Animal Crossing Interlude #4: The Last of the Plaza Neighborhood

I’m doing my best to keep building some momentum in here until I can get out of my emotional and personal slump enough to recapture that happy feeling I always used to have from losing myself in my thoughts and writing. Since I’ve been on a roll so far with it, I thought I would finish up my Animal Crossing island neighborhood tour. For this post, I have the last three villagers in the Plaza Neighborhood: Flurry, Drago, and June. Since we have three houses to tour in this post, it will be a bit longer than the last one.

This is Flurry’s house. She is in the front of the neighborhood, closest to the Plaza and in front of Hugh. All the houses on the front row of Plaza face the ocean, so they all have lovely views. We are talking prime real estate here — ha, ha!

Flurry’s house was originally this same shape, but it was white with a beige or gray roof. I feel like this shape suits Flurry’s cuteness really well. There is something very “fairy tale” about a talking hamster, and this house shape always gives me fairy tale vibes. I decided to bump up the colors with a purple roof and door and a minty green exterior. I gave Flurry some adorable cosmos in a mix of bright colors and finished off the front of her house with a cosmos wreath. Flurry’s little patio has a table and chairs with a tea set on it, and I added a tiny library because she is always chatting with me about what books she is reading.

So, I took all these snaps around Halloween, which is why you see me in different costumes. I wore a different costume for every week of October, and the week when I took pics of Flurry’s house was my “pirate captain” costume. It actually looks like Flurry is also wearing a costume, doesn’t it? Sadly, no — this is just the way she dresses on my island. All of the villagers on Esperanza have a certain sartorial something-something going on. Ha!

Flurry is an adorable little white hamster with a normal personality. Her house originally had the arabesque flooring (a brown flooring with squiggly lines), the beige blossoming wallpaper, and the following furniture: wooden chest, pot rack, wooden low table, wooden simple bed, cute music player, upright piano, mini DIY workbench, mini fridge, floor lamp, piano bench, ventilation fan, gas range, anthurium plant, and hamster cage. Whew! Flurry had a lot going on in her house, even before the redesign.

I wanted to keep things kind of cute and fun to match Flurry’s innate adorableness. I decided to use one of the heart wallpapers as an accent wall and then the pink wooden wall everywhere else. I gave her a cute little kitchen with the open kitchen and a small fridge. I kept Flurry’s piano and piano bench and the simple wooden bed. I gave the bed a different color and bumped up the color in the bedding, and I finished off with some plants and a fun purple rug.

Next up is Drago’s house. Drago is an alligator villager who looks like a green and gold dragon. Drago’s house originally had this same shape/style, but it had gold siding with a green roof. I kept the same basic style but changed to a darker green and brown exterior and a black roof. I kept the same style of door and used black to match the roof. I didn’t give Drago a wreath because I love the look of his door on its own. His patio is one of the most detailed, with a little pond, a bamboo screen, and some glowing moss. I decided to add lion dogs and some red and yellow mums to finish off the front of his house.

Drago is another lazy villager, and his personality is beyond adorable. I gotta admit: I love the lazies and the peppies in this game! His house originally had what I think of as a very Eastern flair. It had the red imperial wallpaper on every wall, imperial lanterns, and the following furniture: imperial partition (red), imperial dining chair (black with red seat), phonograph, sea horse model, cherry blossom branches, the imperial dining table, two imperial chests (in black with red accents), and the imperial decorative shelves (in black). I have to say it was a fun interior, but the red wallpaper was really a lot. Like … a LOT LOT.

I wanted to keep some of Drago’s natural flair in the home, but also update it a little bit and make it a little more fun, overall. Even though he is a lazy, his appearance feels dramatic, so I thought his house should have a bit of drama, too. I used the gray moulded panel wall as an accent and paired it with the white brick. I kept one imperial dresser in black, as well as the imperial lanterns, and I gave Drago the imperial bed. He has the same tiny kitchen as the rest of the villagers, courtesy of the open kitchen and oh-so-versatile small fridge. I gave him an eating nook in one corner, as well as a fun drum set in the front of his room. He seems like the kind of guy who would rock out, doesn’t he? I kept my color palette in reds, yellows, greens, and blacks.

