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NEOHOME SPOTLIGHT - If they gave out a trophy for being shocked about winning
a trophy, I would have won the "Who Me?" award for the Neohome Spotlight. Back
on the Anniversary of the Birth of the First Chia (November 14th for those of
you living on the moon of Kreludor), a shiny house-like trophy showed up in my
user lookup. I couldn't imagine why anyone would select MY house for the Neohome
Spotlight, but I was happy about it anyway. After dancing in the streets for awhile,
I was brought back to reality by a tidal wave of Neomail hitting my inbox. Here
are the ten most common questions I received that first week:
1. Your Neohome is so cool! Why?
2. What is the name of that big, wet, pondy-looking thing in your garden?
3. Can you give me any furniture you're not using?
4. Why not?
5. What is that thing running around your gymnasium?
6. What is that thing running around your Meerca's room?
7. How many billions of Neopoints did you spend on your Neohome?
8. Can you give me billions of Neopoints so I can win the Neohome Spotlight,
too?
9. Why not?
10. You're a selfish meanie and I hate you! Will you be my Neofriend?
I guess what it all really came down to was this: no one wants a spotless
Neohome. Almost everyone wants their Neohome spotted... in the Neohome Spotlight,
that is. And since I actually managed to do it, lots of people naturally assumed
that I knew how to make an award-winning house. And I guess I do... NOW anyway.
That's because I've just spent the past month and a half studying my Neohome
to try to figure out what I did right. After hours of staring at my own four
walls, I think I actually have some remotely useful advice to give you to help
you win the Neohome Spotlight, too.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #1
The problem with most Neohomes is that they are built at the wrong time. And
the wrong time is definitely the first week a person starts playing Neopets.
That's because almost all Neohomes are built by newbies who have no idea what
horrible money pits they are and, because they are newbies, think it would be
fun to build one. Poor, clueless newbies. Ya gotta feel sorry for them. Ummm...
like me, for example. I started building my Neohome before I even knew where
the furniture shops were. In fact, I started building my Neohome before I even
knew where the bank was.
So here is my award-winning suggestion #1: Don't even consider building a
home until you have at least explored all of the Neopian worlds. The reason
for this is very simple. In fact, it's almost simple-minded. The first thing
you have to decide on is WHERE to build your Neohome. And you can only really
make that decision if you have seen all of the places available. If more people
followed this rule, there wouldn't be such an alarming overpopulation problem
in Neopia Central.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #2
But does it really matter WHERE you build your Neohome? The answer is... yup.
It DOES matter. Think of it this way: your Neohome is like a Neopet. The color
you paint your pet helps to give it a personality. And the location of your
Neohome helps give your house a personality. The personality of your Neohome
is called a "theme". A theme is basically the glue that holds your house together.
Without a theme, you just have a warehouse full of random furniture.
To help you understand better, I'll explain how I did my house. Since my username
is Stoneman3x, I decided to build my Neohome in Tyrannia. That's because Tyrannia
is a prehistoric world and fit the theme I wanted for my house. I built all
of the rooms out of stone and filled it with stone furniture. My Neohome theme--
if for some odd reason you haven't guessed it by now because you were distracted
by the yellow thing running around my gymnasium-- is "stone" and "stoneage".
So my award-winning suggestion #2 is: decide on a theme to your Neohome BEFORE
you build it. It's not 100% necessary to have a theme to your house, of course.
But if you want to win the Neohome Spotlight, it definitely helps. A theme is
what makes your Neohome unique. And a unique Neohome is more likely to win the
Neohome Spotlight.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #3
Okay, let's say you have actually decided where to build your Neohome and
have worked out a theme for it too. Now you can start building the thing, right?
Nope. Not yet. You have to make a floorplan first. "Make a WHAT?" you might
ask. A floorplan is a nifty drawing of what the inside of your house looks like.
Since all of the rooms in a Neohome are little two millimeter squares set in
a 5x5 grid, even if you have no artistic talent at all you can do this. So why
is it such a big deal to map out your house before you build it? I suppose you
could find a good example of why you need a floor plan BEFORE you build by looking
HERE.
It may seem like a trivial point, but it just looks better if your doorways
actually lead to other rooms and your rooms actually connect to each other.
Maybe I'm being a tad picky about this, but I personally prefer to have a doors
that lead into and out of my house instead of sliding down the chimney like
Santa Kaus. So my award-winning suggestion #3 is: map out your Neohome first.
But what do you do if you started to build it already and... ummm... goofed?
