Housing Scavenger Hunt 2014 FAQ

Updated 08 April, 2014

Q: May I submit more than one home to the HSH?
A: Not this time around. Last time we had 50 people and over 75 homes in the hunt. We'd like to cap it at 60 people and 60 homes this year. So pick your favorite home and submit it!


Q: Last time, you allowed guild halls in the HSH. Will you allow them this year?
A: That depends on how many submissions we receive. The more homes we receive, the less likely it is that we'll accept guild halls as submissions. You're welcome to request that we include it, but we may decide not to. Currently, it's looking like guild halls will be included.


Q: Do I have to build a new home, or can I use an existing home?
A: You can do either! You have a couple of weeks if you want to build a new one, or you can use one that exists already. It's entirely up to you.


Q: Does my home have to have a specific theme?
A: It does not. Pick your favorite home. It can be anything from a single-person cottage, to a bar, to a castle, to an island of snowglobes... whatever you feel your best work is!


Q: Can I submit a home that I decorated, but that doesn't belong to me?
A: You can, but only if the homeowner doesn't mind. The HSH lasts for a month (to give people the time to figure out riddles and run through the various homes), so the homeowner needs to be willing to allow visitors for that amount of time. Additionally, as you can only submit one home, whether it belongs to you or not, you may prefer to encourage the homeowner to submit the home, and you can then submit one of your own.


Q: By what date do I need to submit my home?
A: Please have all home submissions in by Sunday, April 20th.


Q: If I submit a home, am I still allowed to participate in the scavenger hunt?
A: Yes you are! As long as you promise not to start the scavenger hunt until the hunt begins.


Q: When is the Hunt happening?
A: We're looking at early May. We need time to organize it. I organized it in two weeks last time, and I was practically in tears by the time it was all over. Never again!


Q: Can I submit a home that’s already on the Leaderboards?
A: Yes, but please keep in mind that you will have to pull your house down off the leaderboards in order to place the clue.


Q: Do I have to put my home up on the Leaderboards?
A: It’s preferred! For one, it allows goodies easy access into Neriak. For another, it allows people to vote on your home, to show their appreciation for what you've done!


Q: I’m from another server and I want to rebuild my home on AB. How does it work?
A: Post in this thread, and create a character on Antonia Bayle. We’ll get you in contact with a carpenter who can help you reproduce your item list. You'll need to save a layout of your home so that you can create a manifest of what you’ll need, and so that you can load it once you’re on Antonia Bayle. Please make sure your home doesn't include SC items (unless you’re willing to buy them yourself for your AB home) or too many rare/quested items. Remember, people on AB are going to have to help you obtain your items, so try to make it as easy as possible!


Q: I’m from another server. Can I just build a brand new home on AB?
A: Of course! Feel free to build a completely new home. You have a couple of months! Members both of Homes and Tomes and the larger Antonia Bayle community are just waiting to help you get started with gathering items.


Q: I’m from another server and don’t have any character slots, but I’d like to participate. What should I do?
A: Create a new account, and create a character on AB with that, of course! You can also buy a character slot on the Marketplace and use that. But the new account is free, and the character slot is $10.


Q: The other HSH had a theme--Helping an Erudite Find Her Voice. What's this year's theme?
A: Shhh! It's a secret! (That means we haven't actually figured that out yet...)


Q: Do I have to write the clue?
A: No, that's my job. All you have to do is describe to me where you want the clue to go, and to make sure that I have trustee on the house so that I can place the clue where it will go.


Q: How do I prepare my house for your clue?
A: Leave your house as it is! Just be sure to give me (Jazabelle) trustee to your home, so that the clue can be placed when the time is right.


Q: Where should the clue go?
A: My advice is to pick your favorite spot in the house, and have the clue go there. That way, that spot in your house is sure to receive traffic.


Q: How will you give out prizes?
A: Once a week, prizes will go out to those who have completed the hunt. Prizes will be assigned via a random number generator, and there will be a large assortment of prizes. Your prize will be a surprise!


Q: I want to donate some prizes. What do I do?
A: Send a message to Jazabelle, either via the SOE message boards, in-game mail, or an in-game tell. Include what sorts of items you'd be interested in donating. From there, you'll receive instructions on how to donate items. Please offer only rare or hard to obtain items. No regular Mastercrafted house items, etc!


Q: What happens if I donate a prize and no one receives it?
A: If you donate a prize and it isn't used as a reward, one of two things will happen. Either you'll be sent the prize back, or the prize will be saved and used as a prize for future events run by Homes and Tomes.


Q: So what are the prizes this year?
A: We're still receiving prizes, and will be right up until the event starts. If you want to see what the prize list looks like, you're welcome to click here.

