Greetings to you all on this fine day! This blog series is my attempt to offer ideas to help you to create your FFXIV home as your imagination wishes, expressing what you want to show within your own private refuge after a day of Dungeons, Trials, FATEs and adventurous Quests!
[A late entry: due to my extensive use of screenshots, I am going to have to remove pics from older blogs. I'm only allowed so many, & reached my limit with blog #7. I'm truly sorry if you review the older blogs & ss are missing; it cannot be helped. The information posted is still useful, & you can find examples in latest blogs. - Bel]
I am Belinda Forrest, of Famfrit, one of 10 alts created by my maker who was an extreme newbie when she discovered the fantastic world of FFXIV (or she wouldn't have created so many alts - lol). She wanted to try out many classes, so made an alt for each of those - 8 classes on 8 worlds, those alts are now in 8 different FCs, all of the FCs great, & patient with her newbie-ness. She has fallen in love with our world & mine is her first house on the eight worlds her alts inhabit.
Actually, this is my 2nd house, so she has learned about cottages & my new mid-size House, both located in the Lavender Beds, & in the same ward as my Famfrit FC. I was inspired to share the experience with both the small & mid-size houses I have had, especially since I took a ton of screenshots of both to help explain my ideas. I have gladly added any Mansions that granted me permission, to further widen the sources of ideas for you.
If you have been following this series, you know that I hope to inspire new house owners to try their wings, furnishing & decorating their plot of land & house to express their personalities, and showing a creative face to the ffxiv world.
As I have said before, of course you can lock your door to the world, but all of us have learned that, if you are the only owner, no one can touch your 'stuff' or steal it, or move it. Also, we all have had our own bare rooms, stuff stacked in corners or placed crookedly across the floors. But your home may give others good ideas for their own domiciles. We all learn by practice how to place things as wanted - & it's fun to keep rearranging things to suit your current wishes & needs.
I have friends who are allowing me to also share their homes with you, so I am gathering a variety of very creative ideas to share with you. As always in my blogs, when I have multiple examples, my screenshots show (left to right), cottages, houses, then mansions, as shown below:
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Today, I would like to discuss some basic items you may have placed in your house immediately, or you may still be undecided about their usefulness - your staff. This includes both your estate vendors, & more briefly, your retainers.
These are the vendors you are allowed to place within your yard (1 for a cottage, 2 for a house, 3 for an Estate), as well as indoors. The max # of vendors you can have is 6 for cottages, 8 for Houses, and 10 for Mansions.
Just remember they will take up floor space, & each is purchased by with a permit, so prioritize for the ones you really want. Me, I really wanted a Mender, a Material Supplier and a Steward (the female 'steward' is called a Maidservant). My first choice was the Mender, who mends all my armor & crafting gear, the second, the Material Supplier, provides the basic supplies that a market vendor would (ingredients for cooking & other crafting), & the Steward provides basic Housing items (everything from walls & floors to vases, beds & wall lamps). Later, I added a Junkmonger to buy my dyes from, although they do have basic garden plots, too.
For other items, like flower seeds, aquarium tank trimmings, etc, I (& you) can visit the Housing Merchants & vendors in the residential districts.
You can place your vendors wherever you wish. I placed all of mine together, as you can see, in my cottage. This way they only took up one corner & even as I could easily maneuver past them, they were also extremely handy right within the front door when I needed them. I placed the Summoning bell nearby for the same reason - convenience.
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You can choose which race and sex for each vendor. I later changed one of them, but you can change them anytime. I just saw one elsewhere that I really liked, so changed my original Steward out - I just liked the idea of an older figure for my steward; they all offer the same items. I also got a counter to place them behind. I chose a Glade Counter, since I'm in the Shroud (but I also liked the style - & it looked even better after I dyed it Kobold Brown).
I also wanted the Summoning Bell nearby, but not so close that my vendors appeared embedded in the furniture. I'd rather not have my Lala miner be buried except for her topknot. As long as the Bell is a short distance from the counter, your retainers will not appear standing within the furniture. More on this later.
