fluffy's new howse - dev blog

[annikk.exe]

I am applying the same fervour and energy that I (aim to) bring to bear on level design, onto my new place.  :>  I got the keys on Friday, and mass redecorating started at 9:30am on Saturday morning, which was yesterday.

We worked till 11pm yesterday, then by 1:30pm today we were at it again.. finishing up once more at 11pm.  So far 5 people (including myself) are involved, and at least one more will be bringing their skills to the table soon.


I am implementing a Star Ceiling in my bedroom.  This will be around 400 fibre optic cables, each piping light out of holes in a false ceiling, which we will be putting up.  The cable bunches connect up to a fan-assisted halogen light, and there will be a 7 inch gap all around the border of the false ceiling, and LED strips will shine light down from the border.

The walls will be red and black...mainly red.



In case anyone decides to follow this thread, you should know that we are thoroughly documenting the progress in pictures.  Although there's not too much visible change currently as we are just re-painting white, sanding, etc.
Aforementioned pictures will be forthcoming later this week, or perhaps next week.


In the mean time, this is the previous room which I designed several years ago, and in which I have done all my level designing and other creative projects to date:



Overview of the room, as you would see walking in the door.



From the sofa, looking towards the splatter wall.



Detail shot of the corner of my desk + Virus



Glow in the dark stars and border runes - they continue across the entire ceiling.



My bed.



Perspective shot of the bed + sofa + desk corner.



The rack.



The scary side of the rack..




I also designed and built the desk.  :>

[Alex]

You are one crazy mofo.

Whereabouts are you moving to? You're in the UK right?

[AWS]

i agree with alex....craziness!

rather on the dark side eh? although fibre optic lights have always been an interest to me, ive never got into it to attach some to my ceiling. and havent they also kinda died out in terms of coolness or freshness these days? they used to seem so much more... 'new', now they dont seem to be being pushed anywhere near as much into the public eye. or maybe i stopped looking.

looking forward to some more pics of your private kingdom annikk...

AWS

[annikk.exe]

Yes I am in the UK Alex.  Aberdeen.  :>

Started on the new place.  We're actually on like day 4 now, but I am doing pics a bit behind so that there is a nice day-by-day progression...


Day One


Here's what it looked like when I first got in there, before we started any work.



Yes I am there.  This will be my new room.




That heater has to go.






those curtains too.  that guy is mai m8 Tony by the way.





Walking around the room poking things.





The entrance to Mr Simon's (future) bedroom.  Looks a bit grim in there for now..




Inside Mr Simon's room, the rubbishy carpet and nasty old looking walls.  The sliding door was broken too.





Kitchen.  Seems nice..





Yepyep it's I again.  And that door/doorframe in the foreground has to go.

[Alex]

Nice. Have you bought the place then? Sounds like you're going to be doing some hefty renovating.

[annikk.exe]

Yea I bought it.  I got the keys on Friday.  :>
My old place (where I am still living, for now) is just 5 minutes down the road.

[Rudolf]

Congrats on your new castle. 
I find it is really satisfying to slowly make a new abode your own through redecorating and graft etc.

[annikk.exe]

Day Two

We got stuck in.







Pulled the carpet up.  Got ready to paint Simon's room.






We removed the radiator (that was a big job... it was very, very heavy).
Then we replastered the wall where the anchors used to be.  That will get painted over eventually.





One of the biggest but least visible jobs is the bug-proofing of the entire place with decorator's caulk.

Caulk...  sounds like.... hmmmm..

and this stuff here on Tony's finger...  it looks kinda like.... hmmm..

The conversation mostly stays in the gutter, heh.






Luke and Smokey starting to look worse for wear.







Smokey and Tony slip the caulk in.  Like gentleman.





We removed the door by the entrance, and the frame that surrounded it.
It left a big hole in the wall.
Here is Tony looking at the hole, and going "hmmmm..."

More plastering fun to come...

[annikk.exe]

Day Three


Didn't get too much done today unfortunately.






Kitchen and bathroom still haven't been touched.  Will need to do something about those soon...

Tony started feeling ill about an hour after we had started, so I had to drive him home.
So Smokey and I sanded all the edges in the corridor.  That took a long time and was an absolute bitch.





Here is me standing in the sanded corridor.  I was very tired in this picture.

We also gave Simon's room the first coat of paint.
Below is me being very tired and standing in front of the (still drying) paint.




And here is me being very tired in the main room.






Day Four

Ordered a carpet for Simon's room.





Day Five
Part 1

We got loads of pictures today, so I'm splitting this day into 2 parts.




We did the second coat in Simon's room.
The walls are looking good now.

We put masking tape up to get ready to do the skirting boards with gloss paint.











This picture was taken just after we applied the gloss.







My painty shoes.







The bit where the radiator was in the main room has been proper plastered over now.  Once it's painted you'll have a hard time telling there was ever anything there.  Still need to replace that bit of skirting board though...








Witness my elbow.







Simon's room, having had 2 coats, masked up and glossed.




Looks decent yea..?






We painted inside the cupboard too.  Only did 1 coat in there... it's a cupboard, who cares.  :>






The bit where the door frame was, has been replastered and finished.