Planning the Housing Scavenger Hunt 2014

Back in February 2011, before the Housing Leaderboards existed, I ran a “Housing Scavenger Hunt” (HSH). For the most part, it was simply an excuse for people to tour homes while following a player run quest by answering riddles.

In a few months, the HSH will be happening again. I've learned a lot from the prior event, and this time, there will be some differences. Homes and Tomes will be hosting this event.

However, for this event to be successful, we will need people to submit their homes. Because Homes and Tomes is on Antonia Bayle, the HSH will take place on Antonia Bayle. But that doesn't stop other servers from participating!

If you are ON Antonia Bayle and you would like to:

• Help people from other servers replicate their homes on AB, please post in this thread.
• Submit a home for the scavenger hunt, please post in this thread. Do not post the character name nor the home address. After posting in this thread, please PM Jazabelle with the name of the character who owns the home and the address of the home, as well as where in the home you would like the clue to be. If you don’t know yet, that’s fine!
• Donate prizes, post here, along with what sorts of prizes you have available for donation.
• Participate in competing in the scavenger hunt--hang tight! It won’t be happening for a few months. This is all planning right now.

If you are NOT on Antonia Bayle and you would like to:

• Submit a home for the scavenger hunt, please post here. We will get you in contact with someone who can help you fulfill your manifest of items for you home.
• Participate in competing in the scavenger hunt--hang tight! It won’t be happening for a few months. This is all planning right now. However, if you want to make a character on AB early, feel free. You’ll need one in order to do the HSH.

If you’re interested in seeing what the prior Housing Scavenger Hunt was like, please click here.



FAQ

Please click here for the FAQ.

The Homes and Tomes Credit Union

The first time prestige houses went on sale, I excitedly purchased several. Unfortunately, one of my purchases was a Personal Dojo, which I'd sworn to never buy--I had selected it while browsing the sale, and forgot to move off of it when I went to purchase the house I actually wanted.

The default dojo.

To my mind, the dojo was much too small for the amount of money SOE was asking for, even at sale price.

But I'd purchased it.

What was I going to do?

I tried a variety of things with the dojo, from a small home to a general store. But nothing quite worked out. The house just wouldn't cooperate with my ideas. The center dividers kept getting in the way, and I couldn't seem to get my mind to see them as anything other than center dividers.

The dojo sat mostly empty for months. Then a chain reaction happened. First, I remodeled the Homes and Tomes guild hall (now outdated--we've moved to a T3 in the Commonlands). Everyone had a 20 item limit for personalizing their office space. As guild leader, I decided that rule didn't apply to me. My office took several hundred items. That was fine for a while.

However, guilds are not static creatures. They grow. And as members moved up in rank, more and more people needed offices. That meant that my several-hundred-item office was taking up space that was needed for other offices. So while everyone else had an office in the hall, I moved my office to a prestige portal which linked to the guild hall. This way, my office would only take one item instead of several hundred, and I could decorate to my heart's content.

Once I'd created my office, the depots, crafting tables, and apprentices that once lived in the Everfrost home I used as an office needed to move somewhere else. Why not the dojo? It was a small space, perfect for housing apprentices, depots, and crafting tables! I just had to think of a theme that would work for the space.

I was standing in the guild hall, staring at our banker and wracking my brains for an idea when it hit me. Homes and Tomes' concept is that of a construction and interior design company. Many companies have their own credit unions. Additionally, the guild had elected to leave our harvest depot public, and to move our rares to a home controlled by the officers. If I put the rares in the credit union... the ideas began to flow.

And so the Homes and Tomes Credit Union was born.

Located on the Leaderboards under Small Homes on Antonia Bayle, "The Homes and Tomes Credit Union."

The teller windows disguising the center divider of the dojo.

As I was building the Credit Union, I looked around and realized the bank was very empty without employees. I thought about using plushies, then realized I had the perfect employees available: tradeskill apprentices. Tradeskill apprentices were another item that I just couldn't seem to work into any of my existing homes. I had originally planned to create a "bunk house" for the apprentices, but moving them into the Credit Union to act as tellers was a perfect solution. Plus, I'd have personal harvest depots available, with the supplies for the apprentice dailies ready and waiting. So I moved my apprentices into the Credit Union (along with the apprentices of a few friends), and wound up with Tellers and Guards. Hooray!

Windows I and II.

Of course, that isn't as much of an issue now that they made the apprentice daily items stack, but when the Credit Union was first created, the items didn't stack (yes, the Credit Union has been mostly done since February. I just didn't have an urge to post it. But then three people in under a week asked me why they couldn't find it on the leaderboards, so I had to clean it up and post it...)

The bank has a suggestion box. Be sure to leave your suggestions!

