Tag: My SL

Yep…I’ve moved. Again.

Santos Isle, the last home location was comfortable, but suffered in two major respects: it was east facing (and I prefer sunsets to sunrises) and the sim itself suffered from the arrival of a *huge* Ozimal bunny farm and a skyhome rental business, both of which impacted the sim – and our privacy – in various adverse ways. Still, when you are opting to live on a unzoned sim, you have to take some of the rough with the smooth.

The new sim is also unzoned, so carries with it some of the same risks inherent with Santos Isle- but its scores in that the parcel is west-facing, and the sim has fewer parcels overall, the majority of which are well-settled.

A third benefit is that the sim is not themed as a sandy tropical island. For me this is important because for a while now I’ve wanted to do something different in terms of living space, and sandy islands, nice though they are, don’t fit the bill environment-wise.

In this latter regard, I have to admit to being influenced by two things: my love for and of Sri Lanka, where a lot of the architecture – particularly as designed by the late Geoffrey Bowa – blends beautifully with the environment (and in some cases works with the environment) – and also the home of my very close friend Ari.

Even so, getting something built at the new place was harder than I’d expected – as several friends are aware. Normally when I have an idea for a place it’s move in, build, settle. No this time: after moving on a Sunday, it was not until the following Wednesday night that I finally got things sorted to a point where I feel comfortable with the new home; in between lay close to 20 builds that were started and abandoned as I tried to make what I had in mind fit the irregular shape of the new parcel.

The new layout features a couple of houses – one for myself, one for Kelly and Vina – and this time I’ve been able to work in some other features I’ve missed recently from other homes in SL – notably a pool area and a “dance floor”.

The houses are an identical build – possibly the first development of an idea I still have in the back of my mind and have yet to achieve – and draw heavily on the aforementioned influences from both Sri Lanka and Ari’s own home, from which I’ve borrowed the same basic concept, and very much hope she won’t mind me doing so; this is the first build I’ve made in SL that is so clearly drawn from the work of another builder.

The house is a simple split-level affair, built back into a hill, with the emphasis on blending with the surroundings. Finished in natural woods and more earthy colours and draped with vines, the house has an open aspect lounge area with a staircase leading to a galleried bedroom. Windows are entirely absent from the build, leaving it open to the  wooded surroundings, which I hope – as with Ari’s design from which this is drawn, gives an entirely natural feel – albeit one with more “traditional” living than her own outstanding build, which draws nature directly into the house itself.

The Sri Lankan influence is present in that many hotels and houses there have similar areas that are both open to the surrounding environs, while maintaining a high level of comfort for those using them – and I was hard-pushed not to include a “traditional” Sri Lankan-style open shower area that I’ve enjoyed in places such as the Deer Park and Saman Villas.

A more obvious Sri Lankan influence – or more correctly, a small homage to Geoffrey Bowa  – is in the “infinity”-style swimming pool I added to the west edge of the land. I first encountered such a pool at the magnificent Kandalama Hotel, near Dambulla in February 2000; and quickly learned that such pools  – whether for swimming or as ornamental focal points – are a trademark feature of Bowa designs across the island. It’s always something I’ve wanted to re-create in-world, if only on a personal level, and I’ve rather pleased with the way this particular pool turned out…

Alongside the pool, set back into the treeline, is something else I’ve missed from recent SL homes: a modest dance area. Comprising a flat rock, with lanterns hanging from overhead branches, and spacing hopefully suited to camming, this is a part of the new home that I very much hope will see a lot of use in the future; a place for friends to come and socialise, dance and / or relax around the pool.

While it didn’t turn out entirely as I’d planned, the new place is very much “home” now – the balance of openness an, natural appearance and privacy seems to be about right. I’m certainly very happy with how things have (eventually) turned out, and I very much hope that those who had to endure four days of me  bashing my head on the desk and being “too busy” for much else will equally enjoy the results of my growling….

The last month and a bit have seen considerable changes in my Second Life; the end of a 3-three year relationship / friendship; much fiddle-farting around with i-Squared, partly due to the upcoming release of the SL Marketplace (which I’m actually beginning to like, despite the dearth of certain key functionality…); and a general amount of to-ing and fro-ing.

Most of all, though, it has (again) seen me swapping houses and living style. Three times!

The first change came about as a result of feeling that the Caprican house I’d put up to replace “Fallingwater” was a just a little bit on the large side for beach front living, so I set about trying to put together something a little more modest and which had a better “fit” for my beach location.

The result was the start of what I call the “Lion’s Gate” range: a 2-room single-floor house in something of a Colonial style. After the roominess of the Caprican, however, this was just a tad too far in the other direction, so the single-floor house became something of grand-fronted 2-floor affair.

I have to admit, I’m rather proud of this design, and it brought together several ideas I’ve been playing with of late: a revision of the old (and boring) “window tinting” that allows for “working” blinds on the windows without pushing up prim counts; the use of indirect scripted lighting to achieve an atmospheric  (and hopefully life-like) look to the place at night, and so on.

Lion’s Gate quickly matured into a mini-range of four houses which are now available via i-Squared, hopefully at prices to suit all pockets.

