Hi chaotizitaet This page is devoted to all you ever wanted to know about my neohome. (Which means: Classic Neohome, since it was started before 2.0 and I simply love the classic far more, thinking it provides more potential for creativity.) So in case you are not interested in my rant about building rooms, furnishing them, loving them, altering them over and falling once more in love with them, this is the moment where you should leave this page. Or are you simply interested in a clickable guided tour through the neohome without reading about the story behind the rooms? No problem, just move to jeshele's page. ___ Still here? So: Welcome and hello! Here you can read all about my staggering beginnings on the broad field of neohoming, the improvement over time and see the detailed outcome of the various rooms and gardens as I am going to put up pictures of each room once I deem it finished. (This of course is no guarantee that I won't change my mind and make it all over, but then you'll be able to read about the changes anyway.) ___ One more thing before I start my neohome-story: My neohome is designed to be exactly this, a home. Therefore don't expect anything too fancy, like ice-cream parlours or skating rinks or indoor pools… Mostly it was the feeling of comfort that guided me, but with a bunch of crazy pets belonging to my rather crazy self, this did not always work out and sometimes I was seized with a fit of megalomania… ___ The Beginning Learning about Neohomes The Library The Study The 2nd Floor Landing Tankanoien's Bathroom jeshele's Bedroom The Entryway The Neohomemuse Laboratory jeshele's Bathroom Species' Bedroom Species' Bathroom Ruediger's Bedroom Shed'n'Arbour ___ ___ ___ The Beginning ___ ___ I think one of the first things I did after registering here at Neopets was to apply for a plot of land on which to build a neohome. For of course, Tankanoien, my first Neopet, had to live somewhere other than under a bridge… Back then I didn't know much about available furniture, how to place it in the rooms at different angles, the possibility to change the background colour of a garden or the different backgrounds of the different locations themselves. Not to mention the possibilities of the different room-building materials. So no surprise, both location and main building-material of my neohome were solely a matter of NPs, but I quite like my address, therefore I was never tempted to move. And as for nearly all rooms being made of wood - well, I consider them a challenge now. ^^ ___ Anyhow, I deem myself rather lucky, that from the beginning I had taken into consideration, that the exits should correspond with the adjoining rooms. This saved me a lot of troubles later, for I have to own, that I built my neohome mostly based on intuition rather than drawing a good (and maybe creative) plan first. So all in all, I think a total number of five rooms that had to be rebuilt in order for some additional exits is not too bad. (And most of these were only rebuilt after I finished the library for good… the library being the reason for the other rooms to be rebuilt… but about that later.) ___ back ___ ___ Learning about Neohomes ___ With the exception where I was entranced by the wish of owning a Draik, neohoming was always my greatest pleasure at Neopets, and all the games played were only the means of earning the neopoints I needed for furniture. It was only after I applied for the Neohome-Spotlight the first time (only to be rejected because of some empty rooms… and let me assure you, adding a Tooth Faerie Poster in each empty bathroom didn't help convince TNT *g*) that I googled the net for inspiration and found some marvellous petpages… And it was then that I learned that neohoming wasn't restricted to the furniture available but that I could assemble any kind of furniture from other pieces of furniture if only I was creative, patient or knew someone else who had already assembled something alike which I could adjust. ___ Loving books and wanting my second neopet Species - the same one, who generously gave up his personal page for my neohome-rant - to have a real library (from the beginning I had named one of the ground-floor-rooms that way) I was enthralled when I came upon The Bookshelf-Tutorial. From that moment on, Draik and Library nearly equalled in my priority and only the resolution never to touch the NPs saved at the bank for the Draik-project kept me from perhaps regretting my love for neohoming. Therefore the library was only finished after I was finally able to catch up with the soaring prices for Draik-morphing-potions at approximately 3 million NPs. ___ back ___ ___ The Library (G,1,1 - finished July 2007) ___ As I already started telling you about my library, I might as well go on. I wanted my library to look both classy and comfy, which is why I decided to make the shelves out of Royal Oak Wood Cabinets. A total of 124 were needed - just to give you a number. (There even have been times, when I almost automatically typed 'royal oak wood cabinet' when visiting the shop wizard, even when I was looking for something completely different. ^.