Having a mailbox in a bank didn't sit right with me. At first I had the mailbox tucked away behind the window in Teller I's area. But I soon realized that I didn't like how hard it was to get to (while the windows are big enough to squeeze through, it's a bit of a hassle having to run and jump every time you want to reach the box). However, while it was back there, I had it sunk into the counter. I realized that it looked a lot like a simple box with the bottom hidden. And a suggestion box seemed like the perfect solution to the mailbox delimma. I could have it in plain sight, yet not have it be a mailbox. (Duh.)

Back of the Credit Union, where the vaults are.

The vaults came about because I hate how the default personal harvest depots look. They're too tinkered. Flipping them and tucking them back so only the trim shows creates a perfect vault door, however.

Each has a plaque overhead detailing what's inside, so that guildies and non-guild individuals depositing items don't accidentally store guild rares in with my personal stash of items. Holiday items are separated out from commons and rares, and Frostfell has its own box.

Closeup of one of the deposit boxes.

The wall of safe deposit boxes used to be a wall of sales crates. Inside, I kept my fuels. Then SOE kindly added personal fuel depots, and the sales crates were no longer necessary.

I firmly believe that sales crates should be easily visible, so I removed them from the wall (they were only holding my fuel anyway, and now I can use them to sell other things!), and replaced them with normal crates.

It makes sense for a bank to have safe deposit boxes, doesn't it?

The signs are Coldain Signs, flipped and sunk.

The safe. AKA the fuel depot.

Speaking of the fuel depot, I had it hidden under the counter behind teller window VII at first. Then I decided that it was too much of a hassle to hop through the window to refill it, so I moved it to the wall and turned it into a safe, complete with key. I'm not particularly happy with the gold frame, but it's functional and matches the rest of the Credit Union.

This was pretty much the only thing I had to complete in order to get the Credit Union ready for publication on the leaderboards. The home has been done for months (aside from the clutter I left sitting around as I used it as a dumping ground to empty out my inventory when necessary, which I cleaned up when I published it).

Windows VI and VII.

I have fond memories of banks from my childhood. My grandfather's house was situated right next to a bank, and my great grandfather and I would walk down to the bank approximately once a week.

My grandmother used to treat her daughters to the complimentary coffee from the bank. So of course, the Credit Union had to have complimentary refreshments in honor of that.

Mmmm refreshments. The coffee is missing (I forgot to put it down).

 I'd meant to have an urn of coffee and cups, but I forgot to put them in before I published. They'll have to be put in after the Credit Union hits the Hall of Fame.

Behind windows VI and VII. Tellers hard at work.

And here's a peek behind the teller windows off to the sides. I made sure to put in a ledge so that the poor Coldain can see over the edge...

That concludes the tour of the miniscule Homes and Tomes Credit Union.

I did make sure to tuck crafting tables under the counter at teller window IV, so that apprentice dailies are easy no matter which side of the counter you're on. Additionally, the Credit Union acts as a portable crafting room for homes I'm working on. I can just plop down a portal to the CU, and easily travel back and forth between a home fully stocked with tables and materials, and the home I'm decorating. The crafting tables are reachable from the zone-in point of the CU, so there's no need to even take a step!

Zhadowsee's Birthday Stables

Yes, I'm still around. Life just caught up with me (I took a trip out to visit Z, and coming home has been an adjustment. Then migraines and other facets of life hit, and gaming took a backburner to everything else). But I'm here now.

Just in time for Zhadowsee's birthday, in fact.

I bought Zhadowsee a mount for his birthday. Meet Compass, the drake. However, it seemed a little cheap of me just to get Z a mount for his birthday. Your birthday is only once a year, and unlike the grandfather clock and sweet note he gave me, I couldn't be sure that he'd like the drake. After all, I'd raved about how much I adore grandfather clocks, and built several in-game before they came out with the station cash one. Plus, the station cash one has a dragon on it! Anyone who's spent a bit of time with me knows that I'm dragon crazy.

Then I decided that I would build him some stables to go with the mount. I've never actually decorated a full house for Z. I've done rooms, partial homes, partially completed homes, but I've never finished anything for him. Part of it is that he likes to decorate on his own. Part of it is that out of the two of us, he's the storyteller. Decorating is telling stories with scenery, but it's a very slow method of storytelling, and I'm better at vingettes than telling a full story. His decorating is more organic--he once did an RP scene for me, in which objects in the house kept moving. He had several layouts, plus what he moved by hand. Depending on what I noticed, what happened next changed. So I've never done a house for him, leaving him to set them up himself.

The first thing I did was to sneak onto his account. Unlike me, Z doesn't have a ton of empty houses waiting for use. He had exactly three houses, and all three of them are already in use.