This is my last villager house, and it belongs to June, who is an adorable bear cub villager with a normal personality. June’s house originally had this same overall shape, but it was a beige wooden/bamboo-looking exterior with a darker orange-brown thatch roof. I kept the same home shape, but I wanted to bump up the tropical feeling. I used some greens and a lighter brown for the thatch. I added some fan palms at the doorway and some pretty pansies along the walkway in front of her house. For June’s patio, I gave her the palm tree lamps, two director chairs in a tropical design, and a cute little table with yellow lilies.

So … June’s original house is another bit of “fail” for me, as I don’t remember what it looked like in the beginning. I think she had furniture from the wooden block series, but I didn’t find useful information online, as the pics I found did not reflect what I remember being in her house. I wanted to stay with some tropical touches for June’s home redo. I gave her the rattan floor and simple, white wooden walls for an easy-breezy look, overall. June is always talking about reading, so I gave her a bookcase as well as a reading nook in front of her fireplace. she also has a cute little kitchen and eating area. I have her a simple wooden bed with the same floral pattern as the director chairs outside, and two simple wooden nightstands.

Overall, June is a sweet and friendly villager, although she is not strictly a “favorite” for me. Out of all the villagers on my island, there are a couple I would consider letting move, and June is one of them. With that said, I enjoy bumping into June and talking to her when I am bopping around the island, so I am quite happy for her to stay.

The Wrap-Up:

So, that’s an end to all the house tours for the island of Esperanza! Well, I guess I never did a tour of my own house, but that’s a post for another time. I feel like I should wrap up by saying something about how much this game means to me … and so on. But, really, it’s a little hard for me to quite explain it. It’s a simple game, but it captures my attention and my heart like nobody’s business. After a long and stressful day at work, this is a definite highlight for me. I feel so many worries melting away as I run hither and yon across my little island paradise, talking to my villagers, fishing, digging up fossils, and just knowing that the “me” that I am in that moment is quite enough.

Animal Crossing Interlude #3: Plaza Neighborhood Houses

Hey, y’all! So, you already know how I am going to start out this post. Yep. I’m gonna start with: “Was January 25 really the last time we saw each other??!! Really??!!” I admit it: I have become quite a slug with this blog. There are a lot of reasons for it, and I am winding up to write about all of them. But I need to figure out what I want to write about and what I don’t want to write about. In the meantime, I really do want to get this blog up and running again on a more regular basis. I have my nail blog, which gets updated on a more regular basis (mostly because those posts are easier to write in the limited free time I have). But I miss this blog — a lot.

Anyhow, while I let my ideas rattle around in my brain and sift and settle, I am going to retreat back to something easy and light to more or less ease into my return. There will be more serious things to come, I promise. I still have deep thoughts. I’ve just been trying hard not to think them, which is not working out well for me so far. For now, “easy and light” translate into me talking about one of my continuing obsessions. That’s right, y’all: It is, once again, Animal Crossing time here in the blog! Say it with me: Woo Hoo!!

In this post, let’s tour through some of the villager houses that are in what I call my “Plaza Neighborhood”. As I mentioned in previous posts, I split my villagers into two neighborhoods when I did my last whole island redesign. The first neighborhood, which we have already toured, is near my orchard, so it is aptly named (in my mind) the “Orchard Neighborhood”. So, the Plaza Neighborhood is near … you guessed it! … my island’s Resident Services Building (which operates as the island’s town hall) and the plaza in front of it.

This is the right side of my plaza area. You can see I have a little fair/amusement park area on that side. The villager houses are near the left-hand side of the plaza, sitting between the edge of the plaza and one of my island’s rivers. There is a bridge across the river from the Orchard Neighborhood, which connects near Wendy’s house. So … let’s start there!

Wendy: This is the outside of Wendy’s house. Although I redid all the villager houses, I did not change the outside of Wendy’s home. She came with this house design, orange exterior, blue roof, and blue door. I changed the door for one with a window in it, and I added a cute blue rose wreath. Wendy is a peppy sheep. She is unfailingly cheerful and lovely, and I looove her bright blue and orange color scheme. I felt like her house exterior already fit her sunny personality perfectly, so I couldn’t bring myself to change it much. I gave her some fun orange roses along her walkway for a little bit of “oomph”. Like all my other villager houses, Wendy has a little patio. Hers is near the river and bridge, and it has a simple table and chairs on it.

