Desert Home Paradise

Hot and dry? You'll be fine, with my desert home good enough for even the hottest sand plain! These are the materials for the HOME ONLY. You will mostly need the spruce planks (first picture). The Red Sandstone (third picture) is for the floor. I used Minecraft for the construction, but you don't have to. My house is 13 blocks both ways, which is 11 blocks both ways of floor space. My home is built in the hot, dry desert (well technically mine is on a beach, but it's just a model) and I made this Instructable to help you all learn about living in this harsh biome.

House: Spruce Planks, Spruce Trapdoors, Red Sandstone

Outdoor aspects: Spruce Planks, Andesite, Ice, Sandstone, Iron Bars, Dirt Block, Water Bucket, Spruce Slabs, etc.

As I mentioned in the intro, the home is 13x13, but on the inside, it's 11x11. I built this with spruce planks, but it doesn't really matter what you use. The floor plans are listed above, along with what it looks like on Minecraft. As you can see, I did not decorate the inside, so that's up to you. Also mentioned in the intro, the flooring is red sandstone, but then again, you can use whatever you feel like. Do I sound like a broken record? If I do, I'm sorry. It's 6 blocks high, but unlike every other step, I would use 6 if you like the idea of a loft, just so the loft is big enough. Remember, this is just what I did, you can customize it however you want.

So I know it sounds crazy, how do you build a functional garden in a place with no water? Exactly why I'm doing this! You have to use dirt, this is non-negotiable. What isn't non-negotiable is that you can do the dirt in whatever pattern you want, it just has to have space for water to go into. Above are some examples of dirt creations that I did. Notice that there are spaces for water and the water would touch every block of dirt. That is what you want, so the crops will grow. No water, no food. Get it? Good. Now, in real life, we might be growing thyme and other herbs. If you hadn't guessed, there is no thyme in Minecraft, so I couldn't show that. After you put the dirt and the water in, make a two high iron bar wall around the edge of your roof garden. If you would like, you can make a roof out of the iron bars over the garden.

The only things you're going to need for this next step is daylight sensors and maybe a block to stand on while constructing. This will be a relatively short step, since there's really nothing to it. As you can see, I put the solar panels next to the roof and there are two rows of them. Another place you could have put them is on top of your garden, used kind of like a roof. And that's all that's to it.

So, as you can probably guess from the name, hot and dry deserts are well... hot and dry! That means there is scarce water and water is the key to survival, obviously. So first we're gonna start with spruce planks in a 3x3 square with a hole in the middle. Then dig three blocks down in the hole you just left and fill it with water. When you finish that, build a roof over the well by using andesite slabs over iron bars on the corners. This should last you with water for ages. When there is no more water in the well, I made a water keeper which is another hole, completely covered by the solar panels. This is for a last resort, but you shouldn't need it, so I didn't put an image of it on here.

So these two steps are linked, so I put them in one big step. So first off, take some ice and make an iceberg in any shape you want and then dig a path 3 blocks deep into the room designated to the energy sources. After you have done that, cover the top layer with your ground block and go inside to where your path attaches to your house. When you do that, make a two high pillar of iron and put a cauldron in front and a lever on the second block.

NOTE: After you put the lever down, you may have to click it to flip the switch downwards.

For the washbasin, you will need spruce trapdoors, a water bucket, an item frame and a chestplate/tunic of your choice. Wherever you want the washbasin, put 4 spruce trapdoors in a square. When you have done that, put an item frame on the floor in the middle, and place your chestplate/tunic in the item frame. After that, activate the trapdoors and crouch on top of them. Empty the water bucket, and voila! You have your very own washbasin!

For the clothesline, you will simply need your choice of fence. Make the fence posts however high you want (I did 3 high). Then, go however long you want your clothesline (I just attached it to the house). And there you go! You now have a washbasin and a clothesline.