Sadly, no sooner had things settled down in the new house, which was also intended as a merging of tastes between two people; personal matters in SL changed for me, with the result that as much as I liked the house, I knew I needed another change. I just wasn’t sure quite what, although returning to sky living was a strong consideration – but so did living more “on the water”.

Flicking through various WordPress blogs, I finally came across a source of inspiration. This spurred me to design the Water Margin, my first attempt at a “floating house”.

Like the original Lion’s Gate, the Water Margin is a 2-room, single level house, with the two rooms linked by a 10m hallway. Like the house that inspired it, it includes a large open deck area where I can entertain and enjoy my sunsets, and it again incorporates window and lighting ideas refined in the Lion’s Gate range.

I have to admit, living on water is a little odd, but at least in SL I don’t have to worry about rough seas. And as it started out as something specifically for *me*, I’ve already grown very fond of the new place.

I’ve no plans to make any further changes; so long as I have a lot of water around me, the new house will remain undisturbed – and I’m blessed in having a sunken parcel to the south of me that is likely to remain undeveloped as it hosts various bits way up in the sky. Who knows. Maybe I’ll get a little sail boat and try my hand messing about on the water…

Yep…another day, another move!

Well, actually, this happened about two weeks or so ago, but I’ve neglected posting on it until now. Blame it on my toes, shoulder or the stinking rotten cold that refuses the eviction notices I keep sending it in the form of vitamin C pills and Lemsip….

I’ve not actually moved that far, to be honest: just from the north side of QE over to the West. The move was prompted by a number of things:

• I adore sunsets in SL – and having an uninterrupted view over water of them
• Two adjoining parcels became available on the west side of the sim
• I got somewhat fed up with the number of visitors to the skyborne “club” a couple of parcels over who would invariably fall off / out of the club and pancake themselves on the roof of the house….then get booted home by the security system (an event that occurred around 3 times a night on the twice-weekly “party nights”)
• I adore sunsets in SL – and having an uninterrupted view over water of them.

As a part of the move, I played around with the house itself and was somewhat pleased with the results of my tinkering: recouping over 100 prims without losing any of the capabilities the house has (internal lighting system, curtains, etc.). Part of this is down to the new LSL commands allowing me to do things a little more efficiently, and it is something I now plan to carry over to the commercial versions of the house and incorporate into several other builds.

So here we are…and I’ve finally been able to make good on my promise to Kelly, long-time friend and “little sister” in SL and build her a home down on the ground once more (she’s been stuck up in the air ever since I sold Scorpius Myth).

Kelly’s house is a slightly customised version of my Tahoma beach house – a design I’m rather partial to, if I say so myself. More importantly, Kelly likes it, and she’s now got a great ocean-front view alongside of us.

Who could ask for more?

Those who regularly read this blog…assuming they exist….know that for getting on for 2 years, we’ve lived in-world in a house inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater”. True, there was a period after the OpenSpace sim debacle when we switched to an i-Squared skysphere, but we went back to the ground and FW pretty quickly.

Well….all good things come to an end…at least for a time….at some point. so it is that today, Fallingwater vanished from our current land, to be replaced by a house from the i-Squared range: the Caprican Ultimate.

There are many reasons for making the change and packing FW away for now. One of them is simply to get a change in home style. Another is because I’d very much like to bring back the i-Squared showroom and, frankly, I do not trust LL sufficiently to invest in a large parcel of land at  this point in time.

So it is that today I entertained myself making the change. I have to say that, while FW will always remain my favourite house (and will be subject to a complete top-to-bottom rebuild in the New Year), I am very pleased with the way the Caprican houses came out, and the fact that the style of the house fits the theme of our home sim pretty nicely.

Installing the new house required extensive changes to the land itself….FW is designed to overlook water, so I’ve sculpted a large north-facing bay, while Ina had installed a river and one set of falls (in keeping with the house’s name). For the Caprican to fit, the bay and falls had to go, although the size of the parcel means I could sculpt another bay to the immediate west of the house, and so break-up the land into a more natural form.

With a 50x30m footprint, the Caprican is actually bigger than FW in terms of ground space – again, with the front terrace and part of the lounge overhanging water, FW has a surprisingly small footprint, (dry) land-wise, this makes the norther frontage of the property a little more bland compared to how it was, but the installation of a waterfront deck hopefully overcame at least some of this.

One of the things I like about the Caprican (if I say so myself) is the lounge with the sunken seating area. Beyond this is a raised area, which is now the the home to my grand piano, supplied by Persephone Milk, who produces – frankly – the FINEST musical instruments in the whole of SL.

The grand accurately reflects my genuine loves of both the piano and classical music (it has a marvellous selection of loaded pieces). Seriously, if you have any interest in music at all, and wish to have a fabulous concert grand in your home, you should make a point of visiting Musical Alchemy, Persephone’s store.

As well as the grand, the lounge is home to our various business accoutrements, with the added benefit that they are so much more unobtrusive than with FW.

While the Caprican comes with a kitchen, I’ve opted to remove it, and leave the central kitchen area as an entrance hall, featuring one of my all-time favourite SL “paintings”, Kay’s Lair, by the fabulously-talented Rena Sakai.

It’s going to be quite a change living in the new house. Doubtless, FW will return in the future, but for now as 2009 draws to a close, it seems appropriate to mark the start of 2010 with something new in our lives.