-Bellisserians Show Off Your Home and Garden-

[Frigga Freidman]

Some inspiration for Newbrookes and maybe other themes: https://www.themodernhouse.com/journal/top-ten-home-interiors-2022/

[Mercedes Avon]

MERRY STILT-MAS!

 

[Nika Talaj]

My alt Litta needed a new home, so I decided to try the new Knot Shore houseboat model.  A single-story shed-like building with a cute balcony in back, it seems very like most RL houseboats to me.  I added a small top deck.  This is my "beautiful abandon" parcel in Kuga.  A great locale, with enough destinations nearby that you can often shout AHOY to passing mariners!

Welcome to her new home!  You can see in this pic that this model has a lot of windows facing into the boat next door.  The door itself has a lot of glass, and there's another double window (not shown) to the right of it.  Generally this would cause me to choose another model, but none of the new ones are well suited to this parcel.  HOWEVER.  I just don't feel like hopping lately, so I decided to somehow compensate.  Interestingly, altho Knot Shore gives the impression of being small, it's just as large as the older models. Btw, the kite in the distance is tied to the back balcony and actually swoops in the wind.  It's so cool!

I really love the little balcony on this model, probably because of the little lattice entry on the side.  The room inside is the bedroom; it's very airy with a lot of window space looking out onto the balcony, as well as a window on each side.

Knot Shore has 3 rooms.  I was surprised at the spacious feel of the front room, the windows are fabulous!  I tried for a peaceful, modern feel here (great excuse for a lazy decorator like myself!).  Because the boats on this pier are staggered, the window to the right looks out to the beach & lighthouse, not the neighbor's boat, from most angles. The space heaters on either side of the big window keep it cozy.

The other end of the room has a kitchenette.  In the hall on the left, you can see what I did to block off the double window; I built a very slender aquarium!  It's not a static view; the kelp waves around, the fish swim back and forth, even the starfish squirm a little.  Nika spent quite a bit of time sitting on the parson's bench there making it!  It looks like an aquarium from the outside too, which was surprisingly easy to do.

There's no place to hide the laundry in a little houseboat, so it goes in the bathroom! (Probably most people would opt to use this largish room as a bedroom).  And once you decide to use a tub that looks like a boat in drydock, you're pretty much committed to a cheery nautical look.  Hey, if you have to do ironing, it's nice to at least have a cheery place to do it.  Litta generally leaves the bathroom door open, because it's neat being able to watch the aquarium while soaking.

Because the bedroom is so airy, Litta decided she needed a canopy on the bed.  She also loves to exercise, so I made her a ballet barre.  She also uses Chez Moi's wonderful Mandala yoga mat, which offers tai chi and calisthenics (with weights!) as well.

At the end of a long day, she likes to go for a swim off the mole's beach.  Then watch the lighthouse for a while before bed with Nika's dog Flycan,  Flycan, of course, spends the time watching his food bowl.

[BJoyful]

@Nika Talaj  I LOVE that new model and you have made it so attractive!  Is the little upper deck an add-on?  If it is...it's perfect !That last nighttime picture is the perfect spot for sea air with a nightcap!  🥰

[Nika Talaj]

Thank you!  Yes, I cobbled the upper deck together using prims and spare parts.  I'm not going to bother to mesh it in Blender, which I find a complete PIA.  I wonder what the simplest 3D modeling software for SL is, for people who just want to make house parts?  Stop by if you want to take a look, the door's always open!  Take a look at the aquarium while you're there, I love making things that are actually amusing

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuga/177/154/22

[Matthieu Quander]

28 minutes ago, Nika Talaj said:

I wonder what the simplest 3D modeling software for SL is, for people who just want to make house parts? 

I have not made the time to properly learn Blender, and likely never will.  I build my add-ons from prims, and then use Mesh Generator to convert them to mesh. 

It isn't perfect or cheap, and because I am a relative mesh novice, I run into a lot of problems when complex items need to have physical properties (walkable surfaces, impassable walls, passable doorways, etc.).  Still, it does a really decent job reducing LI and keeping the textures properly scaled.  