~ And these cabinets remain up until today one of my favourite furniture-building-materials…) ___ I had nearly finished lining the walls with the bookshelves and was already on the lookout for inspiration of how to assemble the kind of chairs I had in mind (dark green wingback chairs to be correct), when the antique green chair and sofa were released. A perfect match! So with the last shelf being finished, I headed to the bank, withdrew a large amount of NPs and did the final library-shopping… Chairs, sofa, lamps, rugs, plants, decoration… At the end my first room that I pronounced completed furnished 288 items (not that I was aware of the number though, for I only looked it up the day I started this petpage *g*). For minutes I simply stared at the screen in awe when I saw the concretised picture: ___ ___ Maybe it is nothing too special, considering that bookshelves are common knowledge among neohomers, but still it is my library and even more so the library I wanted, emanating the peace and comfort I had hoped to give to that room. ___ And the peaceful feeling led to my rebuilding four rooms, because in the original layout one had to pass through the library from the entryway in order to reach any other room unless one entered the house from the kitchen. Also the study could only be reached through the library. All in all way too much traffic for such a quiet room. Therefore, though you can still pass through the library in order to reach the other rooms, you can now also reach the study via the dining room and pass right on to the sitting room from the entryway. ___ back ___ ___ The Study (G,1,0 - finished Sept. 17th 2007) ___ After having completed the library I decided to start neohoming for real, furnishing one room after the other patiently and thereby perhaps winning the Neohome-Spotlight one day, but more so enjoy myself and simply create a home where I love every room and am proud of it. (Okay, Spotlight is no longer possible, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself and love my home. ^.^) ___ The first three descriptions of my neohome I wrote just in case that I was tempted to apply for the spotlight again before actually having a chance to win (I guess I simply loved writing about my neohome as much as working on its improvement) stated the study to be a room not worth entering. You were told that it only contained a few scattered dust-covered desks as my neopets were far too busy playing or going on adventures to spend any time in such a room as a study. (As I have no screenshot of this room the way it looked before I began working on it, you just have to imagine it; being rather bare, with a funky blue and orange desk + matching chair, a marble desk + royal throne, placed at no particular angle and two windows.) ___ But with my newly revived vigour, I could no longer stand this neglected state. And actually, with a shop of our own where to sell chocolates and odds and ends, there was use for a study. If only to keep the shop-records straight and write shopping lists for restocking. Besides writing letters once in a while or reading the Neopian Times without being interrupted. Again royal oak wood cabinets proved to be indispensable, when it came to make shelves for the folders containing the business-papers. Less colourful than the books at the library, but with the addition of a small safe where to place the shop-till in the evening. But as both, the business-area complete with the desk and the corner for the Times-reading, only took up a comparably small part of the room, I decided to give this room a kind of special flair by placing all kinds of souvenirs brought home from various trips around Neopia on display. ___ Though most likely this study is far from being remarkable, it is at least a vast improvement compared with the not-worth-entering-beware-of-the-dust state (or if you prefer numbers, then it is from 6 to 67 items furnishing this room): ___ ___ (I even added a framed Neopian Times that announces my winning the Neohome-Spotlight, just in case. Well, that would have to be on a side account where I have a 2.0 now ^.