I am a terrible ACNH junkie, because I actually don’t remember what Wendy’s house originally looked like. I looked up pictures of it online, and it showed her interior as being pretty cute and snowflake-themed, with a round space heater, the snowflake wall paper, a small stove, a round snowflake rug, a tall mirror, a simple bed, simple dresser, and simple nightstand — all in white. Um … I’m pretty sure my Wendy house did NOT come with any of these pieces. I think she moved in with some wooden block furniture or something. Anyhow … that’s neither here nor there for this post, I guess — ha, ha.

So this is Wendy’s interior now. I tried to make the interior design as fun, colorful, and cheerful as she is. If you are thinking Wendy is a favorite of mine, you would be right! I really love her. (I love all the current villagers on Esperanza, actually. I can’t bring myself to let any of them move away.) Wendy was one of the first villagers I ever sought out and invited to my island, so she is special and sentimental to me. I love her cute design and cheerful, happy personality.

So, I started with the accent wall. Wendy’s big personality demanded a BIG accent. I think this is called the “Mod Wallpaper” or something like that. It is all orange, all the time. It is bright and full of fun motion in the design. I couldn’t do this paper on all the walls, though, because it’s a LOT. I decided to tone the rest of the inside down with a more sedate and laid-back gray and white stripe. I used dark wood floors to balance everything out. After that, I added some cheerful pops of color with a colorful bunkbed/desk combo, some sunny floral prints, and blue in the stools and rug. I have to admit I had a hard time trying to mesh all these colors together, but I’m super happy with how this turned out. I think it is cute, cozy, and just cheerful enough to match my darling Wendy.

Next up is Hugh! Hugh is Wendy’s next-door neighbor. Their houses are at the back of the neighborhood, and Hugh is nearest the Plaza. Hugh’s house originally had this same overall shape, but it had a blue slate roof, white stucco siding, and a light blue door. I decided to give Hugh a bit of a “farmhouse” look to play up the clean lines of this house’s shape. I used the black slate roof and paired it with blue siding and a white door with a window. I love having the window doors on all the houses, because it makes it so much easier to see when folks are at home and accepting visitors! Hugh has a little patio that contains a hammock and a vending machine because … well “Hugh”!

Hugh is another favorite of mine. He was not an original to my island, but he was the second villager I invited to live on Esperanza after I was able to go out and search for tenants. He is an adorable lazy pig villager. He is dark blue with light blue spots and adorable, perky ears, and his eyes are two different colors. I find him cheerful and just … well … adorable! He never fails to bring a smile to my face when I visit Esperanza at the end of a long work day.

There he is!! Just look at how cute this guy is. I love him so much, and I will never let him move — no matter how many times he asks. So, I am pulling another “fail” on this house because I don’t remember exactly what Hugh’s house looked like when he first moved to my island. Like Wendy, I looked his house up online, but what I found does not match at all with what I remember. I think he had the log table and apple chairs, as well as a brown rug and, I think, the log shelves. He probably also had a bed, but I don’t remember which one.

For his redesign, I decided to carry the modern “farm house”/”log cabin” style from outside to the inside, but I wanted to brighten things up a lot. Y’all — I have terrible memories of that brown carpet and dark walls — ha, ha! I gave Hugh the log cabin aesthetic with a stacked wood accent wall and paired it with the Blue Moroccan Wall. I kept Hugh’s log shelves, but I gave him a TV, as he seems like a “TV watching” kind of guy. I put in a comfy sofa, also in blue tones, along with a little kitchen and eating space (complete with his apple chairs!). I finished everything off with a light colored floor to keep everything cheerful and bright, as well as some lighter colored rugs and wooden light fixtures. I gave Hugh some sea creature posters on his back wall because he’s kind of obsessed with food. Seriously — he talks about it a lot. You can’t see it in this picture, but I also put a little bug toy/statute on his log shelves. Because the only thing he talks about more than food are his big friends!