Since I had more room in the mid-size House, I moved the Steward several times, until I found where I liked him best. Also I added a 2nd Glade counter for my vendors & dyed it to match my 1st one. Together, they created a nice space for the vendors to work in, complete with storage cupboards:
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Friends of mine sometimes have their vendors together; sometimes they are spread around the house to suit the needs of the homeowner. The choice, again, is entirely yours:
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Houses and Mansions, of course, have more room to create service areas. You have a wide choice of furniture styles for counters, and can suit yourself to the vendor types & tables/counters used:
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How you arrange your staff is entirely up to your wishes, as is the work spaces you provide for them. It was fun for me to do so, & you'll have fun, too. I added a second counter to the first, dyed it to match, & used a whole wing on the main floor for my vendor area. Other folks tuck them under stairs, lofts, a corner of a room, or station them wherever else they have chosen to place their counters.
Now, most of you will also have Retainers as part of your estate 'staff.' When players reach a certain point in FFXIV, after joining the Scions - to help this fine organization to fight the Primals raising a ruckus around Eorzea - you become entitled to two retainers, who can run errands for you - gathering items from the field to help supply your crafting needs.
Well, I ended up paying a slightly larger subscription fee after awhile, in order to obtain two more retainers. I was beginning to start crafting in several areas, & I needed more inventory space, which the retainers provide. I feel a couple dollars more each month seemed reasonable, so I now have the ability to have 4 retainers for each of my alts, if they need them (which some do).
Meet my four retainers, who are all level 50 or above:
[sorry, had to remove pics, but your retainers will look as you wish them to - in every detail]---
I have already mentioned one of my pet peeves - a retainer being forced to appear embedded within the wall or furniture. This is, as I said, easily avoided by simply pulling the Summoning Bell about three feet from the wall or counter. Well, if you don't like your retainers' looks you can hide them if you wish - lol - but I prefer mine whole.
It is important, as your retainers level up doing ventures, that you also upgrade their gear. You can use hand-me-downs of your own, plus visit the local market vendors to obtain proper gear. Your retainers, if you send them on ventures become gatherers. Mine include 2 miners, a botanist & a white mage (as Bel is). Why use one of your fighting classes for a retainer? Hunting! - for your claws, skins and other beastie prizes. The retainers' level cannot surpass your own level in the same job. Keeping their gear up means they can gather items of increased value to you. I've had them, since I built my house, bring me back my Glade Bathtub, an Ahriman Cupboard & other housing items that I either used or sold on the Marketboard. You also sell on the MB through your vendors, so there's another handy use for them.
As far as Decorating is concerned, your retainers are just part of your staff, not decorations, but they are a part of your home, so treat them with a little respect. After all, they are holding your valuable inventory - lol. Incorporate them withing your housing design, & they will please everyone who sees them.
In this blog, you have seen several varieties of estate vendors available to you as you advance in the game. Have fun gathering items and vendors to your taste, and don't be afraid to share any ideas with me. I encourage you to explore the possibilities of your new (or long-owned) home.
If you are willing to let me share your home, please just leave a comment which includes your residential area (Lav Beds, Mist or the Goblet), your ward # & plot#, and I will come by to visit. I currently have alts who can visit you on Famfrit, Behemoth, Ultros, Hyperion, Brynhildr, Excalibur, Marlboro & Diabolo. I have not yet advanced far enough in the game to visit Shirogane, except on a few worlds where my alt's FC already resides there. But I can visit the first three Eorzean cities' residential areas, & enjoy doing so.
I hope to share with you on our next visit some new houses' decorating ideas in areas I've already covered - yards and entrances and maybe more. It's amazing how a home's look changes with different walls and floors! It can be a surprise & it will definitely be fun to share with you!
Until next time, please enjoy your homes, & continue to make them your own favorite place to be. And thank you for visiting with me. I look forward to your comments & suggestions.
By the way, there is a great site that let's you preview housing options - from the type of house to the tiniest item to be found inside. I have found it very useful & so will you:
http://en.ff14housing.com/