~ ) ___ back ___ ___ The 2nd Floor Landing (F2,2,1 - finished Oct. 4th 2007) ___ If you expected the next room finished to be again on the ground floor you might have been right, had not inspiration suddenly seized me with the idea of a billiard-table, while visiting Sept. 14th 2007 Neohome-Spotlight. I don't know why it was that particular spotlight, anyhow, the idea was there, so I went straight to Secret's two museums to search for furniture I might use for that purpose. (Btw, eternal thanks to you, Secret, for providing this extraordinary furniture catalogue.) It was rather thrilling for me as I had never before seen anyone else having a billiard-table at their home. (By now I know that quite few homes have some of varying types, e.g. Oct. 5th 2007 Neohome Spotlight has one, but well, I finished the room beforehand, so still all mine *g*) It was the first piece of furniture that was completely up to my own creativity. But thanks to all the tutorials and all the understanding about furniture-assembling gained from various pages and spotlights, and some neopoints sitting in my bank account, that I had saved just for such an occasion, I managed to have this table in nearly no time. And once again, I was to use my favourite furniture, the royal oak wood cabinet. *g* Now my pets and all friends are able to play Neo-Pool-Billiard, an alteration of classical pool-billiard. So why not grab a cue from the wall next to the entrance to jeshele's bedroom, read the rules and mark down the winnings on the chalkboard? Or simply sit and watch the game? ___ As for the billiard-table being located in the 2nd-Floor landing, well, that was mere chance as I needed a free room to try out the idea, but once I had managed assembling it, I saw no reason to move it. Especially as all other rooms already had a designated purpose that did not go along with the addition of a billiard-table. Plus it saved me from the necessity to come up with something else and likewise interesting with which to furnish the landing instead. So now the only thing you have to imagine is that this room has a skylight (attempting to make it visible with windows of any kind would of course have been ridiculous) and there you go: ___ ___ When starting this room, I had no clue, how many further decisions for the other rooms I would be making. Not only that I had to choose the stairs leading up to the landing, which of course influences the 1st Floor Landing, but the cue-rack led to my having the idea, that I could perhaps announce the occupants of the adjoining rooms with posters of each pet's favourite location of Neopia. And thereby give a hint of what inspired at least part of the respective rooms. So besides fixing on at least five items for the 1st floor landing I was also laying the foundation of my pets' future rooms more distinct than I had before in my thoughts. So maybe it was not too bad at all to move to the 2nd floor instead of proceeding on the ground floor. ^.~ ___ back ___ ___ Tankanoien's Bathroom (F1,1,2 - finished Oct. 28th 2007 – redone Sept. 2008) ___ It was while looking for a possible floor covering for the 2nd floor landing, that I came up with a marvellous idea for tiling a floor in a dark green pattern. It did not fit the landing, but immediately I had the idea for a jungle-/forest-inspired bathroom. Which seemed the prefect solution for Tankanoien's rooms, as my first Neopet didn't want to part with the idea of a starry bedroom, yet had decided it liked the Mystery Island best to announce her domain. In fact this tiling-idea proved so tempting that while it was not the first tiling-idea I had in mind, it was the one that simply had to be done first. So off I went… ___ Over time this bathroom-project proved to be quite challenging and at the end a little frustrating. One of the things that I had to learn was what happens, when one tries high-speed tiling: prices go up! So for any other tiling project I will make sure to have another room to work on at the same time, so that I can keep prices at a tolerable level by buying at least half of the needed tiles from the original shops instead of user-shops. Another thing I learnt was that though tiling and wallpapering may be time-consuming and a little hard to do, making vines (or 'vining' as I call it) is just as difficult as well. ___ But of course there were good things happening, too, while I worked on this room. For when I had almost finished the floor, I decided to join the neohome-talk on the neoboard featuring a lot of the users, whose homes I already had toured, by asking how many items one needed to turn a room into a browser-killer. (Because of course I wanted people to be able to visit my home and see all the rooms.) The answer of approximately 300 made me forgo the idea of