Prim & Proper (Orius' American Suburban Neighborhood)

[Orius]

Welcome to Rising Sun

Hi.​

Welcome. The name is Orius. I'm a Singaporean who does giveaways. Lots of giveaways. This is my 5 star rating island (the island flag is the Singaporean flag). It had a humble start with basically nothing fancy, and now it's some upper class suburb with roses, a pool area, hedges, a café, and lots and lots of classical music.

The island name comes from the nickname of Japan, "The Rising Sun." Why have a Japanese name for an American suburban-themed island? Because I like anime and didn't think things through and now couldn't change my island name. lol Also, I just really like Japanese culture anyway. Plus, I really like the sound of it, "Rising Sun". Feels like it signifies hope, a land where the sun always rises again.

Chilling at the café by the river.​

It's definitely still a work in progress as 40-50% of the island is still empty patches of land with no decorations, but I've come a long way from just winging it with random and haphazard arrangements. I've even incorporated my initial island layout into my design. The one river surrounding both sides of my island had originally bugged me, but I decided to use it as part of my island charm.

Selfie at the museum.​

The museum is uncompleted, but much like the island, it has seen lots of donations too since my start a month ago. I think I'm perhaps 50% completed with the donations. Initially, I wanted to add historical themes to each side of the museum; the left side would have a space theme with rockets and moon landers; the right side would be an Egyptian theme with a Sphinx and sarcophaguses. However, that proves problematic since you could see the space and Egyptian décor while sipping tea in each of the town squares (as seen below), and it just looks out of place.

Smells lovely.​

Definitely a very posh place, so a goofy space exhibit in the background just wasn't suitable, especially with classical music playing here. But yep, this does all feel very snobbish and pretentious. lol But that's also kinda the point. I dreamed of an island as a high class American suburb where you play golf, suntan by the pool, have barbecue parties and just sip tea. lmao It's kinda amusing and fun considering that a) I'm a non-American, and b), I'm poor as heck.

My neighbor is Merry, my favorite villager.​

To be fair, I had references from the Internet, so this really helped me envision my design. I think my suburban home is still a bit less fancy than the one that gave me the inspiration (pictured below), but look! Garden gnomes! How suburban-ish. All I'm missing are the garbage bins and white picket fences (coming soon on November 5th!).

My inspiration.​

So that's about it for now, but bigger things are going to come. I plan to have multiple small gardens in the future once the November 5th update drops. Plus, a library and perhaps even a school.

Keep following this thread to stay updated!

 

[Orius]

9/18
Did a little customization today:

I noticed that the color of my furniture didn't match the jungle wallpaper in my bedroom, so I changed it. Also, I'm hoping to have each room of mine have its own theme in the future... as soon as I could afford more rooms.

Speaking of money, Mermaid Screens are the hot item today, but I lack the mats needed to make a profit. Typical. I've got the pearls, but sand dollars and giant clams don't respawn immediately. I did manage to sell two, so it's about 92,000 bells. Not too shabby, but nothing impressive when it still costs me 50,000 to move a single house.

But anyway...

Some of you might have already seen my Mario-themed room. Well, it's not technically Mario-themed and more like Mario-wallpapered; it's the only decent-looking wallpaper I could find that isn't boring (aside from my jungle one). Still, it's pretty homey. Just like my real bedroom. Almost as haphazardly designed as my real bedroom, actually, without a distinct theme or identity...

Maybe someday, I'll get to put this sphinx to good use if I ever get a desert/Egyptian-themed wallpaper.

Maybe a Tokyo-themed island would be nice, with this Godzilla figurine in it. Or maybe a movie-monster one... but that would be difficult unless AC has a bunch of other figurines like this lying around. It's only by luck that I got to buy this yesterday.

Man, if only I have a Tyranitar figurine to match it...

That's all for today, I'm afraid. Still no progress on the layout design because I'm still slowly earning my miles and bells. Hopefully, I could earn enough miles someday to buy enough bell tickets.

 

[Orius]

Sorry about the lack of updates (in spite of my promise about big changes coming), but I'm still in the middle of building-shifting, and that can take at least another week or more.

But rest assured...

