Dollhouse
1336 Words
The engineer looked me with a rather befuddled look as I was biting my lower lip and looking at the model and noticed the realism and effort that the engineers had placed in, making it the most lifelike with all functioning home essentials inside it, furnishing them to the highest level.
"Uh... We could make them for the twins but don't you think it's too early for them to play with this kind of toys first?"
"Hmm... Ahh? It's not for them first, it's for me and Her Majesty to admire your fine handicraft and also I could display them more prominently."
Actually, the scale displayed was quite large for a dollhouse currently, as people standing 10 paces back could see the details very well, but I just wanted to play around with it as Heather can greet me when I enter the door and the children would rush down the stairs to greet me too... Oops, I got carried away again...
Back to the main topic...
"This model of the house, I like. After the nightly conference, I can get the citizens to come and gather to view them. But I need security people to guard in case everyone wanted to have their hands on the model for themselves."
"Don't worry about it, Your Majesty. We will deploy ourselves and would be answering any of the queries that the residents may have for us."
"Besides, this is a scaled-down of a house that we had discussed much earlier. It's based on an area of 500 square feet for the ground level and 400 square feet for the second floor."
"Duration to complete a single house would take a week based on 5 builders. Everything would be prefab and assembled on site accordingly. The mortar that is being used to fix these bricks is sand, clay and water. When it dries, it hardens perfectly and it is tough...!"
This sets me thinking since we need to have 5 men to work on a house to complete it in 7 days. So to make the first row of houses lining the perimeter of the riverbank, there would be an x number of houses... I looked at the engineer and asked him, "How many houses based on a plot of land 50 feet by 30 feet?"
"175 houses on a single row of 2 miles, Your Majesty, and 700 houses on all 4 sides excluding the structures for roads and the space for the Barracks, Water Brigade, Patrolmen and a marketplace on all corners."
Author's Note:
The ancient term to call a fire station was a water brigade during the time I wasn't even born yet.
Let's move on to the next topic where everyone can see the overview of Gracehaven from a bird's eye view.
The tarp was slowly removed and the 4 by 4 platform was revealed and the 4 by 4 represents the exact 4 miles for the perimeter of the second cluster...!
The designs for the Town Square was simpler than expected as the buildings were as is of now. The only difference was the livestock that had been moved across the riverbank. According to the plots of land on a 1½ mile x 2 mile where the crops filed were, there's an estimated 200 to 210 crop fields measuring 100 feet by 100 feet that were not inclusive of the cemetery plot.
Even the building of the church was not there as well and the livestock pens and enclosures were not put up accordingly. Hmm... This got to change or else the citizens might get confused.
The river perimeter around the town square is good and was well protecting the borders between the first cluster. The only drawback was the rows of houses that were built on the first cluster as it was rather hurried but we could tell them about the layout soon enough.
A low wall was built around the borders of the second cluster where a row of houses was being placed too. At the 4 corners of the first and second cluster, there was a colourful canopy that represents a common market place. And that would do for now.
But the roads... I pointed out that there would be 3 roads within the first cluster on one side and connected by 3 bridges over to the Town Square. Then the second cluster would have 4 roads on each side.
To connect the first cluster to the Town Square, there's a total of 12 bridges, wide enough for 2 wagons on each side and a walking path on the sides. The corrections had been noted by the engineers and they immediately wanted to rectify them before displaying them.
I instructed them to make free-standing models of some 2 storey buildings, the more the merrier so we could place them in order to plan. The rest of the 4 by 4 minimap was quite alright.
Overall the minimap was satisfactory but it could be improved. They had made quite an effort to design the newly expanded Gracehaven based on their Imaginations as wild as it could be but there's always room for improvements.
I highlighted to them to make about a dozen watchtowers and also to make the high wall protecting the perimeter of the town and include only 3 gate entrances facing all directions except for the Eastern side.
They noted and covered the tarp over the minimap and brought it away to make the rectifications accordingly.
Heather was there and she pinched me for being too hard to the engineers and I told them that certain things need to be perfect since some minds were too simple.
If an error was not corrected beforehand, the citizens might take the minimap as the final design and follow the errors to their best abilities. Besides, I am not involved with the construction and land expansion so some errors might pass my eyes.
Using the minimap as a concept to be adhered to, the design should look the exact way we wanted it to be.
Heather then realised about it and she pinched me again out of habit. "You will never tear my skin off like before, dear. Haha. I'm tough enough and will keep on training when I have the time."
"You can train all you want and you can be picky with the minimap and such but don't neglect your twins. Even if you peek or say a few words or carry them for a few minutes, at least the twins know that they have a father that cares for them."
I realised that and I smiled as I pulled Heather close to me and promised that I would always be there for her and the twins, no matter unless I'm in the privy minding my own business or out travelling to other lands and conquering them in the name of Macleod... Yeah, that sounds doable.
Soon, dinner time came and during that nightly conference, I announced that we have the model of the house ready and invited the first 5 families according to seniority to come forth to the domain entrance to view the house and to ask any questions as the engineers would take turns and be repeating the same 'sales talk' to the residents.
When the first 5 families came to view the model of the house, they were excited and immediately agree to start work on the new houses and we all laughed at the enthusiasm that was shown on their faces.
Ben explained to the families that the perimeter of the town square needed to be completed before the houses were to be constructed. Only after the first row of houses around the perimeter of the river had been completed, would the residents then be able to relocate.
There were a lot of oohs and aahs when they viewed the model of the house and from the looks of the citizens, they looked really positive in the changes that would be seen in Gracehaven.
- Writer