wallpapering the room as well, but then again, the wall-paper-idea I had in mind didn't fit the tiling anyway. I eventually stayed on the board, which proved to be one of the best ideas I had along that project, because with the help of other neohomers problems were solved much faster than I would have if I had to do it all by myself. (Well there are not really any problems existing with neohoming, only challenges waiting for answers.) A big special thanks at this point to Eeuk for accidentally giving me the idea of the vining and for suggesting the icy furniture for the window, so this is the finished bathroom: ___ ___ Thanks to TNT deciding to re-size and re-do the Geraptiku Centerpiece, which I used for the vines, I was forced to work on the wall decoration. Luckily they decided to re-do the valentine centerpiece as well, so in combination with the Geraptiku Centerpieces arranged in a new way, I was able to 'repair' the room in a bit more flowery style but none the less pretty, as I think. So this is how it looks now: ___ ___ (As for the question of browser-killing, well, with more than 320 items I certainly did that for dear old IE. Oh, and guess what: It is the first room finished without any royal oak wood cabinet. *g*) ___ back ___ ___ jeshele's Bedroom (F2,1,1 - finished Nov. 20th 2007) ___ I had known for some time that once I got my draik I would have to give him a proper suite of rooms so that he could develop a personality and tell me how to furnish them. Till then all my pets resided on the first floor, Ruediger sleeping in whichever of his sibling's rooms he wanted to. It was when I did the second floor landing that I decided it was time for some moving in my home, so Species exchanged his rooms for jeshele's while my ruki decided to join Ruediger on the second floor. Only Tankanoien got to stay in her rooms, which was very good, as her bathroom was next my muse wanted to work on (as can be read above). I was in the middle of vining (aka lurking in the furniture shop, hoping that the centrepieces get restocked and then placing them in the bathroom), when jeshele suddenly piped up and told me that she wanted a desert-1001-arabian-nights themed room. Well, I had already known that she was heading for Lost Desert in some way or another (being a ruki), but now she had some concrete plans, so I just went along. ___ Of course a desert-room must have a sandy floor, which (other than having the room built with sand) is easiest to be achieved by tiling with straw. Usually people tend to say that tiling with straw is easy-peasy and quite dull, but mix different straw-items and give it a nice pattern and it is not so dull. And in my case it proved to be rather tricky, not because of the pattern, but because I built the white canopy-tent for the sleeping-dais first and the tiles just wouldn't go under it the way I wanted it. *g* So for the future I will most likely tile first (as long as the tiles are not too expensive) and then start the furnishing. ___ One of the first ideas I had for this room (the first being the canopy-tent-thing) was a photo-wallpaper (or mural as some call it) showing the pyramids of the Lost Desert. It was my first try at wallpapering, but it turned out pretty much the way I had envisioned it. The shrine was eventually added so as not to have a plain blue wall. ___ Now with a sitting-area for apple-tea-drinking and a chest for jeshele's things added (special thanks to seraph for suggesting the elegant bookcase for the chest and the ona water bottles for tea glasses) I deem this room finished: ___ ___ (At least that is what the room looks like when it is quite tidied up. Just leave it to a pet and it will eventually end up in a mess ^.^) ___ back ___ ___ The Entryway (G,1,2 - finished Dec. 10th 2007) ___ The Entryway was one of those rooms that I had wanted to work on for quite some time as I deemed it essential to have this room done in order for a proper neohome-tour, no matter how many finished rooms the home has. However, I had no clue what to do with the room, especially as many classic entrance-ideas would not go with my idea for this neohome, like a fountain of some kind or some stairways. The stairs were to go in the central room and as for a fountain, I stated earlier that I designed my home to be a mostly normal home and therefore a fountain would be way too fancy. ___ It was while discussing alternatives for this room on the NEOHOME/PNT-board, that my muse suddenly got struck with the idea of including a small Guest-WC in the Entryway. I was immediately thrilled, especially as a WC meant tiling and I love tiling! Though if it hadn't been for AAA's latest Game Challenge, I