The Wrap-Up:

I decided to keep this first Plaza post shorter. Since my neighborhood is split into two houses in back and three in front, it seems logical to split the posts that way, too. Because I could go on and on and on and on about this silly, adorable, fun game. I guess the draw for me is just that: the fun of it all. It’s silly to think about living in a whole village of animals. And this is such a nice, slow-paced game. It gives me a perfect contrast to my demanding “real life” and job.

I have three more houses to share in my next interlude, so hopefully you will all tune in for that in upcoming days.

Animal Crossing Interlude No. 2: Orchard Neighborhood Houses

In today’s post, we are going to tour the last three houses in my Orchard Neighborhood. In the front of the neighborhood are, from left to right, houses for Jacques, Julia, and Flora. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in the previous post, but it was a little bit of a challenge to fit all of the houses into this open island space. Because of this, I didn’t have much room for yards or outside decor on the houses. This was a little bit of a bummer to me, as I wanted to do cute, little fenced yards for each house because I love how charming that can be. Since I didn’t have room for this, I gave each house a little patio that I tried to decorate according to each villager’s personality.

Jacques: At the front of the Orchard Neighborhood, the house on the farthest left side, next to the beach, belongs to Jacques. Jacques is a smug bird villager with a dark blue, bright lime green, and yellow-orange color scheme. This is the outside of his house, which I ended up changing quite a bit. The exterior is the same style, but it used to have dark paneling, a dark green roof, and a blue door. I changed out the siding for a lighter color, as Jacques’s house is right in front of Static’s. I didn’t want two dark houses right together. I was never wild about the green roof, so I switched it for blue, and I kept the blue door. I gave Jacques a “cool” sofa, some fun lava lamps, and a microphone on his patio because he is always singing!

Welcome to Jacque’s house! This is what you see as you come in the door. His house originally had concrete walls, steel flooring, a surveillance camera, a laptop computer, the starry garland, an exit sign, a DJ turntable, a synthesizer, a diner neon clock, a diner counter, a diner mini table, and a diner neon sign. Overall, his natural decor was very “diner” and very “warehouse”. I think it was intended to represent an edgy, musician sort of aesthetic, but I wasn’t a fan. His house wasn’t welcoming, and it did not seem very “house-like” or comfortable.

Here is an overhead view showing more or less the entire house. Jacques is smug and kind of sophisticated, in an urban way. At least, that’s how he always strikes me. I used the city wallpaper as an accent wall and dark brick on the rest of the walls. I have had this “wacky” flooring in my storage for a long time, and I always wanted to use it in my own house. I never could figure out how to do it. It’s a hard flooring to use because of the colors and the pattern. It’s pretty bold, even in ACNH world. I felt like it was just right for Jacques, and I based my other choices more or less around this flooring.

I picked the “cool” sofa design with a bright green color to match the flooring and Jacques’s color scheme. I gave him a small ironwood bed with neutral bedding, as well as a retro stereo, a bright green-yellow lava lamp, a small kitchen, and a fireplace for a cozy feeling to the house. I put a TV above the sofa and decided to add a bit of extra “elegance” with a console table and bonsai tree behind the sofa. Jacques’s house was my last redesign on the island, and it turned out to be my favorite!

Julia: Julia is Jacques’s next-door neighbor. She is a snooty ostrich villager with a peacock-themed appearance that uses blues and greens as the dominant color scheme. Julia is my only snooty villager. I find this is a personality type I can only take in small doses. With that said, I actually like Julia. She has an interesting and fun character design, and she seems sweet underneath her natural snootiness. She’s more like that snooty best friend who makes you laugh with their antics than someone who is actively trying to be mean.

I didn’t change much on the exterior of Julia’s house. The house’s style, siding, and roof are all the same. I gave Julia a little patio with a simple garden table and chairs set. I added a different wreath, and changed the door design and color.

Hello, Julia! May I come into your house and make myself at home?

