All the way back in January, I created a cozy, little cottage in Minecraft. While I liked the alien twist I put on it at the time, it needed an update.

This time, I went for a more classic style. I have watched a lot of Minecraft videos since January (Minecraft streams are a surprisingly good background for working) and decided to go beyond a one-room cottage. I built created seven spaces, including a kitchen, a living room, two bedrooms, and an outdoor living space. I also built a stable to keep horses in. The cabin is two stories and features a second-floor balcony.

The interior design of the original cottage was non-existent. This time, I added in light features, artwork, rugs, and a fireplace (which every time I lit, lit the house on fire). I even added some decorative end tables.

Additionally, keeping in tune with the first cabin, I added in some animals. There are two horses in the stable named Smoke and Astra, two polar bears inside the fence named Snowbell and Lars, and three dogs named Colton, Prince, and Floof. I decided to forgo the pandas in favor of the polar bears because let’s be honest, the pandas would not have survived in that climate.

This build was really fun to do. It took a lot less time to do because I had more experience with building and the tips and tricks available. I used a different style of roofing and added half-slabs of wood on the outside of the house to break up the two floors. While my first cottage was incredibly boxy and flat, this cottage has much more definition and visual appeal.

I love Minecraft. It has been my obsession since I downloaded it last July. So, when I saw a design assignment to build my own cottage in Minecraft, it was a no-brainer.

This is actually the second creative mode build I have ever done. Back in middle school, I created a beautiful, massive hole in the ground that I build as a mining pit for all of my slaves. It was a sight to behold. Sadly, as I was building my diamond castle across the water, our family computer died. And when I say died, I mean it was with the computer gods. At the time, Minecraft was not owned by Microsoft (it was purchased by them in 2014). This meant that there was no safety net for my existing worlds. When I downloaded Minecraft on the new computer, nothing had been saved. It would be July 2021 before I downloaded Minecraft again.

Alright enough with the pity party. Let’s see what I built!

I started off by choosing what seed I wanted to build in. Now obviously the only seed worth building a cottage in is the Snowy Village.

Pretty good spawn point. Right by a village and the frozen water. It is also snowing which sparks the creative cottagecore juices.

Four hours later, here is my cottage!

I went with a purple and blue color palette since those colors looked best against the snowy backdrop. The red plants around the house add a bit of a color punch. I added two perimeter walls for added protection. Each door is activated by a button and the inner perimeter is patrolled by winter foxes, whom I all named Fox Trot.

In my backyard, I have a storage shed, a horse pen, and a panda pen. The white horse is named Snowball and the black horse is named Stormy. They provide transportation through the vast snowy fields. My two pandas are Mooncake and Dim Sum. They provide entertainment.

Now on to the inside of the house. I went with an open-concept living space with the living and sleeping area right in the middle. All the chests are filled to the brim with all the supplies needed to survive for the winter. Food? Check. Fuel source? Check. Weapons and armor and potions? Check, check, and check.

You might have noticed the five dogs sitting all politely in the cottage. Let me introduce you to Prince, Colton, Snoot, Buster, and Mochi. All there to provide comfort, warmth, and love all winter long.

It wouldn’t be a cottage without some candles and flowers to brighten up the room.

Finally, here is my beautiful winter cottage all nicely lit up at night.

Overall, this was a really fun assignment to complete. It may not be my slave pit from ten years ago, but I am extremely proud of my cottage. This was a nice break from all my other assignments this week and I enjoyed designing every aspect of it.

Unlike you in this class who play Minecraft, I didn’t create my first world 8 or 9 years ago. I didn’t buy the game until about 10 months ago, when I needed a break from cramming and I hadn’t had a creative outlet for awhile. At first I did a lot of exploring, but I quickly tired of dying thousands of blocks from home. Then, I tried to conquer the nether, where I died even more. I’ve tried using redstone (Minecraft’s equivalent to electricity) to make a few automatic machines, but the details usually escape me. Eventually I realized my favorite way to play Minecraft is by mining and crafting, the basics.

My first house was a basic wood shack, which eventually gained a couple floors, windows, and a basement mineshaft. But, despite these upgrades, it was still a starter home and I’ve been ready for a change for awhile. So, first things first, I wanted to plan out my design. In a different world with creative mode on, I planned out a few different designs for my house and other structures I’d been working on.

I wanted to make the house asymmetric from every angle and use a pretty wide range of blocks to keep it visually interesting. These designs were edited down a fair bit later, but now I had a starting point. After gathering materials-I was building this in my survival world-I got to work. A few days and more hours than I’d like to admit later, I had something I’m proud to call my home! Let me give you a tour.

Hopefully this home lasts me a bit longer than the last one, but if I do another renovation maybe I’ll let you know!

When seeing this assignment, I was INSTANTLY drawn to it because of my experience with video games and how they have been my biggest creative outlet for much of my life. I wanted to do something related to Bob Ross somehow, so I found a Bob Ross inspired painting to recreate in Minecraft. I figured building with Minecraft’s typical limitations could make things a lot more difficult, so I went ahead and downloaded some mods to add in new blocks and mechanics into the game. It allowed me to build a much smaller scale, making things way more accurate. Slowly but surely I chipped away at blocks and added bits and pieces where they belonged and eventually came to a final product that I am VERY happy with.

It may not be completely accurate, and some proportions may be wrong, but ultimately, I can say with certainty that the bottom picture is clearly based on the top.