might not have been able to finish this project so soon. But with the buiscuit jars being suddenly available in abundance, having 100 to tile the WC with was no problem. I eventually included a shower, as the other bathroom-furniture I needed for the room took up comparably little space. ___ Again I had a hard time deciding on the colors and items I wanted for the remaining Entryway, but after I finally settled with a combination of yellow and green for some rugs, the rest was done in no time, so here we go: ___ ___ (Oh, and guess what: I was to use my beloved Royal Oak Wood Cabinet again. ^___^) ___ back ___ ___ The Neohomemuse Laboratory (F1,0,4 - finished Jan. 4th 2008 – redone October 2008) ___ This room was probably the room which changed its purpose the most often. Back when I built it, I intended to have a stargazing room like the one Cytherea had, hence the room material for once not being wood. Not really creative… And after having toured a few more neohomes, only to find, that there were already a lot of rooms attempting to recreate this stargazing room in varying degrees, the creativity factor sunk even lower. Not wanting to be one of the copying-crowd, I decided to use this room as something else. For some time, while I worked on the adventure-page of Tankanoien, I thought I might turn it into a spaceship, in which my Grundo could take the bunch of pets to Kreludor and the Space Station, as either is the origin of Grundos. But well, Species is a Neopian Grundo, whom I got from the pound and he has no memories of living any place other than Neopia. A fact which manifested itself most dominantly in his wish to become a Pirate Grundo. (A wish granted by the Fountain Faerie.) So I aborted the second plan as well. It was then, that my muse claimed this room, saying that she'd rather have it as her lab than having me destroy it. (Something I really considered.) So her lab it was to be. Eventually my muse made me turn her into a Neopet same as I did with myself on one of the side accounts. So, yes, the neohomemuse is officially mine! *g* ___ Always being one to go for crazy ideas, Dec. 10th not only saw my Entryway finished, but had me toying with the crate given out by the advent calendar. So while almost everybody on the NEOHOME-board complained about the seaweed garlands not loading, I set off to prove the usefullness of crates by tiling a section of my attic with them. Eventually I got bored with this tiling project, due to the crates being yellow and therebye not really standing out in a wooden room. But my muse instantly saw that one could really use those crates and insisted that her lab was to be done next, rather than having to wait for this room of inspiration to be turned to till after all other rooms were finished as I had originally planned. ___ So now the room shows the layout of the neohome we are currently working on, telling you exactly which rooms are already done and which it the room that is under construction. It also shows a model of said room (though sometimes the colours don't match, but well, that is what the chalkboard is for, because there my muse writes down the real items needed). And of course I provided my muse with some comfy seats with unimpeded view of the neohome and gardens, one with a desk to take notes and one surrounded by green leaves so as to give a garden-feeling for garden-inspiration. ___ ___ (After TNT decided to give the Geraptiku Centerpiece a new look, this garden-inspiration nook of course needed to be redone, and while the former look was more like the rich foliage of summer, I now opted for a spring like look) ___ ___ (And yes, I know that those are crates! I did use them on purpose. And up until the time TNT decides to fix them, they won't load, so don't try it by constantly relaoding the room. Believe me! ^.~ Also, this room will be constantly changing, being updated as to the status of the rooms and sometimes the model-room will be changed as well... But for this page I decided to use the screenie taken right after the lab was done.) ___ back ___ ___ jeshele's Bathroom (F2,1,0 - finished Oct. 11th 2008) ___ Wohoo! I finally finished this bathroom. Took me long enough, but I was firm this time with my resolution not to wreak havoc on the market (and my bank account), but set myself a limit for the tile price. Unfortunately not everyone shared this opinion, so with prices reaching 8k a piece at times, it took me about seven months, an almost finished neohome on a side-account (though not with the same level of dedication), two or three other rooms started here and a lot of patience to finish the room. The tiling idea is actually the first tiling idea I