Big things are coming...​

 

[Orius]

I know, I know, I haven't updated in a long time. But I took a break... or at least I tried to take a break, but then felt like doing giveaways using my Treasure Island, and got distracted somewhere along the way.

But tonight, I decided to put in a little effort and put up these Halloween décor and also replaced those pansies (lol pansies) with red and white roses instead. Work in progress, because there's A LOT of roses I need to ship off my treasure island... six roses at a time. Yeah.

Might do a little time-traveling in the future to rearrange the layout once K.K. Slider finishes his visit to my island... oh right, I finally got 3 stars for my island after getting 10 villagers and now KK is finally visiting.

After that, I'll hopefully get the terraforming tool and reshaping my island should be easier. There's a lot of layout rearranging to do, so I think I definitely require time-traveling. I've learned the trick of "resetting your time-traveling by adjusting the clock to the previous Sunday," so hopefully, this won't cause too much damage to my island. Fingers crossed.

Till next time.

 

[Orius]

Right, so Nintendo just dropped an explosion on us with tons of updates, and while I don't have the same mind-blowing hurricane that keeps on giving like Nintendo, I too have quite a few updates since my last post:

So, I think you could say that the entrance of the island, the very first thing you'd see as you step off the island, is now completed. What's changed here since the last picture is the addition of those lampposts and the replacements of roses with leaf piles beneath the trees. Initially, I felt that lampposts in addition to the pumpkin towers (which already illuminate the area) might be too much, but I think it fits well with the rest of the posh décor I have on the island.

---

The aforementioned leaf piles.

---

The left-side courtyard is also completed, with the Beautiful Statue centered in it all. I still need to put another Beautiful Statue for my right-side courtyard, but I haven't gotten round to it. lol You know me, classic procrastinator.

---

The museum is finally positioned in an ideal location rather than getting stuck in some backwoods at the back of the island. Right now, it's to the side of the Resident Services Building, just in front of the right-side courtyard, with a fountain decoration on each side.

The thing about these courtyards is that, there's a lot of roses needed, and I haven't gotten around to getting enough yet. lol The way the roses breeds and spreads different colored roses certainly didn't help with my decoration plan. Had to keep digging out pink and purple roses when all I need are red and whites.

And while I didn't plan it that way, the red and white roses go well with my island flag, the red and white Singaporean flag.

---

Finally had Merry, my favorite villager of all time, become my neighbor. Initially, I had this over-compensating design where each house has a 10-square front yard, and that just didn't leave enough space to have houses positioned right next to each other, especially when there's a river cutting us off on each side of the island.

So I had to compensate and reduced the size of the yard to great effect. Now, not only are Merry and I neighbors, but Kid Cat and Agent S too! Initially, they were literally positioned on each side of the island, separated by an entire airport. lol So glad I could bring them together.

---

These two houses positioned on the right side of the beach are my two "Hotel Houses" that store the giveaway villagers I would host for forum members. There's a third Hotel house on the left side, just standing alone by itself, which is why I'm not too happy with the positioning. The positions of these houses were determined by having the quickest way to lead visitors to their requested villagers ASAP. The layout is made for practicality, not aesthetics. But I might consider changing that third lonely house to the right side instead in the future, joining the others.

---

I added a little play area to the left side of my house, sort of like a toddler kindergarten area where villagers could drop off their kids. lol

---

Agent S wrote this heartfelt letter when I was feeling down one day. She really made me feel special. I think it's around this time that I started to really like her much more than I initially did, taking a special interest to her. I found her cute before, but this letter showed her charismatic way with kind words.

---

And finally, we have bridges! Yes, more than one bridge. Because of the way the rivers are positioned on my island, it makes terraforming them away challenging. You see the edge of the river there on the bottom? I can't change that. I can't add land to that, so it leaves this little ugly stream of riverbed without a connecting river. Looks awkward, like some kindergartener just suddenly erased part of a river and left it unfinished.

So, I had no choice but to succumb to the island layout and just did the best I could, using the one surrounding river around the island as part of the island's aesthetic. It's not the worst design choice I was forced to make, and even the bridges have added a homey kind of charm. But still, I kinda wish I had picked a better island layout at the beginning of the game.

