A Tonne Of Clay!

So late Tuesday night I picked up my 1.9 pre-release 5/Home in a mountain II, and i changed it to the Soran texture pack I had, I'm not sure about the wool block walls, and I'm too far away for snow, but I want it to be ultra modern but not use a material for walls I usually use. It'll take ages to wrangle sheep anyway, pen them in then keep breeding them for wool. (As well as switching to the latest version.) Nevertheless I went looking for a sheep or several and went round the back of the mountain to this lake area:

(Stock photo)

I found a sheep but I also found something else - clay, tonnes and tonnes of clay! With the new Soran texture pack the clay is a steely blue, so it's real easy to see underwater too!

And the result!:

I think there's at least 21 stacks of clay blobs back there! For this reason I might make it ultra-modern and have brick walls instead. There's still some clay left in that lake too! I spent about two nights at the lake getting the clay, fighting off a few mobs in the process. When I got back, I was looking at the walls so intently to begin with though, that, because I couldn't decide what to make the walls out of, I decided to do the kitchen first, I love designing kitchens in Minecraft. What I didn't like however was the corridor to the left of the stairs in this picture:

Which just leads to this back area:

So I decided to get rid of the entire back wall that's in front of the stairs of the first picture (The "L" shape), and just open up that entire area to the back room so it's an open plan front room with kitchen:

(Enter new Soran texture pack)

In the dirt roof, there's also a long single block line that has been dug out right in the center and had glass added, for a long skylight. As you can seen - even in the daytime there is loads of light coming into what will be the new kitchen! And it'll be very big too! So as well as lots of storage, it will have a sink, a stove (furnace), a traditional island in the middle. I can't wait to do it! Not until I finish the floor however.

I also dug into the wall just down the corridor from the bedroom, in the hall upstairs for a bathroom. (Where it traditionally is in an old UK house - upstairs, at the top of the stairs.)

The time I add the inner walls, (Those dirt mountains are the outside walls of the mountain), it'll be a little bit smaller, but I still hope to have a toilet, a bath, a working shower and a sink! (I hope!) Already I have made good use of some of the clay, it kinda looks like a non-slip floor now:

I'll probably smelt some of the clay for the brick walls whilst I finish the kitchen floor, may add the brick walls inside sooner rather than later though.

 The above happened because I started the roof for my AllBases world and made stone-brick stairs, as well as having to bake lots of cobble, i did two rows of stairs going in, and it just didn't look right. So it's back to the drawing board. Now I'm kinda stumped as to what material to use for the roof. Any ideas? So I'm leaving it a little while whilst I think about that, and that's why I went to my 1.9.5 world for a while, and will stay with it for a little bit whilst doing the kitchen and bathroom and new wall materials. Whilst I figure out the roof situation.

Do you like the "World" banners btw? Thought it might be easier to explain which world I'm working on so readers don't think "Which world is this again?"

Every Last Drop Of Clay

That's what it took to build the wall on the other side at the back of the apartments:

I also added a row of trees all around the perimeter as you can see, and as usual each tree has a hidden torch up the trunk (As seen in the last picture - just) for extra light. In the far wall on the other side - which is the side of the mountain, I added a 4 square block (IE 2 x 2) of Glowstone in the mountain walls to help keep mobs away and also behind the back row of trees (Seen in the last picture above) I've placed double fencing behind the trees on the edge of the mountain ledge to stop the mobs dropping over.

I'm about 7 brick blocks short! I'll finish going up to the stone brick steps, just in front of the sand pillar. Guess I'll need to find more clay, about half a stack. With a fresh new batch of Glowstone from the nether to do the security lighting in the mountain wall at the back of the apartments, it made me think about adding more like it around the exterior of my mountain him - and the church.

Around the outside of the bedroom:

And round the other side of the bedroom by the lava:

Around by the water fall:

And the Church:

I'm not sure about all the torches outside, especially on the church roof, will have to think about that. I'm going all around however trying to eliminate mass torches in favor of Glowstone security  lighting. The only places torches will stay, as well as on the doggy grave by the front of the house, is in between the cobble the top of the fort blocks.

The sheep farm is on overload at the moment, as not only do I need to finish off some roofs inside the apartments there is something else i need the wool for. I was thinking about this world and how I used the space in the mountain, and this room came to mind:

Behind the back wall, behind the sofa, there is a bit of an unused wall space between that wall and one of the walls of the front room. So I decided to extend the room:

This is what I need the rest of the wool for, the ceiling (Nearly done) and the floor. bit of a seating change as well, as it now goes around the wall using blue wool from the Lapis found in a recent cave dig. I've the actual "seats" to do yet, and I think I might have a long table or tables in here too when the floor is done. I'm not sure about the little alcove corner, I can't connect it to anywhere aesthetically, at one point I did consider having the squid tank (Not that it has any squids) go all along that wall.. Even if it goes nowhere, I kinda like the corner, it stops t being square and boring at least.