[BJoyful]

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

I wonder what the simplest 3D modeling software for SL is, for people who just want to make house parts? 

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Celzium-00-v02-Inworld-Mesh-Creation-Tool-the-cube-edition-by-Cel-Edman/3375430

This is an ideal place to start as it will make you a single cube (all one face, though)  for free!  It has excellent instructions and if you have any problems you can send a notecard to the Creator @Cel Edman or IM me anytime if you think there's anything I can help with. 

You can use this just as you would a regular prim stretching but no torturing.  You can upload up to 8 faces and up to 200+/- max individual prims to make a single mesh object. 

I only know how to make flat sides  no L shapes... only because I don't know how to make them non-physical except by using phantom (defeats the purpose of a railing or a floor!)  so the items have tried as L shape have some sort of invisible wedge of physics inside the corner of all my L shapes.   I just make and upload my flat sides separately and upload them usually at 0.5 LI per flat side and some have been pretty ornate and linked, 4 sides usually make 2 LI (approx).

I also shift/drag a copy of my pre-uploaded project and test the textures to make sure they look okay, or can be fiddled with to look okay.  Be careful to delete any extra or discarded bits as the Generate button will include any scrap bits it can detect in the area.

Hope this helps @Nika Talaj 🤩 

[Blush Bravin]

10 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

I wonder what the simplest 3D modeling software for SL is, for people who just want to make house parts?

I've used Mesh Studio for years. Though when bento came out, and I wanted to be able to rig the rings I had been making using Mesh Studio, I had no choice but to learn Blender. I am really happy that I had such motivation because I never would have put the effort into learning Blender otherwise. All that said, I still use Mesh Studio often. I love building with regular prims. I thoroughly enjoy manipulating prims, in world,  and creating something I've imagined in my head. So I use both. When it's really important that the mesh be "clean", I'll open up the file in Blender and clean it up and make my LODs manually. 

I've not had any experience with Mesh Generator, but I believe they are comparable. I'd encourage you to try one of them if you love building with prims but want lower LI for your projects.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Blush Bravin

[Eleanor Anderton]

21 hours ago, Nika Talaj said:

Thank you!  Yes, I cobbled the upper deck together using prims and spare parts.  I'm not going to bother to mesh it in Blender, which I find a complete PIA.  I wonder what the simplest 3D modeling software for SL is, for people who just want to make house parts?  Stop by if you want to take a look, the door's always open!  Take a look at the aquarium while you're there, I love making things that are actually amusing

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuga/177/154/22

Lovely home! I enjoyed my visit last evening. Having your bedroom by the front deck was a great idea (which I didn't think about when I was looking over the houseboat models). The aquarium is giving me ideas for my houseboat windows, too. Thank you, Nika.

[Matthieu Quander]

13 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

I've used Mesh Studio for years. Though when bento came out, and I wanted to be able to rig the rings I had been making using Mesh Studio, I had no choice but to learn Blender. I am really happy that I had such motivation because I never would have put the effort into learning Blender otherwise. All that said, I still use Mesh Studio often. I love building with regular prims. I thoroughly enjoy manipulating prims, in world,  and creating something I've imagined in my head. So I use both. When it's really important that the mesh be "clean", I'll open up the file in Blender and clean it up and make my LODs manually. 

I've not had any experience with Mesh Generator, but I believe they are comparable. I'd encourage you to try one of them if you love building with prims but want lower LI for your projects.

I tried Mesh Studio for a bit, but found that that it was not as good at reducing LI.  In my experience, it was no different than manually exporting a collada file and reuploading as mesh, which generally reduced LI by half from what the prims were using.  I was probably not using it correctly, but the time to learn all of this more extensively just isn't there for me.    

