I'm finally getting round to doing up my own house. I've gone back to the first house I ever had - the Neo by Fade Languish at Cult Living. I've never found a better one for my needs, so thanks, Fade :) One day I might build my own from scratch but until then this is perfect. The only thing it's missing is a bathroom, so I added a small shower room. It's still a work in progress though...
Simon has been away for a few days so I've been working on a building project. I've made a moderately faithful reproduction of German architect Mies van der Rohe's iconic "Barcelona Pavillion", which he completed in 1929. I extended the smaller block at the end of the building to make a sleeping chamber which has a nice view of the back of the building; otherwise, the layout is unchanged from the original.
The finished building, which I've named the "Aoyama", after a district of Tokyo, can either be used as an exhibition space, a shop or a residence, and any member of the Chant Newall Development Group can have a copy for free, although I will be putting it up for sale eventually, under the Yorimasa Network FOC.
I am really satisfied with the way it has turned out. The textures by LFox look great; my main problem was finding a suitable statue (I used the one that came with my Japanese builder's set by Miko for these pictures). I also had a little trouble finding a suitable double-sliding door script, but RJ Kikuchiyo and Aprikat helped me out :-) Thanks, guys! The tree and fallen leaves are by Heart, who are always my first choice for horticultural supplies.
Things I learned how to do on this build: make drapes (the ones I am sitting in front of in the second picture); make lights; fit sliding doors.
I have to say, I am very pleased with this build. I think it has an elegant, modern Eurasian look, and would look equally fantastic in an urban, coastal or rural setting. *beams with pride*
Me and Simon are building a home together on Safe Harbor, using a prefab from Dharma, which we are modding. In the meantime, I have suspended a den-cum-office-cum-temporary bedroom 300m above the new house.
The skybox is a New York loft; I removed the New York skyline and inserted a London view instead. Simon wants to use his furniture in the new place, which is fine with me, of course, but I have a soft spot for this sofa etc. so I will keep it up here.
One of the problems I had with the wraparound panorama is that the image was reversed by the interior wall of the curve on the right hand side, if that makes sense. In the end, I simply uploaded another version of the same panel, which I had reversed in Photoshop using the mirror command, and that worked quite well.
Lovely Gabe wants a bathroom in his house, so I have offered to build an extension. When I realized I couldn't get hold of the textures used by the original builder, and that in order to build the extension, I would have to kick Gabe out of his house while I ripped out walls and moved stuff around, I bought a copy of his house, rezzed it on some spare land, and set about cannibalizing it to make the extension. It's a very sweet country-style cottage, with nice layout, but it's a bit pokey, and because it was designed to be low-prim, the creator (Sandy Clymer) had to sacrifice prettiness for prims.
Happily, Gabe agreed to let me tweak the textures and clean up the design a bit during the rebuild. I put in a simple white wooden staircase (replacing the one-prim ramp), added an extra wing at the back of the house for the upstairs bathroom and a downstairs family den, and changed the roof tiles to a dark slate pattern which is classic New England, but which ties in his house to the colour scheme of my modern house, giving Safe Harbor a little more unity.
I ripped out the old fireplace, which was just a one-prim illustration, and installed a new one, complete with crackling, smoking flames, glowing logs and a chimney with smoke coming out of it. I'm also tarting up the interior walls, giving him smart Cape Cod-style whitewashed oak woodwork and wainscoting, and plaster walls in pale sky blue, pale lavender and a rich cornflower blue. "Real" windows with shutters will be installed, and curtains will be hung on the inside. Other plans (apart from the bathroom and den): a new kitchen with a working fridge and washing machine, a proper dining room, a new front door and a working doorbell, and a small back yard leading off from the den, where Gabe can hang his washing on the line and store logs for his log fire.