Well, that was no good for my purposes. I immediately tabbed back to Jazabelle and started touring prestige houses. I knew I wanted the house to be a prestige house, for the portals. The stable was going to connect to his home in Neriak, whether he wanted it to or not!

It was as I was browsing houses that I realized that the Secluded Sanctum has an item count of 800, and costs only 1000 SC! All other 800 item count houses cost 1350 or so. Plus the Secluded Sanctum has a very wide open front room, which was perfect for my purposes.

I added the Secluded Sanctum to Zhadowsee's gift, tabbed back to Zhadowsee, and claimed the house. Then I snagged the mount out of the mail, dumped it in the house, and set Jazabelle trustee. Carefully, I positioned Zhadowsee exactly back where I found him, and logged him out.

Then I feverishly set to work.

The front doors, minus the door frames. Those came later.

I had seven hours to complete the house, not counting the time off I would have to take for food and housework, if I wanted to finish it up before Zhadowsee got home and logged on.

The first step was to build the walls of the stable. The Secluded Sanctum is rotated 22.5 degrees off of the cardinal directions, so I had to figure out how I was going to cover the existing ground in the Sanctum, while keeping to the shape of the stables that I wanted. Luckily, it wasn't too hard. The center pathway of the Sanctum is 12 units wide--exactly the width I wanted the stable's main hallway to be. And with the rotate group around point tool, it was a simple matter to build the stable on a straight East/West axis, then rotate everything around the first tile to line it up to the house. With that figured out, I really got down to business.

Unfortunately, I didn't reach my self-imposed goal of finishing before Zhadowsee got home.

I gave him some very firm instructions. I'd done my best to ensure that he wouldn't be able to find the house, except that I'd gone ahead and dropped a portal into his Neriak house, so that I wouldn't have to do it later. He was very good about not sneaking into the work in progress.

The final view of the stable doors.

Happily, he had plans away from the keyboard (I know you're not supposed to say that about your significant other, but sometimes you just need that privacy to get things done! I didn't want to feel like I was ignoring him in order to finish up his present, so the fact that he had things to do was perfect). So, given another couple of hours to get things done, I went to work even harder!

Originally, I'd set up the stable with 8 stalls. I had five mounts on me that I wouldn't mind missing or were easy to replace (The Gorowyn, Neriak, and Kelethin destriers, the quested Gryphon from DoV, and the Winter Wolf mount). That left two empty stalls--stalls which Zhadowsee could put any of his own spare mounts into.

View from the front of the stable.

I divided the stalls up into meat eaters on one side, grain eaters on the other. Yes, normally that would be a bad idea. Having the poor horses face predators would probably stress the animals unduly. However, this is a fantasy game, and horses stand around calmly next to predators all the time. (I really do put that much thought into layout and position.)

The stable itself was very easy to build, once I'd decided on how I wanted to do it. The stall doors are taller than I'd like, but we don't have any half dividers. If we ever do get half dividers, I'll switch them out and make things a bit more realistic in there. As it is, Zhadowsee's stable has really tall walls.

I built one stall, then duplicated it three times. I'd made sure that the stall was 7.5 units long, so it was a simple matter of moving each new stall 7.5 units further down the line than the stall before it.

Then I took everything I'd made so far, and I mirrored it around the E/W axis. That gave me all eight stalls with minimal work.

Zhadowsee meeting Compass. I'm not sure they like each other.

Unlike my usual method of construction, where I build the structure first, then go through and add in major structural details, then go through for minor structural details, and finally end with putting in decorative details, I built this stable in phases.

I could have allowed Zhadowsee to peek the minute he got home. The structure was up, the mounts were in their stalls, and it looked vaguely stable-like. But for the most part, it was a bunch of empty boxes with mounts standing in them. Not exactly an awesome birthday present. However, I continued that method of decorating, putting in waves of details, both decorative and structural alike (mounts count as decorative. The rails for the doors to slide on are structural details. The rails showed up in phase three or four of decorating. The stops at the ends of the rails showed up in phase six or seven). I didn't know when he'd be getting home--I had an approximate idea of how many hours I'd have, but not a definite one--so I wanted to be sure that the stable would be ready for viewing the instant he got home. I could go in later and add more details. The idea was to give the appropriate impression of a stable, no matter when he walked in.

Compass in his stall. This was before the rail stops were added in.

Zhadowsee showed up after I'd gotten most of the details down that I wanted to. I still hadn't added flavor (like muck in the muck cart), but I had a lot of the little bits in, like the hay for the animals, the food and water bins, and nests for the drake and gryphon. I'd put in a couple of hay bales in the hay bin, but hadn't yet put in the number I wanted. But once again, it gave the impression that I wanted it to.

