Your House
According to the World Health Organization, a house should have at least the following items:
▪ A good roof to keep out the rain
▪ Good walls and doors to protect against bad weather and to keep out animals
▪ Screens of wire netting at the windows and doors to keep out insects, especially mosquitoes
▪ Sunshades all around to protect the walls from direct sunlight in hot weather
Building materials, construction methods and techniques vary according to the economic circumstances of the builder. So before you build, buy or sell consider the aforementioned things. Points 3 and 4 are often overlooked.
The Roof
Choose your roofing materials carefully. Base your decision on performance, beauty and building code. Slate or ceramic tile, shingles, cement tiles, sheet metal, cooper roofing are all readily available and purchase is determined by how much you can afford.
Walls and Doors
Fortification has the basic sense of a place that is impenetrable, or inaccessible. You want your doors and walls to be strong and impenetrable, so examine the walls and doors of your future home carefully. Know the materials used to build the walls, are the walls hollow or sound, which wall is load bearing. Doors are constructed to provide privacy and security and deadbolts are use to ensure security so make sure your exterior doors do have deadbolts.
Screens
The primary purpose is to keep out unwanted elements such as bugs, birds, animals, and flying objects whipped up by the wind. So use screens over windows, and exterior doors and keep the screens in good repair.
Sunshades
Sunshades are now part of the building design so if you are building a home incorporate sunshades into the design, from planting trees to tinting windows.
These are just a few things to keep in mind along with this Arab proverb: "Three things make a house uninhabitable: tak (leakage of rain), nak (a woman’s nagging), and bak (bugs)."