Elaville House
Part 32 ~ 29 January 2026
Played: 20 May 2025
I've been living in Elaville since day 4 (IRL) of the playthrough. But up until now, I haven't had my own house at the village. There's a few reasons why I've been putting this off. Mostly because I had more fun things to do (see the previous 30 posts), but it's mainly down to two things:
- I didn't know where to put it, and
- Building is NOT my strong suit.
To figure out #1, I took a moment to fly around in Freecam and plan out where I want things to go. (There will be more things eventually.) This house is gonna have a decent footprint, and I want it to have a good view, but I don't want it to get in the way of existing builds. After some consideration, I settled on the southern hillside, just past the brewing setup and directly downhill from the statue.
For #2, I took inspiration from the locals. I came up with a design based on the savanna village houses, with alternating rows of coloured terracotta and acacia logs. The difference is, my house is more expansive, differently coloured (purple, obviously!), and – matching the contour of the hillside – has multiple segments.
After a quick mockup in my Creative Mode world (did I mention I have another world on this seed but in Creative? How do you think I found those gaps in the nether roof?) I purpled up some terracotta and got to work. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking from here, but in general I tried to keep the colours muted and the shape uncluttered, with just a few splashes like glazed terracotta in the entranceways to draw attention. And – very important – I intentionally BROKE SYMMETRY by following the shape of the hill, which led to one wing of the house being longer than the other. Progress pictures, go!
What do you think? :D I'm feeling good about this build so far! Creative building can be really daunting with all the options that the game provides, but I think what helped me keep this manageable was imposing some creative limitations: following the local architecture (acacia wood, terracotta and glass), and fitting the build to the terrain.
Believe it or not though, this was the easy part. It's now time for the true final boss of Minecraft: INTERIOR DESIGN. I have a house – what the heck am I going to put in it? How do I make it look PRETTY?!
The villagers can't save me now. They only know bed, chest, and workstation. I'm gonna have to have to look elsewhere for inspiration. Heck, I might even have to (gasp) come up with something original. No wonder I put this off so long.
Not to be deterred at this stage of the project, I looked around my base for materials and ideas. I had a couple of plans ahead of time, but I also had a few delightful flashes of inspiration as I explored the possibilities of my newly-built space. Here's how I ended up filling out each room.
Right through the entrance you'll find – guess what – the aroace flag! But this time rendered in shiny mineral blocks. I call this the "endgame aroace".
Directly to the right, continuing the theme of my enormous wealth, is the trophy cabinet. This is where I'll be displaying the rarest treasures that this world has to offer. The centrepiece, of course, is the dragon egg, but we've also got mob heads, enchanted apple, recovery compass, and the weirdly rare tall grass and tall fern items that revert to their shorter variants when you collect them as blocks and thus only spawn in village chests. The tall grass is from this very village!
To the east wing now. This is the library and enchanting area, relocated from the coast by the umbrella. Practical but nothing too exciting.
Up the ladder from the library is the zen garden! This is a peaceful little spot where I can come to relax – and admire my collection of every potted plant and plant-adjacent item in the game (32 as of 1.19). Well, apart from the wither rose, which I'm a ways off getting still. While gathering these up, I achieved a hilariously slow "Hot Tourist Destinations" because my nearest crimson forest is hundreds of blocks out and I had no reason to go there til now!
Over to the west wing now... which I've turned over to my cats. Yep, they're moving in too! I built them a cat tree to play in, complete with steps, branches, leaves, and even a hidey hole!
And finally, the top floor, which will be my bedroom and map room. As I explore this world and build stuff in it, I want to map out the areas of interest. For now I have maps of all known villages, the mansion, and the watchtower build.
For a finishing touch, I made up some banners using the patterns I've picked up so far, and used them to thematically decorate each section of the house. I even went and leveled up a cartographer just for the Globe pattern to match the map room! And with that, we have our first serious dwelling in this world, and a big upgrade from the day one starter house. Welcome to Elaville House – our new home 💜