The tour of the stables started in Zhadowsee's Neriak house. When he logged in, I demanded that he head directly to the house. There, I'd left a book under three roses. Roses are a thing with Jazabelle--stereotypical, I know, but I personally adore roses, and when roleplay took Jazabelle in that direction, I ran with it. I'm the one playing her, after all.

Click it to read it.

So Zhadowsee found a note in his house. In my head, I'd constructed a story for the appearance of the stables and the mount, and I wanted to share it with Zhadowsee. My idea at first had been that I'd do all of this the night before his birthday, and he'd wake up and log in to find himself standing on the note and flowers. That didn't happen--I fell asleep at the computer while planning what I was going to do. But I liked the idea of the note and flowers.

The idea then changed that he'd get home from work, log in, and find the note and flowers. That didn't happen either. But I really wanted that note and those flowers in there! So when he logged in in the evening after doing his AFK things, I'd set down the note and flowers, tweaking the story I was telling him just a tad to fit the series of events better.

The warg's stall. Z dropped this one himself.

It's not really a long scene, and I didn't even need to be there for it. But sometimes it's fun to see what people do when they look at what you've built. So I followed him through the doors and watched him wander around. He had a fun time avoiding the stall with the drake--at the time, the drake's stall was the only stall with an open door, so it was pretty easy to tell which stall was the focus. He stopped at the stall beside the drake's, and pretended that it was the one he was supposed to be looking at. He really is very silly.

But eventually he did walk over to Compass' stall, and we hung out and chatted for a bit. He was happy with what I'd done for him, and had some story ideas already for the space. He seemed especially pleased by the fact that he could fill it with whatever mounts he chose, and that I could easily extend the space by several more stalls if he wanted.

Yep, I really did put muck in the muck cart.

After he went to bed, I did another two phases of decorating. I added another pair of stalls (mostly to test how easy it actually would be to do--quite easy, as it turns out) and fleshed out the details in the rest of the stable. Muck in the muck cart, for example!

The rail stops were also added in at this point, as were the hitching rings for the halters.

We don't have a large selection of rope, so I wound up using the Othmir Hanging Lamp in order to have some sort of rope hanging from the hitching rings.

Hitching rings with rope hanging, waiting to be tied onto a halter or bridle.

Someone needs to clean this horse's stall.

Finally, right before I went to bed, I popped into Zhadowsee's Neriak house and built a connecting door to the stable. Then I moved the note and roses to the step in front of the stable door, and crashed in bed.

The door to the stable. Don't bring mounts into the house!

I'll probably continue to add details as I think of them, and tweak things until they make me happy. Right now, I'm going to go and fix some of the ropes so that they hang better.

Over all, the stables took me under eight hours of decorating to complete, and most of that time was spent crafting items. The decorating itself went incredibly fast. This is, to date, my fastest project ever. Details will change as I think of them, but for now it's good!

If you'd like to see any updated or added screenshots, or any screenshots that I didn't post in this blog, please click here. This will take you to my Facebook album, which has all of the images.

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!

Remodeling Homes and Tomes

On June 3rd, I received a text from a friend that she'd gotten sucked into decorating. On its own, that's not a bad thing. She always swears she doesn't decorate, while I take great delight in proving her wrong. Unfortunately, she sent me the text at 8 AM on a Sunday morning! Now, I don't know about anyone else, but some Sundays, I like to sleep in late. 9 or 10 AM doesn't sound too bad. I also can't operate at anything higher than zombie mode if I don't get at least 8 hours of sleep.

Those are the worst words a carpenter can hear from a friend.

This particular Sunday morning, I'd had 6 hours of sleep. You'd think I'd text back with, "That's nice," and roll over to sleep another two hours. Unfortunately for me, she said the magic words.

I can't stand the thought of friends buying carpenter items off the broker, when I can save them platinum by crafting the items myself. So I found myself shooting out of bed and scrabbling to turn on the computer as fast as I could. I logged in and rushed over to her guild hall.

She and her guild leader were building offices for the officers. Mostly my job consisted of standing around, dispensing advice when asked. I stole control for a moment or two to fix a few things that were bugging me (I like to say I don't have OCD, but I do have OCD tendencies...). After about three hours, they had most of the three offices set up, and I was incredibly hungry.

I was also jealous.

You see, shortly before building blocks were announced--and by shortly, I mean probably about two days before--I started to build offices in Homes and Tomes. At that point, I had my choice of tiles or dividers to work with. I prefer tiles, because they're more versatile. However, they're also very item intensive. I'd started to build our offices, but then building blocks were announced. I stopped. And the guild hall sat there with a torn up room and half built offices for months. And months. And months. My guildies grew tired of the half-finished, torn up section of the hall, but I persisted in leaving it undone.

Then building blocks came out.

