Saturday, October 25, 2008

Spooky Nights & Halloween Frights!

If you can't tell already, Halloween is a HUGE deal in SL. Not only are there cute Halloween freebies everywhere, but the decorations, dance parties, costume contests and haunted houses can quickly fill up your calendar! Don't forget to visit your favorite stores for freebies and discounted costume accessories. RFyre has some gorgeous witch hats and gowns with orange, red and black colors. Sparkle Skye just released a beautiful harvest ball gown at a discounted L$500 price for members. By mixing and matching some of your finds, you can create a unique look. This ensemble is from the two deals mentioned above. By taking off the fairy wings that originally came with the ball gown, adding the witch hat and some jewelry from Alienbear Castle, I created a fancy witch ready to waltz.


Before October 31st passes into ages past, take a group of friends around to a few of the haunted themed Sims. This activity is fun alone, but even more fun with friends. The Sim featured in the following pictures is the Halloween Horror Village in Antiqua Paradise. The place is huge and includes various areas dedicated to horror movies and tales of fright. Many different pose balls can be found to make the adventure even more rewarding. The various death scripts are quite comical, including the guillotine, coffins and being eaten by a giant spider. Rumor has it that Freddie Kruger even lurks in a hidden chamber.












Another great place for a hauntingly good time is the House of Horror at Paradise City. Wandering through the house will allow you to encounter a haunted dance lounge and trap doors to various places hard to get out of....fun place to lose your friends! From there you should try to catch a ride on the Love Bugg Pumpkin on Lovers Lagoon which seats four people and sends you through a haunted house ala amusement park ride complete with scary clowns. This one is unique, but on Saturday night, the place was crowded and the extreme lag made the ride slow down until it crashed. If you go on a week night, I'm sure the ride would be better.



Speaking of tales of fright, don't forget libraries...seriously! Most of them are hosting scary storytelling sessions that feature classic literature, like this recent reading of Bram Stoker's Dracula held at the West of Ireland Library and Cultural Center. These sessions are held in voice by some very talented people, many with RL theatre backgrounds....so it's well worth the visit!
My advice.....there are so many events, you should invest in more than one costume...you'll need them!
Happy Haunting!
Sif

Saturday, October 11, 2008

House Hunting Part III - Renting Land

When the concept of rezzing my own house on land came to my attention, I immediately thought I had to upgrade to a premium account and purchase the land. However, when I began to search the land sales listings, only a small percentage were actually for sale. The rest of the "land sale" listings were actually rentals offered in the guise of land purchase. If you truly purchase land, you do need a premium account and have to pay monthly tier fees to Linden if you purchase anything over the allotted 512 square feet size - which is, in reality, a tiny parcel. Then, if you get tired of your parcel, you have to continue to pay the tier fees until you sell the land to someone else. Based on the sheer volume of small land parcels available in SL, selling a parcel could take months, unless you spend more fees for classified ads to attract buyers.

Then there is the problem of neighbors. You may find the most beautiful parcel of land imaginable, but a few months or weeks after rezzing your new house, you suddenly have new neighbors who build something ghastly or distracting to your guests. Then what happens? If you've purchased the land, you have to sell it to move - and good luck selling with weird builds next door. Or, as in my case, you like to change your home with your mood. I had a beach house during the summer, and a Tuscan home in the fall. This type of change is only practical if you rent the land.

If you do want to take the plunge into actual land purchase, examine the land covenant in the "about land" section when right clicking directly on the land. The land covenant will let you know what type of building is allowed. This is VERY important! Some land covenants are very open and allow almost any type of build, which is tricky as explained above. Other covenants are very restricted which detail the size of your build based on parcel size, and how close to the property line you can rez, or what style of house allowed. In my experience, for sustained re-sale value, the more restricted in the area of style, the better the overall atmosphere remains. Just because you purchase the land, does not mean you own the entire sim, so you will want to see how many prims are allowed on your particular parcel - not all land prims are the same - some sims are more generous than others when it comes to prim allowance - and don't forget to look at the prim level of the house you are going to rez!

If you decide the rent the land, you usually have the same privileges as a true purchaser, but retain the freedom to vacate as the mood hits you. Of course, renting the land might be a little bit more expensive, but not very much, so it's definitely an option worth considering.

So, if you are happy with your previously rented little space, why would you want to build your own house? For me, visiting a prefab home showroom once had me quickly hooked. Once I was made aware of the existence of these large stores, my lovely little rented house suddenly seemed inadequate. The wonderful thing about these supercenters of architecture is the ability to tour each home at leisure.

The sheer variety of homes available is staggering, although the majority of homes available in SL are contemporary in design....not only because this design is popular, but also because it is an easier design to build. Some of the contemporary designs are simply stunning due to high levels of textural quality. My preference lies in homes that closely resemble RL architecture, but the sky is literally the limit in SL when it comes to designing homes. Besides elaborate skybox houses that float high above the land, any other kind of imagined architecture can be found. Fantasy houses, such as treehouses or castles, are also very popular depending on the land you choose to build on.

Matching your house to the land is probably the first major element you should consider when toying with the idea of building or rezzing your own home. If you want a ski lodge, don't rez one on beach front property....and besides, the land covenant probably would not let this happen anyway. But, once you are ready, simply visit the potential parcel just as you did when shopping for a home rental, and pay the weekly rental box in the same manner. Once your resident group is activated, you are ready to get rezzing!

Here are a few of my favorite prefab stores:

Barnesworth Anubis Pre-Fabulous Homes and Furniture: Barnesworth is probably my favorite place for nice solid homes with great detail. However, much of the details used in Barnesworth's designs are not photographic details, but beautiful subtle shading in each prim. Designs also include very nice moulding touches with walls that are not paper thin. Stairs are also real stairs and not one prim ramps with stair textures.

Satir DeCuir's Houses Homes Prefabs: A nice favorite for historical and ancient designs. Satir specializes in cabins, farmhouses, ancient roman villas and moroccan designs. Again, great detail with walls that are think enough to keep your outside plants outside.




Fire and Water: Absolutely gorgeous prefabs in the fantasy style. The details are stunning with thick walls and the floor plans are open with courtyards and fountains. Well worth the visit to see what SL talent just waits to be experienced. The furniture store is also a great find!




Villas on Villa Prefab Houses: A fairly new designer that only offers about eight villas in two design styles. The walls here are very thin, but the wide open spaces inside with beautiful photographic textures make this a must-see for those thinking about a Parisian or Tuscan villa. Each villa also comes with a wine cellar. Prims are low, but the villas are a bit pricey. There is a treasure hunt always going on to allow winners the choice of their favorite villa as a prize....but this means a lot of visitors and quite a bit of lag.

Enjoy,
Sif

 


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