How big a house???

My boyfriend and I bought land last night on a residential island. About 3042m I think it is. Whatever the one up from 2000 is Honestly, I cannot remember the exact meter number of the plot. We get 700+ prims for this, which should be OK to start with we think.

At any rate, many prefab housing creators only describe their home sizes as 30x50 or similar. Forgive me, but are there any guidelines to help me know how big a home to buy? I wish there were always notecards that said, "recommended for 3000+ m plots only." As it is, I really don't know what to do.

I also cannot find a house I like that much yet. Looking for something simple, modern or at least clean lines, and pleasing to the eye. I also don't want to use all my prims on structure - decorating is the most fun.

Advice greatly appreciated.

Gillian Waldman

I think what's more important than the physical dimentions of the house is the number of prims it uses. Be careful not to buy something needlessly elaborate, like a house with a 100 prim flight of stairs where a 2 prim teleporter will work just as well.

Granted, on a lot your size you have a big allowance to play with, but you'll be surprised how quickly it gets eaten up.

Hi Gillian

You could try looking for a house on SLExchange. I find it much easier to shop and window-shop off world.

i agree about shopping for houses on the various web sites, such as SLexchange and SLboutique.

Also, you need to think this out...a house that looks like the real world is not always that easy to live in, in SL. Also, a good house for SL is not always realistic in the real world.

for example, walls can be a bitch in SL. They often block your camera. A lot of SL houses are somewhat wall-less.

On the other hand, if you *want* realistic, then you will want walls, and a ktichen, and a shower, and a toilet.

Choices.

Not as worried about "realistic" in terms of bathrooms, etc. No need for those LOL.

As I said in my OP, I just want a nice, visually pleasing house that is simple, fairly low prim and leaves me plenty of options for decorating...have no desire to eat all my prims with one structure. The simpler, the better but still with some style to it . Unfortunately so far, we haven't found that houses like these exist yet. Thank you for the suggestions on where to look - will do! I hope there will be something suitable.

More importantly - I cannot figure out the size!

One of the easiest ways to judge size is to go to your property and build a set of 10x10 prim blocks. Butt them up next to each other to form a footprint. Rez (3) 10x10's across and (5) 10x10's wide. This will show you the footprint of the house you are looking at and allow you to determine whether the house is the right size for the lot - and where you might like to place it.

SLex is a great place to look for houses, but don't ever buy without having seen (and actually walked in it to judge how it handles the camera) it in-world. Just because it looks good in the pictures doesn't mean you'll like how it looks in SL .

I'm sure other people feel differently, but I prefer copy/no transfer houses over no copy ones, simply because you never have to worry if you start modifying it (or delete a part of it - happens sooner than you think ) because you can always just pull out a new copy.

Of course...if all else fails you could just buy a tent or two and spend the rest of the prims on making your plot a magnificent garden.

I'd recommend looking for houses that include the prim count.

Many house builders include this now, and some are over 500 for a small one, to less than 100 for a large one. There's quite a selection out there!

Also, if you need, ask the creator, most of the time they are helpful enough to tell you. If there is a model home up, right click and choose edit, then expand the more option and see if that tells you the prims.

I think nearly all of the major home builders in Second Life provide a prim count for their houses, as well as the meter dimensions.

I also agree with the above poster that it is preferable to check out the house in person, even if it means making an extra trip from SLExchange or SLBoutique in world to do it. And I would add - take time to shop around. There are all kinds of houses out there for all kinds of tastes, which the builders have tried to make with the least prims possible for the style.

Recommending a particular house for a certain size lot is more tricky, though, especially once you get beyond the 512 level. Partly because lots are different shapes (even the 512's), partly because each house has a different shape to contend with and a different prim count, and partly because different people have different ideas about how many prims left over is ideal.

When you go house shopping, it's a good idea to have the exact dimensions of your own lot (or the most useful part of it) with you, and - especially for new players who may not realize this as the OP does - the number of prims that lot allows.

Sometimes you will fall in love with a house that is really a bit more prims than you would like, but you still can "afford" it, and sometimes you will fall in love with one that is actually fewer prims than you expected, and then you're in luck.

Mainly, though, it's important (especially for new players) to have a realistic idea of how many prims furniture and decoration take up, and know how much of that sort of thing you are going to want.

To me, a house isn't much fun if it takes up all your allotted prims, just as buying a too-expensive real-life house isn't much fun if it takes up most of your income!

For me, I prefer having a smaller house than perhaps one would think one could have on a large size lot, to allow room for all that decorating, and for any building on the lot Imay want to do, or for things my friends and roommates may want to add. It's no fun being at prim limit all the time.

For all those reasons, I find it difficult to recommend what size lot would be ideal for which house, preferring to give the prim counts and meter dimensions for them instead, and let them make that judgment. Two exceptions are my 512 Collection, which are all reasonable for 512 lots, and in the case of a very big house, in which case I will put a warning that the house is very big, so that shoppers will know not to fall in love with something that may be too big or too prim-heavy for their lot.

It's complicated, all right. I spend a lot of my time explaining these factors to new players.

coco

P.S. But my next project, when I can get to it, will be figuring out and adding the phrase you suggested, "Recommended for lots size whatever and larger." Hope I can do it accurately.

I did that on my first land. I put up a gazebo and used the rest of my prims wantonly for landscaping and a small waterfall. That was when I knew what I really wanted was a garden, not a house


One thing you have to remember with houses is that more prims does not necessarily equal better. Especially if you like high-end furniture. Furniture will kill your prim allotment so fast it will make your head spin, so decide before you go shopping if you intend to do a lot of furnishing because that will tell you that you need to keep your house prims down to around 1/4 of your allotment. In general, the suggestion is to keep your house prims under 1/3 of your total prims. With my Sky Houses I provide both a prim count and a footprint, as well as tell people which ones will fit on a 512 parcel and which won't. I may add a suggested parcel size as well, based on the prim count after having read this thread....

Amen, I bought a REALLY cute dinette set...... 450 prims!!!