Posts

Latest Post

The Lookout

Image
The Lookout Address:  2 Highburg Road. Barlond. Rivendell Homesteads. Prelude:  There were a number of different houses released within the Rivendell neighborhood. There seemed to be a house for everyone whether it was someone who wanted privacy or a view of the Misty Mountains. When you consider there are only two small houses within my price range and one of them having a vantage point higher than all the others, there spurred an idea to create a small outpost. A number of decorations came from the newest sets on the seasonal barterer, the additions to the reputational barters, the barterers from the Kintai in the Harad regions, and the various floral arrangements that came from a previous kinship theme.  Outside Overhead:  Mobile yard hooks are generally seen as a rarity outside the Erebor neighborhood. The developers chose that all houses in the Rivendell neighborhood should have them. This allows you to lift up bridges and things on top of platforms. Though...
Read more

The Boneyard

Image
  The Boneyard Address:  12 Wyrmhoard Bridge. Kikun-Zahar. Erebor Homesteads. Prelude:  When the Erebor neighborhoods were released, there was a certain amount of excitement when it came to the introduction of mobile hooks. While the smallest house might have only had one enormous yard slot, moving things into the air seemed to be an excellent edition to the housing system. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much that can be done when a number of huge decorations were being tied to the ground. I originally set the place up with all my snowy and stone decorations, but my brother felt that was too unrealistic or impractical. So this time around, I broke out the ice and went for a more dragon-style approach.  Outside Dragon Fight:  To fit the theme of dwarves, the outside was converted into a battlefield. There are three of the newest small dragon skulls from  Ill Omens , two large skulls from the  Reward Track , one huge one from the barterer, and the Bo...
Read more

Dark House

Image
  Dark House Address:  4 Brookbank Street. Loghallow. Shire Homestead Prelude:  There are a number of dark and spooky decorations out there that stand out from the rest. They are usually black, scary, and not quite the type that you would fit with the standard variety of landscape with nice flowers and parties. The original deluxe house that hosted these items didn't seem enough to contain them all. That's why I decided to purchase a kinhouse to lay them all this time around. Although there are quite a few that are hard to obtain in raids like  Isengard  and  Remmorchant,  the developers did manage to offer quite a bit through other sources such has the Reward Track and the Mordor barterer. Outside Chaos:  The greenhouse decorations were probably the most annoying to figure out. The smaller version of the two does not permit you to walk inside. So, instead of sticking the larger one outside, I decided to play with the concept of a mutated tree bre...
Read more

Harad Kinhouse

Image
Prelude Address: Tol Lochul, Siramon. Belfalas Homestead.    Update:  It wasn't too long ago that the kinhouse was set with a Tropical Theme  in place. This had to be redone shortly after the transfers to the 64-bit servers. With the  Song of Waves and Wind  Epic concluding, there was an enormous set of decorations made available through  Corsairs of Umbar ,  Legacy of Morgoth , and  Kingdoms of Harad  expansions. There was a lot of experimentation on what would work inside and out of the island. Update 48  reduced some decorations that only fit huge yard slots to any yard slot. Though they still could not be placed in furniture slots, they can fit into any yard slots that might be available inside. They also  added light slots to Belfalas neighborhoods  and fences to Rohan neighborhoods. This changed my approach. Outside Crafting Center:  None of the functional decorations themselves have changed from year to year. ...
Read more