Well, there is a great way to fix that problem. Just click on the link that
says "Add/Remove Rooms or Gardens" and when you get a pop-up box, click on the
button that reads "Demolish Room". Sure, this sounds a little harsh. But it's
better to start a couple of rooms over than to build an entire Neohome that
looks like the Carnival of Terror Fun House.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #4
I've selected a theme, chosen a world to build my Neohome in and actually
planned out how it will look. Can I build the thing NOW? Ummm... nope. Sorry.
Not yet. The next big step in the ladder of Neohome-building is to decide what
materials you want to build your rooms out of. There are quite a few options
to choose from, ranging in price from 150 Neopoints for cardboard to 14,500
Neopoints for Transparishield.
Let's say you have decided to build your Neohome on Mystery Island. You could
make the rooms out of bamboo and fill your house with coconut and bamboo furniture.
Your Neohome would absolutely scream "blow me down in a tropical storm!" to
everyone who sees it. On the flipside, let's say you have decided to build your
Neohome in Meridell and want to call it "The Castle of Doom". If you build your
rooms out of jelly, your Neohome will whimper "sticky" instead of "scary". So
my award-winning suggestion #4 is: keep the theme of your Neohome in mind when
you choose your building materials.
And one more tip-- don't build your rooms out of materials that are cheap
but don't really follow your theme. If you want silver walls to match your iron
furniture, don't build your house out of wood because it's inexpensive. Build
slowly, as you can afford it. Don't settle for second best. Or third or fourth
best, for that matter.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #5
CAN I BUILD IT NOW??? Yup. You can go ahead and start building it now. And
now would also be a good time to start giving some serious thought to how you
want to furnish your home. If you have decided to go with a "Kau Print" theme
in your Neohome, keep in mind that not everything you need may be available
in Kau Print. But if you make your theme "Black and White" instead, you can
also use Zen or Babaa furniture. Sometimes it pays to be a little more general
and not get too wrapped up in a certain specific style of furniture.
On the other hand, don't mix and match too much either. Having "Kauvara",
"Rainbow", "Funky Blue and Orange" and "Checkered" all in the same room will
make everyone dizzy and pass out. And making the Neohome Spotlight judge pass
out won't really help you win. So my award-winning suggestion #5 is: keep the
theme of your Neohome in mind when you choose your furniture too.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #6
So... now what? Now you get to decide if you want gardens or not and what
to put in them if you have them. If you were paying attention, you decided on
where to put your gardens back when you were drawing the plans for your Neohome.
If you weren't paying attention, and I can see from the horrified look on your
face that you weren't, you need to decide where you want your gardens NOW.
Luckily, it's easier to stick a garden into your Neohome plans than to try
to cram in a room you forgot to add. That's the good news. Here's the bad news.
You really need to have a theme to your gardens too. And I highly recommend
NOT tossing six hundred lawn gnomes in there and calling it quits. Odd as it
may seem-- in fact, downright terrifying as it may seem-- having an army of
lawn gnomes is not a very original idea.
Award-winning suggestion #6 is: don't turn your garden into another Meridell
Rubbish Dump. Make it your very own and very stylish rubbish dump.
AWARD-WINNING SUGGESTION #7
If you are satisfied that your Neohome is finished, furnished and fabulous,
then you can go ahead and enter it into the Neohome Spotlight. Here is how you
do that:
First of all, you need to send in your request by regular email. The address
you send it to is neohome@neopets.com. In the subject line you can write "Neohome
Spotlight" if you really feel the need to have a subject for your email. In
the body of the email write your username, the full address of your Neohome
and the URL for it. Then give the name of your Neohome and write a paragraph
describing the theme of it. For example:
Neohome Owner : stoneman3x
Neohome Address :37101 Tyrammet Close, Tyrannia
http://www.neopets.com/neohome.phtml?owner=stoneman3x
Home: Stoneman's Cave
Where else would a Stoneman live but Tyrannia? And what else would he build
his house entirely out of but stone? Almost every room in my house is filled
with stone furniture too! And I even have a lovely rock garden. So drop on in,
drag up a Hewn Stone Chair and join me and my four Neopets in front of one of
the many fireplaces that heat my Neohome. There's even an extra place at the
dining room table for you!
Okay, maybe it's a little on the dumb side-- but at least this proves that
ANYBODY can win this Neohome Spotlight thing. So here is my final Award-winning
suggestion, which happens to be #7: Have fun. It's YOUR Neohome afterall, and
although it would be nice to win the Neohome Spotlight, don't build your Neohome
just to please someone else. I sure didn't. When I built my house the Neohome
Spotlight didn't even exist. So I built the thing for the best reason in the
world: my Lupe threatened to chew off my kneecaps if he had to spend one more
night sleeping in the shadow of an active volcano. So do what I did. Have fun,
build your home to suit yourself and hide whenever your Lupe gives you an angry
glare because lava is flowing past him.
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