La Jolla Feng Shui expert Cathleen McCandless offers five simple tips on how you can harness more energy and create greater harmony in your home with Feng Shui.

Landscape before you decorate. Driving up to a barren front yard can be discouraging, making the task of decorating the interior feel overwhelming. Take care of your front yard first, using plants with soft, rounded leaves especially around the entrance. Foliage with spines, spikes or sharp points won't make your guests feel welcome.

Right angles are wrong.Minimize sharp edges in your home as much as you can. Right angles don't exist in nature, and shouldn't around your residence. Choose soft edges, bevels, round tables and meandering paths whenever possible.

If it doesn't feel right, don't buy it. Always decorate with what make you feel good. If your interior decorator has other ideas, trust your own instincts. Don't hope "it'll grow on you." Chances are it won't.

Got the blues? Maybe it's your bathroom. Skip the cool colors in the bathroom. Including blue paint, tile and the ever-popular seascape. It's already a wet, cold place. Warm it up with tones like yellow or beige and you'll feel more comfortable getting out of the shower.

Is your furniture asking for a fight? Avoid placing sofas and chairs directly facing each other. It creates tension in the room. Place furniture at different angles to avoid confrontation and create a more harmonious energy flow within your home.

Cathleen has been featured in many national publications including The New York Times and Vogue, and has worked with such companies as Nike, the American Dental Association and Eli Lilly. She is currently authoring a book, "Feng Shui That Makes Sense.

Ron Cho could feel the Chi slowly being zapped out of him in the high-tech, high-pressure world of Silicon Valley.

Chi,according to ancient Chinese tradition, is the body's flow of vital energy. Ron was pouring his into a high-level engineering position with a business-to-business software giant in San Jose.

About three years ago, Ron and his wife Kris decided to leave Northern California behind. They began searching for a home that would bring more harmony to their family which would soon include two young sons, Darren and Ryan.

Their journey to residential bliss began when the couple visited Lahonran, a private community in Lake Tahoe created by the developer of Santaluz, DMB Associates, Inc.

"We loved it there because everything was planned around the family," Ron recalls. "Then we found out DMB was building a new community in North San Diego. After that, things started falling into place.

"We fell in love with Santaluz; it's very unique. Other places we visited in the area felt too woodsy or too stuffy. There's an openness here with the coastline and mountains you won't find anywhere else," Ron says.

They chose Santaluz to build a home that "revolved entirely around the family, " Ron says.

Santaluz' award-winning circular-shaped custom lots would play a pivotal role - literally - in their dream home, when they decided to build their residence from the ground up incorporating the 4,000-year-old principles of Feng Shui.

According to the Cho's consultant on the ancient Chinese practice, Cathleen McCandless, Feng Shui isn't based on religion, mysticism or superstition. Instead, she says it's a solid combination of art and science that's firmly rooted in architecture, astronomy, physics and design.

Cathleen says we've all experienced Feng Shui - or the lack of it - whether we realize it or not.

"If you've ever walked into a new place and quickly felt comfortable there, that's good Feng Shui at work, " Cathleen says.

The Cho's custom homesite at Santaluz gave the couple the opportunity to get the energy flowing in the right direction, right from the start.

Working in tandem with architect Alex Friehauf of Friehauf Archetects in San Diego, Cathleen helped adjust preliminary plans of the home for the optimal Feng Shui configuration on the Cho's curvilinear lot. Originally, the entrance faced the mountain. The home was re-designed so the front door faced toward the ocean for the best energy flow, and the back of the home would receive protection from the inland mountain.

The entire interior and exterior of the estate is sectioned in specific quadrants according to Feng Shui principles. For example, Ron's combination library/office falls into the "wealth and prosperity" area of the home. Alex admits the unusual design parameters were "a bit of a challenge," but quickly adds the Cho residence "is going to flow nicely and be a high-energy home for the family.

Many other Feng Shui-enhancing designs were incorporated throughout the estate, including a pool and water features that harness energy and move it toward the residence, a gentle slope in front to channel positive forces, and a fruit tree was planted outside Ron's office to encourage his financial endeavors to bear fruit.

Along with all the Feng Shui at work in the 8,000-square-foot Tuscan-styled villa, the home's dramatic archways lead to many distinctive living spaces and intricate finishing touches inside. There is a media room with a concealed projection system for watching family movies together. The great room offers a panoramic coastline view and 15-foot ceilings adorned with ornately-finished box beams. The large master bedroom suite is located away from the main home, and offers a spacious seating area that opens up through pocket doors into a courtyard with an outdoor fireplace.

Judging from the smiling faces of the Cho family as they walked through their custom home in the dry-wall stage, the flow of positive energy in Santaluz has definitely found a new home.