Kinhouse - Arboretum

Belfalas Island - Tol Lochu, Saerath Belfalas Homesteads

Music: Dale Theme, 'The Great Wedding' Themes, 'Vales of Anduin' Theme, 'Before the Shadow Epic' Themes - Part 1

Outside

The housing consolidation did more than allow more leeway to what decorations could be placed where at your house. They also extended the reach of all the slots. The ingredient crates could be placed closer to the yard and things originally restricted to the border could now be placed along the main path. This meant the Culumalda Tree could come closer to the front door and the Maypole could be placed in the break in the fence line.
There were some extensive experimentation with what could be placed in the two primary enormous yard slots by the crafting center. The greenhouse made the area too cramped and complicated things with your camera. I thought about doing something with the Smaug bones until I spotted the recent addition of the Memorial Great Greenway Rock in the list on the website. The item is grand enough to be seen from the crafting hub but doesn't overwhelm the area like one of the towers. Players can have fun climbing up it and enjoy the beauty of the new spring trees.
In exchange for the awkward basalt, the new Lyndelby housing items like the wooden gazebo and barn would be a nice neutral addition next to the ~~boulder~~ rock.
Unfortunately, there wasn't a single person in the kinship that had a spare Dapper Snow Dummy to match with the Training Snow Brawler. While we did have two of them available, some players might have gotten tired of the flurry fun text of the snowman. In this case, a regular Training Dummy was placed against the new Arnorian wall.
Quite a few familiar decorations will occupy the slots to the other side of the island with some new trees from the Spring Festival. While I initially tried putting beside the road and then in the middle of the road, ultimately their presence obscured your vision of the decorations down the hill. Instead, there came an idea to add them around the dragon statue. I'll have you be the judge on this new collaboration.
Behind the enormous statue rests a very small elvish corner. Nothing properly fit inside the building and there was a lot of empty space to cover.
If you had to pick one enormous decoration to fill that last spot, what would it be? As much as I would have approved of the Beacon of Gondor, people really have admiration for the extravagant Tower of Orthanc. The subtle alchemist greenhouse can be entered in to see an old willow growing next to an empty garden bed. This theme also carries into one of the rooms inside the house.
Not many people go beyond the main path but there are a few statues and knick-knacks in the far reaches of the island.

Inside

The entrance to the kinhouse was perhaps the only thing that stayed the same throughout the whole process. Learning how to lower flowerbeds into the ground to remove the base brilliantly blended with the beech leaves ground. The fountains and glass panels were also a perfect match. Although I did peruse different kinds of things to place in the dead-center of the entire entryway, the elvish flower was the only one that felt right.
What to place outside your peripheral was a bit more difficult to handle. The chest and coat rack came way later in the process and placing the extra Anvil wall weapons only happened after completing my Erebor house.
The dry leaves flooring sparked some inspiration as a sort of war-torn land, wasteland, or "dead zone" that could be populated with darker elements. While the alchemist workshop was easy to place upon the wall, carefully arranging the alchemist bench with the Unwelcome Mat didn't come until laying down the pipeweed and wheat fields. There was a chicken, miniature siege tower, and a couple of other items that needed to be pulled. Instead, the cave-claw and lumber were better decorations to place on the outskirts of the area.
For the longest time, there was no direction in how to position the more greener side of the house. First I placed the willows in the smaller sections but they felt overly cramped. I then tried to add some more trees. Since the room originally had some pet cats napping, why not place the animal homes in a field of flowers? Although initially the concept of hiding a door behind the willow tress was supposed to pay homage to Narnia, there were still a couple of dwarf chests still sitting in my inventory. That's when the idea of creating a frozen chamber and a stone chamber came to life.
Of course, moving things around left a slight problem. We still needed to add the four teleporting kegs somewhere. At first, adding them inside a building outside felt really awesome but it would take a total of five slots to make happen. So instead, tucking them into a self-contained room seemed like a better decision. I also had one of the Lyndelby ladders resting against the tree but the light made it near impossible to see it.
The room just below the stairs took the longest time to get right. It started with a shrub that led to a couple of bushes. Then there was the fish pond and Nanu's hiding place that needed to go somewhere. Let's not forget the Fox Among Flowers decoration that had to go in the middle. As you can tell, things had to be moved around about a dozen times before finally taking shape.
The apple trees were actually placed very early in the process. While I knew there had to be some form of food items, there used to be more apple carts and food stands in the room. The pumpkin used to be sitting over by Samwise downstairs since it made sense for a gardener to be in the hidden alcove. Unfortunately, there was just not enough room for everything down there. The chest and the mushroom was also moved upstairs in the main chamber.
There is a bit of irony of how everything came together under the sunlight. I had brought a number of trees to cycle through into the cycle but had no idea how awesome the Cyprus tree will fit with the framework. Then as I plopped decorations randomly into several spots, the brazier accidentally appeared in the very spot you see now within the tree's bark.
Surprisingly, the elvish statue was not added until a couple of my other houses were complete. My goal was to place a few statues around the area but I had no idea how perfect it would be in the selected first spot behind the tree. There was no order of things placed in the other areas. Most of the decorations were in the remaining 200 occupying my character's inventory space.