And the guild hall sat there unfinished for more months. In this case, I had an excuse (or ten!). I was working on the Cathedral. But after the Cathedral was finished, why didn't I start on the hall? Well, then I had a library to tear up and redo! But shortly after the library's structure was finished (and long before the library's books were shelved), I received that 8 AM text.

My jealousy grew. Those offices looked good. They looked nice. They looked classy. And to be honest, I'd always envisioned the Homes and Tomes guild hall as the corporate headquarters of a company by that name. In fact, that's what I roleplay. Jazabelle owns a company called Homes and Tomes. They specialize in construction and interior design, although they have their fingers in a lot of different pies. So why did I put dorms into the original Homes and Tomes hall? I have no idea. But I did, and when I tore them out, I had a mostly-empty room with the shells of offices.

So I saw what offices built out of building blocks could look like. And I saw how little item count they took, as opposed to my tile-wall offices. By the time I'd finished making myself brunch, I was determined to finish the offices.

The offices on June 4th, a little over 24 hours after I tore up the old offices.

I packed up the old offices and sat down to churn out a bunch of dividers. I started with ten. Then I used those up, and made ten more. I used those up. I made another ten. This went on for a while as I built the structure and played with the layout, trying to figure out the best balance of office space and waiting room.

Luckily, before I could go insane crafting, Poine heard that I'd started a new project, and asked me if she could help with the crafting. She loves crafting. While I don't mind crafting, I hate hate hate repeatedly crafting the same object a hundred times. I happily foisted my crafting off onto her, while I went back to wrestling with my dividers.

I went through several different layouts. At one point, there wasn't a big open area, it was a hall lined with doors. At another point, the area where the stairs are were also offices. But eventually I decided on four small offices (two upstairs, two down), one big office, and a consultation room. I wanted my guildmates to be able to roleplay taking on a job with someone if they wanted to. The offices felt too small for that. A larger consultation room would take care of that. Anyone could use it, and it was large enough that a couple of characters sitting around in there wouldn't feel cramped.

The screenshot shows two signs per door. When I logged out June 3rd, there were actually three signs per door, and the signs were the much-less-rare Qeynos sign. Unfortunately, even at three to an office, when I woke up June 4th, I realized that I'd forgotten some people. We're a small guild, but even we have more than 12 active members. They're almost never on all at once, but they do exist!

Luckily, by the time I logged in on the 4th, Cheribomb, Degaahr, and Thumador were online. They loved the idea of the offices, and were enthusiastic in offering their help. It was at that point that I realized why I love decorating a guild hall for decorators. I didn't have to craft the items!

Degaahr is the one responsible for the partitions in the offices. I'd left them empty, and Degaahr looked around. For those that don't know, Degaahr is played by Hopsalong. She told me, "Degaahr likes his privacy," and immediately dropped a woodworking table in the office. She crafted up a divider and plunked it down in the middle of the room that I'd assigned her to share with Cheribomb.

I liked the idea of the divider, but the three to an office would have been too crowded.

After some consideration, we decided the best bet would be to tear up the crafting room and have offices over there as well. That way, it wouldn't be quite so crowded, and the office theme would carry throughout the hall.

I quickly set my guildmates to the task of crafting the various items I'd need to turn the crafting room into office space. Then I bemoaned my lack of eucalyptus. If I had more eucalyptus, I griped, I could make Neriak signs for the signs by the doors. They would look so much better than the Qeynos ones!

Before I could complain any more, my guildmates flooded me with eucalyptus and Neriak signs. The same thing happened when I realized I was out of Neriak doors, and when I realized I needed more black marble. I always forget that decorating a guild hall doesn't have to be a solo task. My guildmates reminded me of that quite handily! It doesn't matter that I was the one doing the majority of the decorating. They were perfectly happy to help in whatever way they could.

East wing from near the door, with a view of the offices.

Once they'd made everything I'd need to turn the other wing of the hall into more offices, I ...went afk. Yep, I had life to attend to. When I came back much later in the day, I went on to wrestle with the offices in the East wing.

Maebyte and Froggen had logged in while I was offline. Cheribomb, Degaahr, and Thumador all made repeat appearances.

I decided to keep the crafting table. Mostly, that was because when I brought up getting rid of it, the universal response was "Nooooooooooooooooooo!" Even when I informed them that I'd be keeping the crafting function on whatever else I built, I was told that the crafting table was preferred. So I left it alone, and packed up the room around it. Then I put up the offices.

East wing from the back, over by the offices.

The original plan was to mirror the other side exactly. However, there were two problems with that. One, when I mirrored it, there were some glitches due to the fact that the guild hall isn't centered at 0,0, and I acted like it was. (It's actually off by approximately 0.237. Yes, I really did figure out how far it's off by three decimal places. Sometimes those OCD tendencies really shine through.) The second problem was that it just felt cramped having the balcony when the crafting table was there. So I modified the rooms. Instead of four small rooms and two big ones, the East wing has three small rooms. These rooms make up for being in the less pretty section of the hall by having taller ceilings. That was a special request by Cheribomb. She mentioned wanting to build a window in her office.