I ended up straying pretty far from the house’s original design in my redo. Julia’s house originally had green moulded panel walls and the simple blue flooring. She had the rattan bed, rattan towel basket, rattan low table, rattan vanity, rattan stool, rattan end table, and rattan bed. (Clearly, Julia is a fan of the rattan!) She also had the long bathtub, the bathroom towel rack, the black wooden deck rug, a bathrobe hanging on the wall, and a portable record player. In the end, I tried to capture the main feeling of Julia’s original house design, but I feel like I did not preserve much of her style. Sorry about that, Julia!

To me, Julia’s original house design was all about a relaxing, spa-like experience in a fancy bathroom, as well as hitting her blue and green color scheme pretty hard. Because there was so much white in the design, it felt cold and uncomfortable to me. I decided to warm up the interior with wood tones in an antique bed, some simple night stands, wooden flooring, and some wooden screens to delineate the bathroom. I wanted Julia to have her relaxing spa bathroom, even if it had to be tiny. So I screened off part of the room just for that. She still has a cute tub, as well as her vanity and a rattan stool. I added a shower over the tub, as well as some plants in the bathroom area. I paid homage to her original green and white walls by giving her the green floral accent wall and white brick walls in the rest of the house. I softened things up a bit by adding peach stripes rugs (which always look pink to me) across the back of the room for the bedroom and the bathroom. Julia also has a tiny kitchen and fridge, as well as a cute little eating area.

Flora: Flora’s house is the last house in the Orchard Neighborhood, but certainly not the least! She is Julia’s next-door neighbor, and her house is directly in front of Shep’s house, next to the river. Flora is a peppy ostrich villager with a pink flamingo design. She is one of two peppy villagers who live on my island, and I adore her. She is so cute and enthusiastic about life and cheerful. I love her little sayings, as well as her crazy sartorial choices! Flora is definitely a villager who can NEVER LEAVE. (*insert ominous music …*)

I did not change Flora’s house shape, but I changed up the exterior a bit. She originally had a pink clay exterior, white wooden roof, and pink iron grill door. I flipped the color scheme by giving the house a white clay exterior and pink roof. I gave her a black door for a pop of contrast, and I added a little patio on the side. Because Flora seems so cheerful and playful, I gave her a donut-themed director’s chair and a fun pink tent. The bridge in front of Flora’s house connects across the river to the Plaza Neighborhood.

Welcome to Flora’s house! Come in and make yourself at home, because you finally have a place to sit.

I say this because Flora’s original house design was pretty much “open meadow with pond” and very little furniture. Her house had the meadow vista wallpaper on every wall, oasis flooring (which is basically sand with a little pond in the middle), a wild log bench, a log bench, a sleeping bag, a campfire, a portable radio, and Mr. and Mrs. Flamingo.

I only have one interior picture of Flora’s house because it is probably the most visually simple of the redesigns. I changed the interior drastically so that it looks more like a house and not a swampy meadow. I kept the log bench, but brightened it up with a white color scheme. I kept a water-themed accent wall and added light pink walls for the rest of the house. I gave Flora simple white board flooring, and I stuck with the green and blue color themes by using the blue Persian rug on the floor. I gave her a small, simple bed with brightly colored, fun bedding, and I carried the bedding colors to the other side of the house with some fun director’s chairs. I added a cute lily pad table to continue the water theme, and I let Flora keep her portable radio. Finally, I gave Flora a HUGE tub to replace the pond she previously had in the middle of her floor. I finished things out with a tiny kitchen and fridge and one of the flamingoes.

The Wrap-Up:

I’m not sure how to end things other than to say, “That’s it for the Orchard Neighborhood! I hope you enjoyed your tour!” As I said in my previous post, I had a lot of fun with these redos. The fun thing about ACNH is that you can run around and basically do whatever you want. Yes, there are limits in terms of camera angles and spacing, and so on. But there are few limits to the creativity and simple, mindless fun of this game. I think that’s what drew me to it in such a huge way: That it is mindless, happy fun. I need that in my life!

I want to show a tour of the houses in my other neighborhood, too. So, I will probably tackle that in a future post — hopefully in the near future!

