New home

I'm now close to finishing one of the consequences of the recent changes here at Raven Park. Because Miss Vila wouldn't be in world much any more it was decided that it didn't make sense for us to leave our house out on Raven Park. It was (and still is) a magnificent build, one that Miss Vila made from scratch to serve her own needs. We did consider leaving it out for me to use myself but, really, it was far too large for just me. So, with much reluctance, it was taken in last Friday.

I considered a few different replacements (including chopping up the existing build to make something smaller, or building something for myself) but I kept coming back to a building that's been a big part of my life in SL: the Woolman Sky-Store.

This build was first used at the first proper Z&A main store (as in, non-mall location shop) and went on to be my home when I moved out of Stonehaven Village and into Elf Fala (first as a skybox when I originally made that move and then down on the ground when we turned the sim into an adult sim and renamed it Shackles).

As much as I'm going to miss Miss Vila's home, it is nice to see this build back out on the sim (albeit in a slightly updated and even more wonderful v1.3 incarnation).

One of the nice things with the new version of the build is that it comes with alternate tops and a couple of these have doors which open out onto a balcony. With the addition of some steps that I built this turns it into a home that I can actually walk in and out of (previous versions had no doors so I used to use TP pads).

After sorting out most of the landscaping and building around the house (including a sim crash which rolled back a good two hours of work that needed to be done again) I'm starting to get it furnished. I've got the start of a sitting area:

and, of course, I've got my office mostly back again:

There's still a lot to do, with more furnishing to take place, but I'm taking my time over it. I imagine that BDSM equipment will feature less in the house itself this time (unlike last time, where every floor had some toys on it), but I have made sure that there's some space for some equipment should it be needed. This door, tucked down the side of the house, goes somewhere...

One other thing I need to look out for is some nice on-theme patio furniture. The view from the balcony isn't too bad, even if I have to look over Zardia's new house. ;-)

Yes, that is a tree you can see up at her place. Don't ask... Let's just say that's the last time I buy her a bonsai tree.