Over the last few months Zan and I have moved home – primarily to downsize to a more affordable situation. We went from a homestead to half a homestead – it seemed at the time such a mammoth move, starting afresh, choosing new homes and landscaping what land we had.
Before we did anything with the land we both decided to hunt down a new home. Take your time over this, as everything else you do afterwards really depends on what style of home you choose. Check the market place under “Buildings and other structures” then select “residential structures”. Please do go and visit the inworld stores – I cant suggest this enough ! Pretty photos on the market place give you an IDEA of what a build is like, but seeing it in world is totally different. Think about the land impact, and what that leaves you to decorate the interior of the home and landscape the surrounding area.
If you are renting a chunk of land, you can edit the terrain but you may not be able to alter the terrain textures – we’ve found that “land forms” as shown above can be really useful. Zan has these from HMPD (not listed in their MP but in the inworld store) Also Alex Bader of studio-skye does some amazing mesh terrain, rocks, cliffs etc to totally transform your land and add character that a blank chunk of land just does not have. I’m pretty old school and I like to play with editing the land, shaping it, lifting it etc. The most useful tool I have for this is the “Land leveller”, basically its a wooden rectangle that you move around and the land follows – if you’d like a copy just drop me a note!
Once you have decided where to place your home you can then landscape around it. Zan and I have been in SL for a lifetime so over the years we have accumulated a LOT of stuff. We have our favourite designers for plants & trees, rocks, furniture etc and I will list a few below if you’d like to check them out. The key thing is not to rush and buy a ton of items, try and let it evolve and change – you might be surprised with what you come up with ! When I started in SL everything was tiki and beach based!
I’ve just scrapped everything on my side ! Both of us love love love to change homes and I was lured by the Dome home by Rebourne, its been out for a while but I had a hankering for it when it was released. It can be sky or land based, luckily for me Zan agreed to landscape around my new home – looks amazing ! Dont be nervous about editing the shape of your land, add a beach, add hills and fields, cut the plain shape up to create meadows and gardens. We have used a lot more open water between our homes, takes up no prims. Add a few waves et voila !
A short list of places we both love to spend lindens at:
HPMD – land forms & trees
Studio-skye – all types of landscaping
Dench Designs – furniture
3D – Trees and plants
Bazar – furniture
Hisa – homes
Salome Designs – ancient style homes
Trompe L’oeil – Homes
Muniick
Real Waves by Antreas Alter
Rebourne Homes