Lazy NPCs taking a break at the table at the end of the hall in the East wing.

When the new offices and new signs were completed, I erased all room assignments (except my own. No one is allowed to take my office! Well, and the person who RPs a filing clerk, and the other person who RPs as Jazabelle's secretary. They have offices near Jazabelle's.) and informed the guildies that it was first come, first served. Everyone could pick their own offices, but the sooner they picked them, the more likely it was that they'd get the office they wanted.

There was a lot of running around while people tried to choose where they wanted to "bunk." Eventually, it was settled. There are still a couple of people who haven't gotten offices yet, but the majority have theirs.

Degaahr's office. AKA Hopsalong.

Degaahr was one of the first to choose an office. It's definitely creepy, but probably only because I've visited the Ghastly Druid's Den, and so know a little bit of the story behind Degahr/Degaahr.

Degaahr also has some awesome books up on those bookshelves. The books on the desk are all lists of the houses Hopsalong has built over the years. If you've ever wanted to see everything by her, now you can find all the addresses in one location!

Froggen's cool pad.

Maebyte and Froggen chose to share an office. I'm not surprised, as they're good friends, and came from Everfrost to Antonia Bayle together.

Froggen went with a green, swampy theme. Yes, the fan works!

Maebyte's office isn't shown, because she's not done yet. But her office is being done up in reds, and is very elegant (if a bit run down. Also, that coffin is creepy, Maebyte...). The contrast between the green swampy office, and the red elegant but cobwebby office is perfect!

We like to joke that I collect decorators. Gracey created Skitle. Casiphia came from Guk. Twinklin and Cheribomb (who is also known as Dawnstrike on the forums) came to Antonia Bayle to join our decorating community. Blazewolf came from Permafrost. Froggen, Maebyte, Thumador, and Sentheles came from Everfrost (and there are a few more from Everfrost who are inactive at the moment). Pizazz's mains are in another guild, but I stole the second-most important alt--the grotto and cityfest alt! I even have Afista, Aurelis (although she's stopped playing) and Jesdyr alts. And a lot of the people from other servers brought friends!

Ayemia to the left, Veiylin to the right.

Pizazz's alt Ayemia's office flew together fairly quickly. Then he showed the office to Hisvet. Hisvet liked the offices so much, that the guild gained another member. (That, and I collect decorators, remember?) Welcome, Veiylin!

Veiylin and Ayemia have matching offices. It looks to me like Veiylin is Ayemia's secretary, but what do I know?

Veiylin's office is nice and toasty thanks to this custom built fireplace.

Veilyn has an adorable, tongue-in-cheek decorating advice book written by Hisvet on her desk, while Ayemia has a much more serious (and vastly more informative, sorry Hisvet!) book on decorating by Pizazz. Pizazz's book also includes a list of the homes he's decorated.

It's amazing how large their offices feel, considering the space constraints.

Oh yes, and all of this was done with under 20 items per office!

Where's the cheese? Don't touch the gold! DON'T TOUCH THE CHEESE!

Skitle was one of the first people to join the guild. She's the Antonia Bayle alt of Gracey from Crushbone. She and Rakuno were instrumental in helping me get the guild going in the early days. As one of "the originals," she had a bedroom. Displayed there was the first gold Skitle ever earned.

When she heard I was redoing the guild hall (months and months and months ago) and turning the dorm rooms into offices, Gracey requested that her gold be hung on the wall of her office. Gracey, I did as you requested, and put the gold above your desk! All of the items in the room (except the pillows, I donated those) are the original items that Skitle had in her dorm room. Can you find the cheese?

Sentheles' first completed project!

The last of the small offices that have been completed is Sentheles'. He's very new to decorating (in fact, this office marks his first completed project. Go Sentheles!) but already has a good eye. His place is cozy and put together nicely.

We introduced him to the wonders of everseek.com and eq2decorators.com, and he spent quite a while browsing the sites looking for the perfect furniture. Unfortunately, he dislocated his wrist partway through, and then his desk fell apart (in real life). Despite the setbacks, he managed to put together his office. Now that's dedication.

The bookshelf in the back will be filled with books as he writes them. I can't wait! Especially since he's promised me copies for the Library...

Personalized office desk.

Alas, I couldn't buy one of the SC executive desks and use that in my office, so I had to build my own.

One of the perks of being guild leader is that despite forcing everyone else to try and stay under 15 items for their offices, I got to go overboard. The desk itself used 21 items! I do like how it turned out, but could wish it was a bit fancier. I may see about using player-written books to trim the edges or something.

