My Colossal Aldmeri Grotto

Carbonised

Time to showcase my Colossal Aldmeri Grotto. First off, this is a home I didn't plan on getting. The Grotto is actually a terrible home. It's one of the largest, if not the largest, home in the game, with a vast outdoor area, as well as a decent sized ship vessel. So I guess you could either decorate the boat and have an empty grotto, or decorate the grotto and have an empty boat. Neither solution is pretty satisfying. Shame ZOS for continuing to release these gargantuan homes with such a paltry item limit. Boo. Anyway, the reason I did decide to get it after all, was that I needed to migrate my coral garden to another home, prior to the grotto, I had a moderately sized coral garden in my Tel Galen beach, since I do love things connected with the sea and the shore, but it took up too much space, and the Aldmeri Grotto was the perfect place to relocate it, and expand vastly on it. So I decided I could make a decent coral garden in this home, as well as do a little decorating with the ruins and the boat itself. And when the Grotto was on discounted sale last time, I grabbed it.

So, don't expect anything particularly fancy here, it is a home decorated after a nautical theme, with lots of items connected to the ocean. The ship itself has a bedroom and a captain's room, and is decorated in the Alinor style, again with focus on using pearls, ivory, seashells and starfish as decorations. There are a few empty areas on the ship, simply due to the item limit. The grotto itself holds a smaller fishing vessel, some anchors and other nautical items, as well as a large collection of both Alinor style limestone corals, and the Antler corals. Dispersed in the corals are a lot of kelp, starfish, seashells and giant clams. Inland and away from the shore, cherry trees and seagrape trees fill the grotto, and a line of cherry trees, what I like to call the Cherry Path, runs up to the entrance to the Aldmeri ruins. The ruins themselves have pretty much been left as ruins. Some limestone and marble furniture and urns and such hint at the ruins' former life, while now serving mostly as atmospheric pieces. There are various limestone fountains still in use, as well as some trees, bushes and vines. At the top of the ruins, more flowers and cherry trees lead to a plateau, that has been decorate with a magical waterfall, some marble benches and tables, and some goblets and chalices where you can sit among the cherry trees ans listen to the wind chimes and have some Altmer wine, while enjoying the view.

As I said, nothing fancy here, just a large coral garden and some atmospheric ruins. The video turned out somewhat laggy, which is strange considering that I just got a new PC and can run the game absolutely flawlessly on ultra now, but I guess maybe it has something to do with the free video recoring software maybe. In any case, here are some screenshots of the home as well as a short video. Next up is the Clockwork Observatory home, which I have been looking forward to showing for a long time now, easily one of my favourite homes and full of lots of interesting pieces.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fUh2RZOiRM

Pictures:

NordSwordnBoard

Agree so much on the item limit. I have the same house, and another pain point is needing to build scaffolding or other structures just to reach all of the areas it has to offer.

I love comparing grottoes, there is so much space to work with and different themes people come up with always keep it interesting.

Carbonised

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

Agree so much on the item limit. I have the same house, and another pain point is needing to build scaffolding or other structures just to reach all of the areas it has to offer.

I love comparing grottoes, there is so much space to work with and different themes people come up with always keep it interesting.

I saw pretty much from the get go that this house would be a nightmare to decorate, due to the vast size. All the ruined area is pretty much just flat, and there's loads of it, in several vertical floors. The sheer amount of items needed to put stuff there would take up more than the current limit, not even counting the beach area nor the ship ..

So I decided to simply decorate it as-is, focusing mainly on the coral gardens, and just adding a few limestone and marble furniture and such to the ruined area. This is also why I won't be getting the Dawnlight Palace, the Linchal Manor or any of the other oversized homes they have released lately, they would also be a complete nightmare to decorate just somewhat within the tight item limit constriction

Carbonised

Updated the screenshots since they took forever to load. For some reason Imgur doesn't work for me any more, so had to try and find another image hosting site. Should load faster now anyway.