Three of the villagers you see in the picture are no longer with us - Clay, Hamlet and Frita. Most of my villagers will now consist of different species and personality... or at least, that was the initial plan. However, I missed Agent S, one of my first Mysterious Island villagers, so I brought her back in spite of having another squirrel I adore (good ol' Marshal). I also miss Frita. In spite of her weird fashion choice, she's such a sweet fellow with her letters, possibly far more than Agent S, always so caring and sisterly, so I plan to invite her back someday soon.

---

So, what's next for me? Well, the next step of the plan still involves layout rearrangement and villager homes being moved to ideal places, but I think we've made a lot of progress since we've started. That's just me though, always leaving my work to the last minute. Could never rid myself of that habit since Primary School. lol

With the new Nintendo update coming, I'm afraid that a lot more villager home repositioning is going to be necessary too since we need a mini-farm for each villager! Potatoes and carrots! I guess I could always just have one big farm that the villagers could pick from, but we'll just have to see what's to come.

Starting from November 5th, I'll also stop my time-traveling temporarily as I enjoy the daily island life the new update brings me. It's a great time to be an Animal Crossing fan again, and it's an even better time for a new beginner like myself since I arrived at a time when so many wonderful gifts are being showered by Nintendo. It's like buying Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and then finding out that they're releasing Pokémon Emerald next month. lmao I suppose it's fate that I got to buy the Switch and AC last September, bringing me in just when things are about to get wild and crazy.

Look forward to the next update, as I'm sure all of you have a lot of crazy fun updates in the coming month as well.

 

[Orius]

Did a little more decorating round the island:

Finally have our first café. It's no Roost, but it works. It's small and quaint, and you get to enjoy Café K.K. while having your meal.

---

A little pool by the side of Beau's house. I tried my best to make it as big as possible, but my island layout forced me to work with what I have. lol

Work in progress. More beach chairs and beach towels coming soon.

---

Would you like a spot of tea? With a dash of K.K. Sonata on the side (K.K. Étude is playing on the other side)?

---

The fruits mini-island! Contains the native fruit apples and non-native oranges!

---

Merry being lovely as always. This is why I love her.

---

A little villager visit in another villager's home (Merry in Anabelle's). Pretty cute, Merry hanging out with Anabelle.

---

Caught this lovely sight of a trio singing K.K. Sonata. You had to hear it personally to know how beautiful it was. lol (Ignore the date; it's all wrong from my time-traveling)

And for all my effort of decorating, what do I get? Well, just a little reward known as... a 5 STAR RATING. Nothing much. LMAO

Finally! After all the hard work! We've reached 5 stars, baby~!

More beauty sights to come in the coming future, hopefully.

 

[Orius]

Some Halloween fun.

And now all the decorations come down. Time for Turkey Day décor.

Also...

Another trio-singing session sighting. These are always fun to spot.

 

[Orius]

Time for the big update! Guess this thread will be updated quite often from now on. lol Feel free to share your thoughts about my island in this thread any time! Would love to hear from you.

---

While I was getting changed for the (afternoon) calisthenics, Kid Cat surprised me with a visit!

I mean, he's no Merry, but I'm always glad to have company, so it's nice to have him around, that muscle-goof.

---

And then it's off to the calisthenics! It's a bit late for it, but better late than never!

Me failing at stretching...
​

I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, singing ayooo, calisthenics... yo!​

Everyone refreshed from the (afternoon) exercise​

---

More to come, hopefully! lol There's just so much to do I don't know where to start...

 

[Orius]

Lots of update today. Looks like the 2.0 content made me busier than I expected.

I'm also probably gonna start shrinking the size of these photos now that we're getting so many updates.

Today's calisthenics: Dodo brothers, Kapp'n, Tom Nook, Maple, and Julia. Seems like Kapp'n's always around for these things, that early bird.

---

My first gyroids today: a pink Babbloid and a green Sproingoid! I had to turn off my Hi-Fi Stereo just to hear them sing though. lol

---

Marshal being awesome as always.

---

Visited Maple's home today. Such a lovely little bear cub. Also, it almost looks like she's whispering a secret to me in the photo above.

