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Create your own masterpiece

Written by: Libe Chacos

Article Overview: How do you make your home magnificent? Not just grand. Not just big. You know that feeling you get when you walk into someone’s place and say “wow, this is great!” What is the number one ingredient to getting that feeling in your home?

Create your own masterpiece

Whether you are building a new architectural masterpiece, or adding a small renovation at the back of your current home, or just want to change your home and give it a whole new lease of life. This same answer will give your home a level of richness not enjoyed previously.
Once you make your home comfortable, with photos of loved ones and treasured memories, valuable art, rich colours that stir the right emotions in the right rooms… there’s one more key that will put a smile on your face every time you think of your home.

They key is to make it sustainable. Leave a legacy for the next generation that says “I was here – and I’m proud of it” This is the adult’s version of carving your name in the wet concrete footpath on the way home from school!

You may have heard that it’s not what we get in life that counts, but what we give.

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” ... Henry David Thoreau, Poet and Philosopher

Find out the key ingredients to sustainable homes and apply them to your castle:

Preserve water: save water, grey water, water tanks
Preserve energy: save power, passive solar design, renewable energy
Preserve your finances: invest eco dollars for a financial return
Preserve your home: create a place that is aligned to better health

Learn something new as you create your home. Don’t just get a green thumb, but a green outlook on life! Maybe for you it is learning new skills such as painting, photography or furniture restoration so you can add to your home over time.

However you approach this, you will build a real sense of connection with your home and anchor it strongly to your most important values in life. And then you can really leave a legacy.
This is where you will get the greatest feeling of satisfaction when you are building your home. Create something that the next owners, the next generation will be grateful you did.
Knowing that you have created a home that will actually improve the health and well being of the people that live there, and that of the planet, will leave you glowing!

This may be the renovation of a 50 year old home room by room over time. Or restoring a near dilapidated heritage building to its former glory, upgrading a sad reminder of 70’s architecture and design or creating a new home in a new suburb.

Maybe you’ll use straw bales or rammed earth, or maybe you’ll have photovoltaics that return power to the grid. Maybe you’ll offset the embodied energy in your home by purchasing carbon credits. You could connect to a green power supply, or include a water tank to provide all of your water needs and install a grey water system for your landscaping needs.

When you create your sustainable home notice how you feel more confident that the planet will be a better place. You’ll feel entitled to have some quiet pride because your home is now different to 99% of the others around you. And you can feel very significant knowing that your home is making a positive contribution. And you’ll also feel a connection to the planet. Part of the oneness that is just an esoteric thought for most people.

You may not be a Picasso or Da Vinci. But now you can enjoy creating your very own masterpiece that will be enjoyed and appreciated for generations to come!

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Article Tags: anchor, architectural masterpiece, better health, castles in the air, footpath, furniture restoration, green thumb, grey water, henry david thoreau, new lease, passive solar design, philosopher, renewable energy, renovation, rich colours, richness, smile on your face, treasured memories, water tanks, water water



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