels strongly about is helping others. For the next two weekends, they will open their home, at 10223 Estuary Drive, to the public as part of a fundraiser for USF's Preschool for Creative Learning. The school was built in 1990 and provides care to 76 children.
The tour was organized by a group of creative parents looking for a fundraiser catchier than a traditional house tour. With the money raised, they hope to build a "science tree house" for the preschool.
Grounds for Play, a Texas company that has designed playgrounds for the Smithsonian and the Pentagon, has already drawn up the plans. School officials say it will be a magical place, stocked with bug catchers, telescopes, field guides and magnifying glasses. The proposed play area will also include a new "music gazebo" big enough for props, musical instruments and dancing.
"It won't be just a playground," says Pam Fleege, the preschool's program director. "It will be an outdoor classroom."
In many ways the house is a monument to the Fernandezes' love of family, good friends and children. Although they have no children of their own, the house is devoted to visits by their 11 nieces and nephews, ages 4 to 14.
Some of that has more to do with new technology and well-designed spaces than feng shui. A closet in the den conceals a TV, also accessible through a back door leading into the creativity room, where kids gather to play games. A switch in the children's bedroom can be flicked off to deactivate electrical outlets.
"It's very child friendly," Mari Fernandez says.
The laundry room also functions as a "communication center" for a fax, phone and a chalkboard that says: "Welcome. May peace, harmony and love reign for all who come here."
The open kitchen, placed according to feng shui principles in the southeast corner of the house, was designed in such a way that the kids and relatives can comfortably cook together.
Meal preparation was a consideration, as was the gentle dawn light.
"Every morning, the most wonderful natural light comes in - it's great," Mari Fernandez says. "We were dubious, but it really does help the day start a little better."
Al Fernandez concedes that a true feng shui kitchen is separate from the house but, in this case, such an arrangement wasn't practical. Still, where a person stands when cooking a meal was critical to the design.
"The location of the cook top should be such that when you're standing in front of it, you are controlling the space and you can see everything," he said.
Friends are frequently invited to help cook black beans, fish and other dishes from Mari Fernandez's native Cuba. Her roots are international, but her ties to Tampa can be traced three generations to her paternal great-grandfather, who worked as a reader in an Ybor City cigar factory.
Family is everything to the couple. Married for 25 years, they are clearly in sync and in love. That flow, she says, may well be rooted in the feng shui philosophy they live by.
"It takes wanting the best for the other person. Then the best comes back to you."
If you go
The feng shui home tour continues Saturday and Sunday and April 12-13 at 10223 Estuary Drive in Arbor Greene. The home is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. The cost: $10 for adults, $5 for USF students, free for children under 12. Parking is available on Sheltered Ridge Drive. For information, call 974-5142.
[Last modified April 3, 2003, 17:30:40]
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