Chryseia

I feel like I am in the minority, but I actually really love the Grotto. Granted, I completely ignored the "grotto" part of the house and just built a custom house on the outside cliff facing the ocean. The actual grotto/ship for mine is literally completely empty.

You did a great job on yours though! I really love what you have shown here, and the nautical theme with the shells on the walls is super cute!

anadandy

That looks great! I was really torn about purchasing this home because I have wanted a ship home forever. In the end, I decided it would be too frustrating for me, so I didn't but you did an excellent job with yours.

I also love in that one interior pic, the little gryphon pet looks like he's dancing a sailor's hornpipe jig

NoTimeToWait

The bedroom is lovely! I would really want a furnishing with multiple starfishes in a triangle or something like that just to be able to make designs like that, but without requiring too many slots.

And, ahem, Australian authorities might pursue you for stealing a decent portion of the Great Coral Reef. I would watch my back for those aussies, if I were you

Carbonised

Chryseia wrote: »

I feel like I am in the minority, but I actually really love the Grotto. Granted, I completely ignored the "grotto" part of the house and just built a custom house on the outside cliff facing the ocean. The actual grotto/ship for mine is literally completely empty.

You did a great job on yours though! I really love what you have shown here, and the nautical theme with the shells on the walls is super cute!

Yeah the home wouldn't be too bad, if it wasn't for the crippling item limit. If you really want the best out of it, it's better to just ignore large parts of it, like you said, which is sadly the only solution.

Thanks for the praise

anadandy wrote: »

That looks great! I was really torn about purchasing this home because I have wanted a ship home forever. In the end, I decided it would be too frustrating for me, so I didn't but you did an excellent job with yours.

I also love in that one interior pic, the little gryphon pet looks like he's dancing a sailor's hornpipe jig

Yeah I wouldn't recommend anyone getting this home, unless you have a very specific plan for it, and can pull it off within the item limit. I do try and capture some screenshots with some nice effects or pet animations. I like my triplet gryphons =p

NoTimeToWait wrote: »

The bedroom is lovely! I would really want a furnishing with multiple starfishes in a triangle or something like that just to be able to make designs like that, but without requiring too many slots.

And, ahem, Australian authorities might pursue you for stealing a decent portion of the Great Coral Reef. I would watch my back for those aussies, if I were you

Thank you for the comments The various starfish and seashells make for some great interior decorations, you can even use them in other homes that aren't as heavily ocean themed as this one. Ever since being able to fish up corals and seashells and such while fishing, I've been wanting to make a home that utilizes these items, since I did fish an awful lot and got me all the angler achievements, plus they look so pretty. Now I got my very own ESO reef which is kind of neat

NoTimeToWait

Carbonised wrote: »

Thank you for the comments The various starfish and seashells make for some great interior decorations, you can even use them in other homes that aren't as heavily ocean themed as this one. Ever since being able to fish up corals and seashells and such while fishing, I've been wanting to make a home that utilizes these items, since I did fish an awful lot and got me all the angler achievements, plus they look so pretty. Now I got my very own ESO reef which is kind of neat

I do love sea-themed life and plants in ESO too. It's like I fill every pond and pool in my estates with those Coral, Sun before I realize that the swamp in Glenumbra in Coven Cottage is not the most authentic place for them xD (and probably the washtub is not the best place to have a coral inside, if you want to, you know, wash there and not just look xD)

Alexsae

I love what you've done with your grotto! The nautical theme is beautifully done, and I really enjoy your garden areas.

I also have the grotto, and I've found I love it the most of all my homes. It's so much fun looking at how other people have decorated theirs.

Zypheran

Very nicely done. I like the consistency of theme throughout. Very difficult space to tackle with the given item counts but this design works well.
Thanks for sharing

TelvanniWizard

Awesome, as always!

peacenote

Picture #12 is my favorite. Love the starfish with the picture, sea sponge and kitty! Great bedroom, great theme throughout!

jrfk2

When was this house last up for sale? In 2019? I'd building up a fleet of ships and want to get this house to display them .. rumor has it houses generally only go up for sale every 2 years ,,??