Kammie's Custom House Designs: December 2010

 This is another Test Center design, but it's while trying to better incorporate my runebooks into the house design without having to create a complete separate structure for the runebooks. It's also where I work with some Winter themed decor. This is also where I began adding more porches to my designs in an attempt to prevent the houses from looking too large and blocky.

By this point I had incorporated a soulforge into my design, and the bottom floor had become my crafting floor. Here you can see that I was still fond of the 'little stable' outside the house.

I'd also taken to adding a spare bedroom or two around this time, as well as an "arty" area where I just threw all of the rares I had collected. If you look closely at the stairs leading up to the third floor, you can see two wooden boxes hidden in the stairs. What better way to kick back and read than by your secret stash of goods?

On the top floor we have my bedroom, as well as my storage room, complete with skeletons and whatnot from trick-or-treating a few months prior. At this point I loved using reading nooks to fill in spaces I otherwise couldn't find a purpose for.
In this design you can also see the result of the new Treasure Map system - mainly the new vines hanging on either side of the door on the 2nd story porch.

At this point I'm very angry with myself. There were at least 6 house designs between February and December that I can clearly see in old screenshots, but I failed to go through and take screenshots like this. Previous ones are incomplete screenshots of the house, or while the house was in progress, or including some old friends and some text that would take away from the design. I thought I was more thorough at documenting my house designs.

Kammie's Custom House Designs: February 2010

This is the first house design I made where I really experimented with juxtaposing different wall types together for an all new feel. This is also during my stage of oriental-style housing, which lasted for well over a year.

Here is another view of the exterior, as well as the Northwest roof garden I used. This is unusual in that my gardens aren't typically in that corner of the house. I don't do this often because the walls to the South and East of the garden tend to obscure any decorations I might put. In this case, I used it to break up an otherwise bulky building.

Here you can see the small runebook library I made public for those who needed it. I say small, but it in fact took up about a third of the house. I've always tried to make public services when creating a house, and as this house was on Test Center, the small runebook library proved to be a valuable addition to the community we had there. The rest of the floor was dedicated to an indoor eating area/garden of sorts, with  a small stable outside.

Here you can see the second story of the rune library, as well as my bedroom and miscellaneous items. The biggest area of note I want to point out is the hidden library on top of the stables. I've always loved adding in little easter eggs to my designs. They add character and reason for others to explore every nook and cranny of the house, something I've always loved.

Here we have the crafting room and outdoor garden. In the little 2by4 room is the teleporter that would lead to the library, accessible only to those who knew the nifty little click-and-drag to walk through solid objects trick. They've 'fixed' that trick by now, though I must say I miss what it added to the creativity it added to house designs. Before I knew of that trick's existence, there had been a puzzle house on Lake Austin that I could never finish. It had fallen by the time I thought to try out the trick on that area I got stuck in, but it obviously was used in more than just decorating.

Finally, here is a 'closer' look at the library room, complete with writing table and bookshelves. I wish I had taken another screenshot using the circle of transparency, so I could show the room in better detail, but this design was well over 3 years ago. It's long gone.