Animal Crossing Interlude No. 1: Orchard Neighborhood Houses

So. Here I am, bopping around in my “life” blog once again. Well … Not “bopping”, exactly. More like slinking or slumping in with my twin companions of Shame and Depression. Are things better in my life since the last post? Nope. Not even a little bit. But, are they worse? Also Nope. And that is a good thing.

I’m tired of talking about things that feel “wrong” in my life. Basically, I feel like there is so much “wrong” at the moment that it is difficult for me to see past that and find anything that is “right”. You know what I mean? Yeah. I may not be explaining it well, but if you have felt this, you will know exactly what I mean. Anyhow, I don’t want to talk about depression or sadness or “wrong” stuff today. So I decided to post a little interlude of something that I obsess over and that always seems to bring a smile to my face. Yes! That’s right! It’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons time here! Is this game still popular with the masses? Um … I have no idea. Is it still popular with me? HELLZ YEAH it is!

I just did a quick search of this blog, and it looks like I have not done any Animal Crossing-related posts. How can this be? I started playing this game after watching my daughter play it and build her island for a number of months. There is something about this quirky, charming little game that drew me right in. The characters are super cute, and I love that you can run around aimlessly with only some loose “goals” in mind. It’s a very low-stress sort of game, which definitely appeals to me, given the demands of daily “adulting”.

Some Island History:

So, to give a quick overview of my island, this is my Town Hall/Plaza area. That’s my little character, posing for the camera. I have since changed my appearance: new hair color, new glasses, different clothing. But you get the idea. I started playing this game around Mother’s Day, either in 2020 or 2021. I can’t remember the year for sure, as time has completely blurred for me since the Pandemic and work-from-home. I started out with a different avatar in the game. My account initially was an offshoot of my daughter’s account, which worked fine for a while. Once the DLC update for the Paradise Planning “work” island came available, I had to figure out how to separate my island and account from my daughter’s without losing all of my island data. It was not an easy task, y’all. There was a very lengthy phone call with Nintendo customer support on which they brought in several different representatives. But (!!) at the end of the day, they were able to help me separate out my island so I did not lose any data and so I could play the DLC. Success!! My island currently has two player “residents”, which my daughter and I laughingly call “Drunk Girl” (my current avatar, so-named because I tend to run into things) and “Ghost Girl” (my previous avatar), along with two player houses.

My island is called “Esperanza”. Obviously, my island residents have changed here and there since I first started. My current, and probably ride-or-die, residents are Static, Shep (who you can see in the above photo, listening to KK), Jacques, Julia, Flora, Wendy, Hugh, June, Drago, and Flurry. As I said, these folks are not all originals. I think Wendy and Hugh may be the closest to “OG” residents, as they were among the first I invited to my island. I went through a lot of experimenting to find a villager balance I enjoy. I originally had two “jock” villagers, but I realized it is a personality type I don’t like. I had a different “snooty” villager, who had a super cute design, but who actively annoyed me with her personality. I also had a couple of “normal” villagers along the way that I found annoying. When I look at my current cast of characters, I feel pretty happy with the balance of personalities and individual characters. I genuinely like interacting with each of them, and there are only one or two I would (maybe) consider allowing to move away. I have completed my Critterpedia with my current avatar, as well as completing the Museum collections for bugs, fish, and fossils, and I did a whole island “re-do” last May, which was a huge project!

The Orchard Neighborhood

Part of the DLC is that, at a certain point (after you’ve designed 30 vacation houses), you get the ability to redesign your villagers’ houses on your own island. For this post, I want to share some of those redesigns, focusing on one of the two neighborhoods on my island, the Orchard Neighborhood. You can see a small overview of that neighborhood in the above photo. Static, Shep, Jacques, Julia, and Flora all live in the Orchard Neighborhood. Static and Shep are next-door neighbors with houses on the back row of the neighborhood, closest to the orchard. This post is going to focus on their houses.

Static: Static’s house is at the far left side (beach side) at the back of the neighborhood. Static is a grumpy purple squirrel villager with a yellow zigzag marking that looks like lightning. He’s the only grumpy on my island. This is the outside of his house (note my festively fun Halloween costume — ha, ha!). I changed this up a little bit, as Static’s house originally had dark siding all around, a yellow door, and the purple roof. I decided to put some yellow roses around his house to keep with the color theme. Since Static seems like a music lover to me, I added a guitar, a comfy chair (for his “old bones”), and a little table to his patio.