[Blush Bravin]

49 minutes ago, Matthieu Quander said:

I tried Mesh Studio for a bit, but found that that it was not as good at reducing LI.  In my experience, it was no different than manually exporting a collada file and reuploading as mesh, which generally reduced LI by half from what the prims were using.  I was probably not using it correctly, but the time to learn all of this more extensively just isn't there for me.    

I took a class for Mesh Studio at Builders' Brewery before buying the tool. There are definitely tricks to using it. But it can have issues when it comes to LODs. It doesn't matter all that much for objects that won't be seen from a distance, but for those things like add-ons it can be a problem. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Blush Bravin

[Maitimo]

I just landed a trailer in the most amazing location ever. I've literaly got water on 3 sides.  I will definitely be staying here a while.

[Marianne Little]

I have not been feeling well lately, so the interior will have to wait. I found out I needed something to cheer me up, so I got a month premium just to see what I got. I wanted to try the new boat models, I like them much more than the old ones.

This isn't so bad. It's not Kuga, and no lighthouse, but no neighbor on the sides. And I can use one of my favorite boats and look out over the sand.

I really like that I have no boat close up to my windows. I have 144 m draw distance in the picture under here, and it looks like open sea. I usually do not have more than 120 m.

I have to increase to 160 to see a second row of boats. And I find them much more charming at a distance. It does not feel like I am built in.

I saw Nika had built a roof terrace. I found out I have to change mine a bit, so I don't copy hers 100%. 😉

I have used Cube Rows from OPQ builder's supplies for the railing posts. This is very good when I want to save Li. I bought all, then I experiment with stretching and resizing. The railing itself is a texture I bought very cheap on the marketplace. I can not find the seller again, I guess he closed and left SL. From a distance, it is better LOD with texture on a prim, instead of railings packs I have bought. If I zoom very close, a mesh 3D railing look better. But I do not think it is worth it, if it fall apart when I zoom out.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/products/search?utf8=✓&search[category_id]=&search[maturity_level]=GMA&search[keywords]=cube+row

 

 

 

 

[Nika Talaj]

I like your parcel!  So much privacy, and I see you have a mole beach nearby too   I actually prefer having something to look at rather than open water ... boats at 160 are perfect. 

20 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

This isn't so bad. It's not Kuga, and no lighthouse, but no neighbor on the sides. And I can use one of my favorite boats and look out over the sand.

...

I have to increase to 160 to see a second row of boats. And I find them much more charming at a distance. It does not feel like I am built in.

...

I have used Cube Rows from OPQ builder's supplies for the railing posts. This is very good when I want to save Li. I bought all, then I experiment with stretching and resizing. The railing itself is a texture I bought very cheap on the marketplace. I can not find the seller again, I guess he closed and left SL.

Very clean lines on your cantilevered deck, me likee.  But the railings are a texture?  Do you mean they are a sculptie, or are they older prim railings, or?  The surface texture on your wood looks perfect, with the weathering on the edges.  I wish I could find a surface esterior railing texture that would match the moles' better.  I looked at Insight's white wood pack, but didn't see anything on the ad that looked good.  Might have to do some vignetting in GIMP myself, horrors!

[Marianne Little]

I learned a new word today, "cantilever". 😃

Yes, it's vignette to darken the edges of the white wood. The downside is that even if I have a 256 x 1024 sized texture, it can not be stretched super long, before the short ends start to look bad. So i had to repeat it on the long side, you can see the "seam" at the ridge. The highest part of the roof is the ridge?

I don't remember what wood I used, was it white wood from the Victorians pack? Or the Stilts? I layered it with a texture I found on the internet too. I think it was from Freepik. I am not good at naming and sorting the textures I find, so it is lots of them saved on different computers and laptops I have used, and uploaded to SL with different names I used for them.

I am disorganized when I do things like this. It shall all happen fast, I don't take time to stop, sort in folders and name things. It is a weakness, but I am not running a business, thank god.

It is flat prims between the posts. They run the full length of the sides. It is alpha set to masking, so it looks very real at a distance. I tried to give it a little bit thickness, so it's not paper thin. But it is much thinner than a 3D prim railing, of course. It is most noticeable on the rails. I am thinking I could add new prims as the top and bottom rail, to give it more fullness.