---

Built my first kitchen... diner! Now I'm ready for cooking those 2.0 dishes!

Yep. I could only get off my lazy butt to build a kitchen when I'm obligated to. The other rooms in my house is still empty.

---

Another trip with Kapp'n and his fine shanty. I like that quite a lot of his shanties have to do with following your dreams.

---

Julia and Frita sharing a moment. Seems like Frita had her bath's temperature too high. I know Frita dresses like a hotdog bun, but hot dang, she almost turned into literal food. lol Julia's being awesome and offered her some advice and skin cream. Not bad for a snooty villager.

---

Seems like Merry had a bad dream about a fish calling out on her decoration skills. lol But this seems to be the first time ever a villager invited me to her home. Might have to do with the 2.0 update.

While there, she offered me (almost) any item in her house for free, though she seems attached to that System Kitchen I had my eye on. lol

After which, a free song! Her favorite song! Neapolitan!

Seems appropriate, how it has this elegant and relaxing feel to it, much like Merry's style.

Speaking of style, that trench coat she's wearing is a gift of mine. Well, technically, she asked for it and I gave it to her. :3 I think it looks good on her, especially with the olive green matching her furniture. Merry has good taste in fashion, to no one's surprise.

---

The HHP got downloaded yesterday, and I met Lottie for the first time! Well, technically, the first time was in Pocket Camp. :3 I quite enjoyed the Happy Home content even then, even though it's limited in scale compared to the real Happy Home games.

And I've met Niko the cute little monkey! Seems like he'll be the next Marshal/Raymond according to popularity polls.

You gotta love how proud Lottie looks. lol

---

Our first home of the day, Eloise's reading room! I felt kinda bad about hitting her on the net back then to move her out, so I'm glad for this favor. :3

Not too shabby, I say. Looks like a relaxing library! I had to rush somewhere so it's not perfect. I chose a more relaxing color like baby blue and soft pink for the wall and flooring. The three ceiling plants above the shelves are perfect for the relaxing atmosphere while she's chilling and reading on that rocking chair. I also had an Atlantic Ocean world map pasted on the other side of the wall that I didn't get to show.

---

Next up is Maddie's turn. I was actually quite intrigued by her streamer paradise as I have an interest in filmmaking.

This one was a bit tougher as I had to design both her exterior and interior paradise. Forgot to photograph the exterior one... lol The exterior of the estate looks like a royal Japanese estate on a plateau with cherry blossom trees surrounding the area. I'll try to photograph it if I ever visit there again.

As for the interior, initially, I wanted to match the more cutesy look I had for her on the outside, but I decided that it needed to look more "stylish," so I went with a cooler disco club feel that looks like your typical streamer bedroom (with a desk computer and a bed). And yes, that's the Shocked Pikachu meme I had downloaded using Custom Design a while ago. I thought it would look amusing for her streaming show. lol

More designs to come, hopefully! This is pretty fun!

---

And to end today's entry, here's lovely Maple again that makes me feel all warm and tingly with her kind words. Aw.

 

[Orius]

6th November Update

Invited Isabelle over for a nice cup 'o' joe using her Amiibo card. Finally, Isabelle gets more dialogue and interactions! And that's just one of 500 Amiibo cards...

---

And invited my favorite villager too. ^^ "Turnip Your Enthusiasm". God, these puns. These are some spicy meme-worthy puns. Larry would be proud.

---

And then there were three, an Aluminoid.

---

Incredibly foggy morning... Looks like a horror movie set.​

Today's melancholic song of the day is brought to you by visiting NPC K.K. Slider. Got my first new 2.0 song, K.K. Lovers. I tried not to request for another song 'coz I want to slowly explore the new songs.

---

Found Julia at Able Sisters today. No surprise there, Julia shopping for the latest fashion. ^^

---

Maple being a psychic from my choice of tea... Yeah, definitely been working hard even after I said I'd relax after 2.0. lmao

---

And now, the final step of the suburban home: white picket fences, AT LAST! And we have cars too! Now we just need to create some roads 'coz this ain't Back to the Future and where we're going, we'll definitely need roads.

---

And to end this entry, here's Maple once again being awesome.