Do you know why I called you in here? *angry Jaz*

If they ever allow SC items in guild halls, that desk will be the first thing to go.

Even if I do look awesome sitting behind it...

The chairs were custom built specifically so that they could be sat upon without causing the character to float. They're a little large, but not ridiculously so. It's just an oversized armchair! The boss gets all sorts of perks, like the super comfy chairs...

Cow butt on the books. Ugh!

Unfortunately, the boss also has to deal with sassy cows like Jadirah defiling her desk with their posteriors! And no, Jadirah doesn't mind being called a cow. It's a running joke with the guild. Froggen is greeted with "Froak!" when she logs in. Jadirah is greeted with "Moo!"...

At about the time I finished up my office, I realized we were much closer to item cap than I'd anticipated. Then again, I hadn't thought about having to build my own desk when I planned how many items each person would be allotted. Pizazz and I ran through the hall, figuring out this or that minute change to bring down the item count. By the time we were done, we'd freed up nearly 50 slots, and the overall look of the hall hadn't really changed.

Jaz and Pizazz resting after shifting the fireplace up.

Our first step was to raise the fireplace to be in line with the rest of the floor. That freed up about nine items. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to raise the ceiling, to make up for the Grandfather clock/fireplace now being 1.5 units higher.

Then we removed the side table with the cup of cocoa and plate of cookies, and replaced them with a map table. That cut down the items by two, while still maintaining the "in use" feel of the area by the fireplace.

The trim on the wainscoting really makes the room.

After further debate, Pizazz suggested lowering the entire front room. In the original hall, the floor was raised up, and it took three steps to reach it. Lowering the hall down so that it only took one step would cut the item count by nearly fifteen. I lowered the floor, but decided to leave the walls and ceiling where they were, effectively raising the ceiling without ever moving it. As I was lowering the floor, I realized the paineel bookcases had a black trim. Earlier in the week, I'd switched out the plain sumac dividers for tall sumac dividers (as well as switching the pretty-but-useless wantia chairs for the not-quite-as-pretty-but-actually-useful wantia end tables to act as stools). I liked the lip-free look of the tall dividers, but it looked unfinished. I realized that if I tweaked the ceiling a little bit, I could use the black trim of the bookcases to trim the edges of the wainscoting!

Not many tomes in Homes and Tomes...

Finally, the fountain in the West wing had to go. To be honest, the fountain was actually removed much earlier on. The seating in the waiting area had twelve sides, to match the fountain. Without the fountain, there didn't need to be so many seats. I cut it down to eight, freeing up yet another eight slots (four pillows, four blocks to act as the bench under the pillows).

Most of us are taking the offices pretty seriously. We're using the guild hall as a centralized location to post a full list of the various homes we've done, as well as homes under construction. I personally spent a couple of hours this evening hunting down old posts and even older screenshots, figuring out what projects I did, when they were completed, who they were for, what address they were at.... you know what? Let me show you instead.

Pages 1 and 2 of the book of homes I've done that are open for tour.

Each house in this book gets its own page. It goes on for pages like this.

Pages 1 and 2 of the book of homes I've done that no longer exist.

Some of the homes do exist, but the homeowners left the game.

Not only did I hunt up old posts, but I transported the post to this blog, so that if SoE ever takes down the forums, I have a record of what I posted. Then I went through and made tinyurls for each one, so I could stick them in the book. Lastly, I added links to the Facebook albums that contain more images that I usually don't wind up posting in the thread on the forums. Things like work in progress shots, or various angles I decide are too redundant, but that might show off details that the posted shots don't.

The good news is, I'm pretty much done with that. I need to make a couple of Facebook albums, and I need to run around taking screenshots of some of the projects to flesh out their albums, but for the most part I discovered that I've done approximately 25 unique houses (many of them for the same homeowners, but a complete overhaul of the house) and 5 minor remodels. That's not counting the projects I'm currently working on. It does count the projects I've put on hold, though. And here I thought I'd only done four or five houses! My brain is apparently stuck back in 2008.

Yep, we even have a directory.

So come on by to Homes and Tomes' guild hall in New Halas. Poke around the offices and see what's going on! There are still some rooms under construction (Offices B1, 1A, 2B1, and 2C1), but the main hall is complete. We'd love to have you. And just maybe you'll see something you like, or you'll browse the list of homes several of us have posted, and it'll remind you of the good ol' days of decorating.

Oh yeah, and fair warning. We'll be hosting an open house once all of the offices under construction are completed. You're all invited!

To see the screenshots I didn't post here (as well as any screenshots I decide to add in the future), click here. This will take you to the facebook album where the majority of these screenshots are stored.