I tried to fly away from the houseboat, to see how good the prims work. And they are visible as long as the boat is visible.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Marianne Little

[Maitimo]

I got my little trailer looking nice.

 

[Risk Nebula]

Hope it's okay to share here - I was lucky enough to get a Newbrooke right next to a rail station, so I've opened a little coffee shop in my home! There's some games in the backroom, outdoor seating, and also, uh, multiple cats. (Listen, I always need to have cats). Come visit, and please sign the guestbook if you do! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Some Pig/148/137/22

[Frigga Freidman]

With my first couple of attempts to decorate a Newbrooke house I tried to go with a pared down minimalist look. It just didn't feel like 'me', though I managed to complete a Denver 512 that worked as an Air BnB bland box. Having released my Log home with the intention of downgrading that alt's account in May, I picked up another Newbrooke back in January, was fortunate enough to land a parcel with a hilly outcrop out to the side so a Denver's porch wouldn't be looking at a fence or another house, and now am thoroughly enamored with it. So, here is an illustration of how Newbrookes don't need to be dominated by concrete. Everything outside the house (excluding furniture on the porch) totals 97 LI - a good 45 LI more than I've ever used previously. (House interior photos to follow.) 

 

Monday update: No broadband or wifi so the rest of the photos from inside later this week, fingers crossed.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Frigga Freidman

[Mercedes Avon]

It has been a while since I tinkered with any Linden Homes. I am back and this time I picked up a chalet with the ticket system. I found a fantastic spot and I can see being happy with this location for a while.

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Mercedes Avon

[Leora Greenwood]

On 5/7/2023 at 4:04 PM, Frigga Freidman said:

With my first couple of attempts to decorate a Newbrooke house I tried to go with a pared down minimalist look. It just didn't feel like 'me', though I managed to complete a Denver 512 that worked as an Air BnB bland box. Having released my Log home with the intention of downgrading that alt's account in May, I picked up another Newbrooke back in January, was fortunate enough to land a parcel with a hilly outcrop out to the side so a Denver's porch wouldn't be looking at a fence or another house, and now am thoroughly enamored with it. So, here is an illustration of how Newbrookes don't need to be dominated by concrete. Everything outside the house (excluding furniture on the porch) totals 97 LI - a good 45 LI more than I've ever used previously. (House interior photos to follow.) 

 

Monday update: No broadband or wifi so the rest of the photos from inside later this week, fingers crossed.

I don't know how I missed these stunning photos when you posted them!  I love your garden mural, it is so lovely and expansive.

[Frigga Freidman]

3 hours ago, Leora Greenwood said:

I don't know how I missed these stunning photos when you posted them!  I love your garden mural, it is so lovely and expansive.

Thanks - all credit to David Hockney for the mural - the original is something like 8 ft x 3 ft, so not far removed from the space it occupies at the back of the house!

[Frigga Freidman]

More from my Newbrooke Denver. (For comparison, my pared back 512 parcel version is here: https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/482347-life-in-a-512/?do=findComment&comment=2436012) The interior layout is the same as in my earlier house and the total LI used is 338. (I could save another 6 LI or so if I could link items of mine with some owned by an alt.)

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Frigga Freidman

[Frigga Freidman]

Newbrooke Denver bathroom and bedroom

[Frigga Freidman]

As with my other homes, I find that there are a few particular items that give me an inordinate amount of joy. Zaker's Celine chairs are based on the Breuer/Ceska cantilever chairs (which I'm currently sitting on in my RL dining room). The cutting board with potatoes and colander with grapes are from Your Dreams and the veg crate and tomatoes are from Nutmeg. Last, and probably my favorite purchase of the last 6 months, is the birdfeeding station from THS.

[Leora Greenwood]

@Frigga Freidman You should know by now that I will need to know where those lovely wallpapers are from and also the built-ins in your kitchen!!  Please, please?