As I write, I've just put Glowstone embedded in the maze, in the changing rooms by the pool, the pub/tavern, embedded places around the tennis court and a couple of places above signs around the pool. Thing is, I have to wait for night time each time, to see it best where it needs it, and I can only do that when it's dark at the night time.

That aforementioned cave dig, was in the ravine of a 1.0 chunk. I lost everything however when I died and couldn't find the ravine again. (Should've set a waypoint!) I found a half-ravine though which lead into caves so found loads more Iron (Sinks, last of toilets in apartments) and gold (More booster rails for the minecart system!). That's where I found the Lapis. I swore I wouldn't go back until i found diamond, having lost my knock-back enchanted diamond sword. (That was great.), but I couldn't find any. I ended up back at the branch mine, just of my storage area and after a very, very long search I found some, got all my diamond tools back and found 12 diamonds spare.

So yeah, a great wool extravaganza, toilets in apartments to finish and seeing where to add Glowstone security lighting outside might just get this done before the release on the 23rd!

Why Does This Keep Happening To me!

I tried to back up from the creeper, but he exploded early. it's probably due to the Glowstone being embedded that there's not enough light. Guess I need a new front entrance.. It didn't end there though! Further up I was confronted with a Creeper AND a spider jockey as I ascended up the ladder.

I fell back down the ladder in a bid to escape, but the Creeper must have exploded, spider jockey survived though. The funny thing is, as I slid down the ladder the skeleton tried to shoot me and killed his spider! Cold. All the above has been fixed now though, and with hanging Glowstone, I'm also doing the same in the apartments so no more mobs spawn.

In other news something wonderful popped up in front of the front of the mountain home!:

Christmas tree! of sorts.. Okay, it didn't just pop up I did plant it after a fail tree I "Made" with logs and leave blocks didn't work out. had to alter the top to hide the dirt block where the "star" is. (Actually a yellow flower, but shaped as a star for the Xmas texture pack.) I made one inside however, with presents!:

Presents that may or may not be slowly ticking away! let's just hope nothing sets them off.. (BOOM!)

To do: 

*Finish ceilings (Upgrade Minecraft for wool-re-gen).

*Add sinks/or showers for all bathrooms. (Needs to find more Iron.

*Continue to get more Glowstone to make the apartments more safe and mob free..

*Landscape back of apartments more outside.

*Find more gold for boosters for Minecart tracks.

Something's a' Brewin'

It looks like science and brewing is finally coming to my old Alpha world.. (Due to be released on the 23rd December.)


It's funny how this came about, up until now I had a dug out room, on the way to the storage area (Just past the incinerator) - but all it had in it was an Enchantment table. Stone walls, stone floor, stone ceiling. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to go ahead with the science lab as I knew I'd have to reset the nether. However as i was changing some of the half-slabs outside to stone-brick stairs I suddenly had an abundance of half-slabs (What I wanted to use for a science/test lab walls), I also had a load in a chest, So I ended up going ahead and changing the walls into a science lab.

The dirt was a placement to where I might have some benches for brewing stands. Where the railings lay on the edge of the stone over the stairs down to the cobble generator, is now a nice little overlooking glass window. I wanted a nice glossy black floor, but as this was unattainable, and my obsidian was violet coloured, I went for a black wool floor, nevermind-the-fact-I-had-loads-of-black-wool-anyway. Then last night I changed the dirt to stone and to make it look better I added hatches as a decorative aesthetic and as well as getting more Glowstone fro the nether went to the cave in the new chunk again to get more iron so I could make the cauldron and brewing stands.

For bottles and potions.

Even with the Glowstone under the cauldron and hanging from the ceiling it's still pretty dimly lit in there. part of me thinks - as it's a lab it should be Redstone light in red light like a laboratory, but I'm afraid mobs might spawn inside. I can't change the back stone wall as it's the back of the incinerator, I already had a couple of accidents with that and lava spewing through the wall. Already I've made about a stack of bottles, then split them in half and started to fill up half of them with water as the basic water bottles.

Also keep in mind, I have my Christmas painterly pack on at the moment so there will be no frosted glass, and the Glowstone will be standard:

Before starting this posts I had decided that when I release this world, I would put the new nether in a separate folder, so if you did want to get nether warts/blaze rods etc to brew stuff you could. Just before I began however I thought about it, and thought - "What am I actually saving about the old Nether?" All the old portals? I have one that comes out by the church, which isn't really needed with waypoints, two to the base, one to a strange cave, I wouldn't be losing that much really. I think it's more nostalgia because it's been my nether since I started the world in Alpha. The only thing really is the portal to the snow biome, but then I do have a snow factory now. (With 2 slave Golems inside working.)

I realized, I might as well just switch over to a 1.0 Nether. For nostlgia's sake i'll add a folder for the old Alpha Nether instead for the release. Then if you want to switch it over you can. (It's the DIM-1 folder in your world's save folder you switch out.)

Even just turning it from a large empty stone room (Apart from the Enchantment table) to just adding the slab walls made it seem much bigger and brighter. Now we have another brand new room!

More D.I.Y disasters tomorrow as I continue to finalize this world, but now i have some old portals in the over-world to remove!