Iosabella's Apartment -- Collaboration

In early March, Hopsalong posted an awesome apartment on the Leaderboards. She didn't advertise it much, but she did mention it to me in guild.

Morive's Ruby Sunset Apartment by Hopsalong.

I visited, and immediately demanded that the only other person on my friend's list who was online at the time come see. So Iosabella popped into the apartment with me, and we wandered around, praising the house to each other.

Then Iosabella said, "I could so see Iosabella living here. Maybe not in these colors, but I can see it. Blue, I think. Neriak marble."

So I said to Hopsalong, "My friend really likes your apartment. Would you be willing to let me build an apartment for her, inspired by yours? I would give you credit, of course."

To which Hopsalong replied, "Do you want me to send you the layout?"

I said yes. I figured that since Iosabella just wanted the apartment but in blue, having the layout would make this a 1-2 day job. Have Iosabella gather the materials, replace the red marble with blue in the layout, and load.

Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. While the blue was pretty, it was even darker than the red apartment. A "Sapphire Apartment" sounded neat, but the Neriak marble just didn't work. The two of us looked around. We tapped our fingers and chewed on our lips as we tried material after material for the ceiling, walls, and floor. At this point, I was doing most of the work, with Iosa giving her opinion. She didn't have much experience with housing, and had no experience with the layout editor at all.

Iosabella's Apartment.

Finally, after several days of testing out materials, we decided on the default wood for the wainscoting (just like Hops) and ceiling (not like Hops) in the living room, and the various Drunder tiles as wallpaper throughout. I wound up completely redoing the walls, since Hopsalong had used various scaled tiles to do the walls in the Ruby Sunset, which wouldn't work with the Drunder tiles. The Drunder tiles all had to be the same scale.

I set up the walls in the living room, the stained glass windows in all of the windows, and some of the walls in the kitchen/dining room/bedroom/bathroom. I set up the bathtub in the bathroom, based on Hopsalong's, but with a few tweaks of my own. Then I stopped working on the apartment. I had other projects to do, and because I was doing this "for fun," it wasn't high on my priority list. Iosabella had said that whenever I got it done would be fine with her, since she wasn't expecting it at all. This was my gift to her.

View from the door to the left of Iosabella's apartment.

Of course, she turned around and bought me something off of the Marketplace as a "thank you," so it was sort of a commission, too...

After a while, Iosabella started working on another house of hers. She asked me for some lessons in the layout editor, and I taught her how to panel with tiles. She picked it up quick. A few lessons involving tricks of the trade, and she was tiling floors and walls like a pro. She already has a good eye for arranging furniture.

Art nook and door in Iosabella's Apartment.

Once she'd spent some time on this other house, she came back to the Apartment. She looked around. I'd done barely any work in a month. She asked me if I'd be offended if she moved some things around, since she didn't want to mess up what I'd done. I pointed out that it's her apartment, and she's free to do what she wants with it. If this were a commission, I might be upset that she was touching things when I wasn't done. But this was "just" a house for a friend. So she started moving things around. She looked at how I'd tiled the walls in the living room. She went into the kitchen, with its mostly bare walls. She went back to the living room. She asked me where the Drunder tiles come from. I explained the quest to her. She logged on a level 90 crafter and ran the DoV crafting quests so that she could craft the tiles. She churned out the tiles I'd need for the kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and bathroom, and stuck them in the crate.

Iosabella's kitchen, done by Iosabella. Based on Morive's Apartment.

Then she waited a week.

I didn't do anything.

She waited a few more days.

I didn't do anything.

She went into the kitchen and dining room, and tried to tile them herself. She succeeded. So she went to the bathroom and the bedroom, and did those, too. Then she looked at the half-done kitchen counters, and tried her hand at those. She asked me for advice on counters and colors. She tried out my suggestions and liked them. I came to take a look, and was impressed by what she'd done. I was also a little ashamed, because I'd neglected to continue working on her home. She waved it off, but I insisted on putting in some crown molding in the kitchen and dining room area, to make it look more "finished."

Iosabella's version of Norrathian recessed lighting.

She asked for my help on the ceiling over the window in the kitchen. I tried a few things, but couldn't come up with something we liked. I took a break on it, and went to work on another project. A day later, I received a tell. "I figured it out! I put up a recessed ceiling, and it looks nice! And oooooh, I came up with some really cool recessed lighting! I'm so excited!"

I immediately popped over to take a look. Yep, she'd come up with some really cool recessed lighting. Not only that, but it only took two items per light! You can't beat that for custom built lights. I'm definitely stealing the lighting if I ever need recessed lighting.

I tweaked the wainscoting to match her current ceiling configuration, and helped her fix a few alignment errors. I moved the doors into their door frames for her. She was having trouble with the dining area in the kitchen. The space is small, which makes it difficult to have a dining area and still have space to move around easily. I suggested a dining nook, since that can be shoved into a corner. Plus it's custom built, so roleplayers can sit at the table and roleplay.

Don't mind the angry Iosa on the couch. I asked her to pose!

We decided on a dining nook based on my Tudor Farmhouse's nook, but with leather stitched cushions insead of damask. It came out rather nice, I think.

Then I wandered off to work on my own projects and commissions.

She went to the bathroom and started working on that. She took the tub that I'd modified from Hopsalong, and modified it further. I came to take a look. I loved it. I made a suggestion or two, and helped her to align a few items better, then left her at it again.

Iosabella's tub.

The rest of it is all Iosa. She did the bedroom, and put in the little pieces of furniture. She arranged the knicknacks in the kitchen, and several of the items on the shelves. She's the one who looked around and said, "Yes, my home is finally complete!"

Congratulations, Iosabella, on a home well done. Based on Hopsalong's design it might have been, but you've turned it into your own space. Bravo!

Another view of the bathroom.

Iosa came up with the taps and the drain. I'm definitely stealing those.

What home is complete without a bedroom?
Especially one that has girlish stars pasted on the ceiling!