The plaster in the bit where the massive hole was, is still drying out.
We needed to wait a bit more before applying the finishing skim plaster, sanding, then painting over it.



More to come...

[annikk.exe]

Day Five
Part 2




Bug-proofing Simon's cupboard.  Can you spot my hair being all dangly? :P






Witness the manly way in which I weild the caulking gun.  Squirt!






Tony and Simon painting the corridor.  This was just the first coat, and we couldn't do the bit where the hole was because the final skim plaster was still drying.








Bug-proofing the kitchen.







First coat in the corridor is done.





Looks alright so far...






We mummified the phone in masking tape.




Day Six

Day off..  had some stuff to sort out...
Buying wood for the false ceiling and frame tomorrow...

[annikk.exe]

Sheena's awesome constellation plan:

[annikk.exe]

Day 7


Day of rest my ass.





First up, the hole.  This is looking MUCH better now.
We'll sort the ceiling out too...got a plan for that.







If it wasn't for the strip on the ceiling, you'd never have guessed there used to be a door there..







Lookit, we have some wood.
Tony is reaching up to start marking the ceiling in the main room.









This is the current state of the main room.  Big changes going to occur here soon...







Iain came round (not pictured) and fitted some new power sockets in the main room...







...and in simon's room.  Also network socket backs are on, I'll wire up the faceplates before we move in.







The heater in Simon's room is back on the wall.  :>







Recently cleaned painting implements.







Tony measuring the ceiling in the main room...







We needed a chalk line so we went to the hardware store.  Whilst there, we bought paint for the main room.
The tin you see here is Red.







Tony and I waiting for paint to be mixed.







We brought the paint back to the main room.  From left to right: Red, black, purple







We also bought this flat bit for countersinking screws into the wooden beams (behind).







Tony doing maths on a piece of skirting board...







...guess where he got it from...







My mother came over to help paint.  She did all the awkward bits behind the cooker and the fridge.  Thanks, mum!  :>







You can't see this too well, but we've marked the beams above the ceiling using the chalkline.







Tony drills countersinks into the beams.







...meanwhile the kitchen is gradually getting whiter...







And the first beam is up!  These will be like rails which hold the false ceiling in place.







Tony whacks in the final screw on beam #2







All beams up.  This took hours and we were both pretty tired by the time it was done.  I was doing stuff too, but Tony doesn't seem to like taking pictures...so it sort of looks I was just slacking.  I wasn't!! :P







I took this one from near the ceiling.  You can just about make out the 3 rows of beams.







Here's another view...







and another...







Tony wasn't happy with the finish on the hole, so he redid that.  I tried but discovered that I fail at plastering.







We did a second coat on the kitchen, and then it was getting dark so we decided to boost.







Washing out the bristles after a hard but successful day's work.  :>

[Bonobo]

Cool. And what a cool Mum … can’t you show us a pic of her face? I prefer seeing faces of people rather than their behinds

[annikk.exe]

Day Eight

I drove Sheena and Tony out to the office, where the panels for the false ceiling are being stored.







Here they are in the nice shiny office.
The first hour was spent exploring - Waterside is a very pretty place during good weather - and a subsequent hour was devoted to planning.








Then it was time to check out the workshop.
You can see one of the panels on the left hand side of this picture.







Also there was a dog.








Tony set about cutting the panels to the right size.







That didn't take very long, only 30 mins or so and they were all cut.  :>










Here are the main two sets of plans we used.  One shows the positions of the stars, the other shows the dimensions of each panel.








To help Sheena get her bearings, Tony and I carried all the panels outside....







...and laid them out on the ground...







...which the dog found fascinating...








Sheena was in charge of the camera at this point, when the dog found something...








...oh dear.  I think we need that piece of paper, don't we..?

(dog-chasing ensues)








Sheena begins to draw on the constellations.

















Before long it started to rain, so we hurriedly moved all the panels back into the workshop.
Sheena kind of had the idea by this point, so was fine to do one panel at a time.








One of my main jobs was to plot the fibre diameters onto the stars.  Those are the numbers you can see written in pencil next to each star.








Meanwhile Tony began drilling tiny holes for the fibres at each star location.









It took 2-3 hours to finish this.








Then Tony and I prepared the panels for painting, by applying MDF primer.
This was actually Super PVA glue, mixed 2 parts PVA to 1 part water.
If we don't prime the panels, the paint will end up looking patchy and rubbish.









Took about 45 minutes to prime them all.







Then it was time to wash the brushes and head home.








The panels will arrive at the new flat on Friday, and should go up over the weekend.

[annikk.exe]

Day Ten

Once again, a slow day.  We started off well but then there was another crisis... not going to go into detail as its totally unrelated to the redecorating project, but basically after it happened nobody felt much like continuing so we all went home.  :/

But, we did get a bit more done today...






Halfway through the second coat in the kitchen...





The bit above the cupboards was tricky to do...







Tony has started to cut some of the pieces of wood into small blocks.







Having finished painting the kitchen.  It will need a third coat, and some gloss for the skirting boards, and then it will be done.  :>