It's time for something different.. (big pics and long winded post :X)

[zorrah]

So, I've had the same house design for almost two years now. Granted, I did take almost a year off during that time, but my design is now getting a little stale for my taste. I prefer a more classic style.. my designs have definitely been influenced by the pre-customization days. I've stolen a few ideas from this forum, but a lot of the stuff I've done is very reminiscent of the old pick-up-a-wooden-throne-and-replace-it-five-hundred-times-to-get-it-to-sit-the-right-direction days. I played UO back in beta and into the first year, left for about five years and have played intermittently ever since. "Back in the day" I owned a couple of small box houses, a two story L-shape and finally a tower when I married my rl boyfriend in-game. I really left UO when T2A came out (never played for more than a couple days at a time), and when I returned with some seriousness a couple of years ago I was THRILLED to see customizable housing.

I hunted and killed and maimed to gather my gold to get my first house design. It was small, and very reminiscent of the tower that I missed: in other words, very boxy. The floor plan was almost identical to each floor of a tower, though I did have a few balconies as well as lovely gazebo-type thing I built on the roof (unfortunately I do not have any sshots of that design ). I longed for more space--mostly so that I could customize my home even more. My in-game father found me a nice plot that I snatched up for 160k (not bad given the economy of things two+ years ago). Now with my current plot (something like 14x17 or so?) I am still craving more space. I realize that often, less is more in house design, and I have seen some lovely garden spaces incorporated into house plots. I'm not sure that I'm so interested in that per se, given that I am not fond of "cramped" housing designs.. I like open areas within the house. I also really don't want to move.. I've fallen in love with my location, it really is beautiful (minus the annoying reapers that grow in my front yard on occasion).

*deep breath* Sorry that was so long winded. That was all last night, and now! The great news is, last night, on a whim, I tried one last time to reactivate my old account (b. Oct 97) and it actually WORKED! Thanks to whoever invented email forwarding, I reforwarded emails from my old university account late last year and it actually forwarded my 10 year old password to me! Woohoo! So now do I not only have my original chars back *cry* (oh, memories!) I can build a whole new plot! I'll probably rework this one as well, just because it'll be nice to have something new and different.

Here's the current house:

First Floor:

Second Floor:

Third Floor:

And my favorite spot in the house, my patio overlooking the ocean:

What I'm looking for is this:
1. What specific elements of my current design do you like?
2. What specific elements do you not like? Personally, I like the idea of my "serious treasure room" (no frills), but it never turned out just like I wanted it to, probably because it is too small.
3. What examples do you have of tower-like designs (similar floor plans, not necessarily tile-wise)? I've seen a ton--I troll these boards constantly. But each time I do, I see something new, so show me what you've got!
4. Finally, does anyone know of a 18x18 (or close) plot on Baja? Tram side please, a couple of my girls are pretty wimpy and I don't want to have to worry about having to build a super-secure building.

Sorry for the endless babbling, I guess that's what happens when you troll a forum for two years without saying a thing :X Also, I'd like to say that you are all fabulously talented people! My most pleasing times in UO these days are stumbling upon beautifully decorated houses, and half of them aren't even as well done as the ones that you've built. Bravo!

 

[Kaj]

Your last 2 images do not work, alas.

 

[Skylark SP]

Your last 2 images do not work, alas.

Probably exceeded bandwidth allotment for the time period.

Looking forward to when we can see the rest.

-Skylark

 

[zorrah]

Hm.. never had a problem with Flickr doing that. Weird.. they should work now..?

 

[Sarsmi]

1. I like the house balance. The rooms are all well sized, you have mixed things up a bit and everything seems to be fairly accessible without being too crowded or too open.

2. I think you need to redo your window placement to account for the position of paintings/furniture. Instead of having them evenly placed on each floor in the same place as the other floors, take into account what will be going in front of or next to them and fit them in with what you have going on.

3. I don't have anything right now, but I'd suggest visiting some asian shards as the houses there have a tendancy to be smaller and you'll find more examples of tower type houses there than on american shards where big ol 18x18 boxes are predominant.

4. There are quite a few 18x18 malas or tram spots available on Baja I'm sure, but I haven't camped idocs in months to know where any spots are specifically. I can take a look later (probably tomorrow) if you'd like.

 

[zorrah]

Thanks, Sarsmi I had issues with my windows when building and redesigned many times before I got frustrated and gave up. They're still annoying to me, almost two years later. I'll definitely keep it in mind when rebuilding.

And thanks for the ideas as far as looking at asian shards. Don't worry about looking around for me, I'd hate to have someone doing my dirty work for me I've been looking, was just curious if anyone had any immediately in mind.

Thanks again!

 

[Surindur]

I like tower designs and play with them all the time. What I do these days is, start with a smallish one room building, usually off center and call it a guard post. Then I'll add onto it what I think would get added over time if it were really lived in, like a smithy, captains quarters, stables, barracks, etc. Then I'll imagine that some Lord came along and decided to turn it into a working fortress. What sort of defensive changes might he make, and add those. Then for whatever reason it was abbandoned until some mage like myself came along and decided to renovate it into their new home. So with trying to save the structural integrity of the building in mind, I'll carve out living and work spaces into whatever's left.

Sometimes it works.. sometimes it doesn't. I have fun with it though.

 

[Faerunner]

I love love love your patio! It is perfectly done and looks great imho. Same with the flower boxes; using the lilies and bulrushes in them is something I had not seen/thought of, but it works out very well!

I think my least favorite part of the house is the 2nd floor... something just doesn't "fit" right about it. Maybe it's the floors? I know that I managed to make my house much more likeable just by switching up the wall and floor tiles and moving the stairs a little. It's amazing what a few small changes will do. I'd second Sarsmi's idea of going out and looking at real designs, including doing walkthroughs or poking at deco that you find interesting to make sure it'll work in your house (pictures only get you so far and you may realize you love running through your house at top speed but the design you chose is full of little nooks and crannies and hard to run through, or something similarly shallow but really annoying over time). Also, feel free to beg/borrow/steal ideas here I've found several that I liked, and am working on giving them my own personal touch. So far, it's been a great way to go about my house designs.

 

[zorrah]

Surindur and Faerunner.. thank you!

Surindur--you just got my brain working five million miles an hour. I've got a wonderfully awesome plan in mind now. We'll see if it actually works! :X

Faerunner.. you're so right. There's little bits of each floor that irk me slightly, and I can never put my finger quite on it.. but there's something in particular about the second floor that is just out of order. Crafting has always been my true love in UO, throughout the years, and so whenever I've owned a home I've always felt a strong need to have it be a focal point of at least a major room if not an entire floor. I think that I'd probably do better to spread the crafting areas out over the entire house..

Combine that with Surindur's idea and I'm pretty sure I'm onto something! Now to just find a plot that's big enough to make my hairbrained scheme a reality.. *semi-crazed laugh*

 

[Zodiac19]

I like the tub/spa area on the third floor. First time i've seen something like that.