had while touring some of the other homes, but it was the icicles which finally gave this bathroom its chilly look. Although considering that the adjoining bedroom is desert themed, I think one is very glad to cool down in the bath. Of course the bathroom is fully equipped with hot water, both for the tub and the sink... ___ ___ With 426 items it is so far the room with the most items, though surprisingly it loads better than the jungle bathroom… at least for me… ___ back ___ ___ Species' bedroom (F1,1,1 - finished Oct. 26th 2008) ___ Now, what is a pirate grundo without a pirate bedroom? Definitely not a happy pirate grundo. So no wonder Species, despite being a rather irenic and bookish pet rather than one to go for cutlasses and grappling hooks to board other ships uninvited, insisted on having a pirate-ship themed bedroom. But instead of converting the whole room into a ship, I decided to go for the captain's cabin. Inspired by the rising cabin on the ancient galleon I ended up with having a two level room, the lower part with bed, wardrobe and desk and the higher part with a lovely window seat for Species to read his beloved books undisturbed by his siblings. And since this room was one of those I started working on, while waiting for the price of the icy tiles to drop again, it didn't take long to finish this room in the end: ___ ___ (Though you might not see it, Species sneaked in a wooden trapdoor, so that he has direct access to library – his favourite room in our home – below.) ___ back ___ ___ Species' Bathroom (F1,1,0 - finished Nov 2008) ___ It all started with a Random Contest, where TNT asked us to create a neopets-themed mural. Of course they meant a RL-mural, but since I was working over-time that week, my neopets decided that at least they wanted to have such a mural in their neohome. So a fine Sunday was spent creating a Kelp-mural, which my pets even entered into the contest. Of course we did not win, but it was fun anyway. So much fun, that when I decided to work on Species' bathroom, my Grundo confessed that he wanted to keep the mural. (It had been his future bathroom which had been used for the Random Contest fun entry.) To be sure, he knew about the war between Krawk Island, the pirate location No.1, and Maraqua, but since they are at peace now, Species said he might as well show in his suite of rooms that those two Neopian locations can really co-exist peacefully. So I continued the mural, adding the Maraquan Petpet Shop and the Battledome along with a sandy floor for his mini-pool-giant-bathtub: ___ ___ (As the roof of the Maraquan Petpet Shop was simply too beautiful not to do it, I couldn't resist having the room bleed over the line a bit…) ___ back ___ ___ Ruediger's bedroom (F1,1,0 - finished Dec 2008) ___ By choosing the Shenkuu Team Poster for the 2nd floor landing, Ruediger had already hinted that though his colour is called 'Maraquan' he sees himself as and Asian/Shenkuu Draik. Therefore it is hardly a surprise that he wanted an Asian/Shenkuu style bedroom. This room with it's shedding Japanese Maple tree may look deceptively simple having next to no furniture, but if you take a closer look, you'll see a haiku by Ryu Yotsuya carved into the stone: Tail of a Pacific Saury The sun goes on Making low noises (sanma no o hi wa gasagasa to susumu nari) At times puzzling with those stone items was rather tedious but in the end I think it was worth the effort. And my pets are delighted that Ruediger has agreed that they can use this room also to practice Kendo. ^^ ___ ___ (Huge Thanks to Kagomesirene for helping me find the right Japanese signs for the Haiku.) ___ back ___ ___ Shed'n'Arbour (G,0,4 - finished Jan 2009) ___ After all this precise placement with the haiku my muse insisted on doing some light work as next project. Having done a lot of extra-walls on the side account since the first wall in the entryway, separating the Shed part from the Arbour part was truly simple. Furnishing the Shed part wasn't difficult either. Now, the Arbour part proved to be a tad more challenging, given that it was to house the spiral staircase leading up to the Neohomemuse-Laboratory. Wanting to give the stairs a bit more depth by adding some shadows underneath, I ended up tiling the whole room in a random mosaic. But it was the upcoming St. Valentine's parade that led to my going for a romantic touch, wanting to prove that romance doesn't have to come with pink, red, frills and heart-shaped items. After all, there's nothing as romantic as some candle light, a place to snuggle up with your sweet-heart and perhaps a bit Champagne: ___ ___ ___ back ___ ___ More to come with time and neopoints ^^