Welcome to Static’s new home! You can see my cute, little purple buddy right there, showing off his new digs. I tried to stick with purples and yellows as a basic color scheme, and I wanted to give him a sort of “hipster” vibe with different patterns on the light fixtures, some plants, and framed album covers on the walls.

Here is a view-from-above shot of the interior. Static’s house originally had all concrete walls, dark skull-print flooring, the high-end stereo, the rattan bed, a rattan chair and table, the rock guitar, a DIY workbench, and one of the iron wall lamps. I was able to use a lot of Static’s original belongings in the new design. I kept the stereo, the bed, and the workbench. I also kept the iron wall lamp and added a couple of extras on the back wall. I gave him a new wood floor so I could bring some color into the design with the purple Persian rug, and I added two sets of drawers on either side of the bed, as well as a tiny kitchen area with a fridge, and some fun hanging lights. The rattan table was too big to keep, so I replaced it with the small cafe table and two box stools. You will see this cute little table and stools combo happening in pretty much every villager redesign, because it packs a lot of visual punch while taking up a small amount of space!

Shep: Static’s next-door neighbor is Shep. He is a dog villager with a smug personality, and he has a brown color scheme. I think he is modeled after a sheepdog, hence the name “Shep”. I changed up Shep’s exterior quite a bit. His house originally had more of a “tropical” or “island” look to it, with light tan/pink siding and darker brown accents and a light straw roof. I always think of Shep as being kind of “earthy” or “outdoorsy” because of his color scheme and also because of his original house design. I tried to keep that theme going with the new look, and I included a log chair, a brick oven, and a little tray with a drink on his patio. Shep’s patio faces the river, and I like to think of him sitting there and enjoying a drink as he watches life go by!

Come on in and put your feet up! This is what you see when you go into Shep’s house. I changed this up quite a bit from the original design, which had the log cabin walls, wooden knot flooring, a retro stereo, the wood burning stove, a shower booth, the log bed, log decorative shelves, a pot rack, a magnetic knife rack, the ironwood DIY workbench, a mini fridge, the gas range, a deer decoration, an old-fashioned alarm clock, and the red Kilim style carpet.

Here is an overview, so you can see pretty much the whole house. I was able to keep the log bed, although I changed the color scheme, the deer head decor, and the shower booth. But I replaced pretty much everything else! I tried to keep the “cabin” feeling with a wooden accent wall and some plain light blue walls on the rest of the room. I replaced the wood stove with a fireplace and the retro stereo with an upright speaker. I replaced his gas stove with the open framework kitchen. I used this in most of my redesigns because it gives a stove and sink in one item. I added a red fridge for a pop of color, and I replaced his red Kilim style carpet with a blue one. I wanted some additional pops of yellows to balance out the blues and the red, so I added a yellow sofa and yellow box stools with his new cafe table. I kept his original deer head decoration and added two more, but I changed the color to black, and I put a TV above the fireplace, as well as framed album covers and a food-themed poster (of the sea creatures, from my museum) in the kitchen area. Although you can’t see it very well, I changed out the wooden knot flooring for the gold iron parquet flooring to give just a little design around the edges of the room.

The Wrap-Up:

That concludes today’s neighborhood tour on Esperanza! Each of my island neighborhoods has five houses, and each of them are staggered with two houses in the back and three in the front. So, there are three houses left to go for Orchard.

I put off redesigning the villager houses for a long time. After playing the game for a while with the villager houses in their original appearances, it was hard for me to wrap my brain around how I would change them. I have a habit of falling into a rut where my brain is like: “No. You can’t change this. You have to leave all this stuff in here but can only move it around.” It’s silly and it’s totally my own hang-up or my own mental block. Anyhow, I’m glad I finally decided to redo all of the houses. It was a fun last step in my overall island redo!

What about you guys? Do any of you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Are you obsessed with this game like I am? Do you have any favorite characters in the game? I would love to hear all about it!