Kitchen Placement

My husband (born Jan, 1962, Metal Ox) and I (born Aug, 1972, Water Rat) are expecting our daughter in May this year and are moving, so we want to make sure the feng shui is correct for all 3 of us. Our problems are:
1) Kitchen Location
Our main door (in the West) opens into the vicinity of the kitchen (which is in the middle of the apartment). The kitchen has 2 doors - one that is opposite the main door (but not directly, more to the right) while the other one is directly opposite this first kitchen door and opens into the dining room (in the East).
We cannot relocate the kitchen, and all the books say it is bad to have a kitchen near the vicinity of the front door and also bad to have the kitchen in the middle of the home. What cures can we implement for both these problems?

As for your kitchen near the vicinity of the front door, so long as the kitchen door does not meet the main entrance door this is acceptable as most homes also face this problem.

As for the kitchn in the middle of the home, yes, this is considered not as auspicious. The most important thing here is to get the `Basics' of the kitchen correct:-

1. The location of your stove. This is important and where possible it should not have it's back against a window e.g. ventilation and best location is at the South part of the kitchen.

2. Next check that the stove and other `water' element e.g. wash basin are not close to each other. Leave a gap between them.

3. Forks, spoons, knifes MUST be kept in proper utility cupboards. This is particularly important in your case where the kitchen is at the centre of the house. Where possible keep the kitchen clean and tidy.

2) Bathrooms

We have 2 bathrooms (both which we need to use). The master bathroom is in the Northwest corner and the other (our soon-to-be-born baby daughter's) is in the Southwest corner. Her bedroom is also in this Southwest corner. What cures would you recommend so that we don't "flush" our helpful people and romance corners away? In addition, what cures and enhancers can we do for our daughter's bedroom so that we can bring her into the world with an auspicious start?

For the toilet in the SouthWest, traditional Feng Shui practise is that since it is your Romance corner, you should close the door and place the toilet lid down when not in use. In Feng Shui, such a `cure' or enhancement is of second importance as compared to the findings done with the Flying Star theory. The ranking of enhancements and cures would be based on such a ranking e.g. 1st if the Flying Star was done, this would be of top priority, next, 2nd priority goes to the use of the Eight House or 4 good or 4 bad, next after this then we can consider the Eight Aspirations or Life Aspirations Theory of e.g. SW is our `romance' corner.

At a micro level, even in a room, we can still activate the `SW' corner (provided it is a good area).

As for Feng Shui for children, I am not sure if you have read this short article I wrote: Feng Shui for Children Besides this article, do take note that preferably your soon-to-be-born baby daughter's room ideally should not be at the West location because such a room is considered warm. Other rooms are considered acceptable.

Cecil Lee
Center for Feng Shui Research
February 1999