The reason it's taken so long to get to this moment is because I've been spending a lot of coins lately. Thanks to decorating for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, I've not been able to acquire the necessary funds to enlarge my diner. But patience is everything in this type of game, and now I'm set to be rewarded.
My second-to-last expansion sees my restaurant reach 22x25 in size.
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| Expansion to 22x25 |
Not only am I branching out, I'm also redecorating. I settled into my current layout way back in April last year (how the time flies!) and am now ready to change things up. Here's a plan I made of what I wanted to achieve:
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| Planned new layout of The Garlic Tree |
The main aim of this re-design is to introduce a garden area. This is something I've wanted for a long time, but have never been able to accommodate adequately.
An additional benefit of this layout is that it allows some of my exotic Black Friday purchases to finally get out of storage and into the limelight. The Action Dining, Bowling Alley and Swedish Kitchen were all Black Friday buys that set me back a lot of gems, and yet have never been on display because of a lack of space. But with this layout I'm able to fit these colossal items all in without the diner feeling too cramped.
So let's do this thing! The Garlic Tree gets expanded to 22x25 and is refurbished. Here's the end result...
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| The Garlic Tree after expansion and refurbishment |
It all went to plan (minus a few minor changes), yet it still took me a couple of hours to get everything positioned correctly!
You'll see that the familiar four pillar centrepiece aligned with food remains - it is a trademark of my restaurant and I doubt I'll ever part with its elegance. Meanwhile the String Quartet and Organ keep their places in the main section, while the Grand Piano returns there after spending the last 11 months in the foyer.
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| Foyer and Table Tennis sections of The Garlic Tree |
And there's no prizes for guessing why the Grand Piano has been shifted: there's no space in the foyer! The entrance area is a bit of a squeeze, but at least I've managed to retain the Lobster Tank. Meanwhile the Leprechaun Waiter is a temporary bystander for St Patrick's Day, and the Lounge Lizard is the new host. I've owned him for a long time without ever placing him, but I think he looks hilarious behind the host table. Holding a glass of wine, the lizard makes a great accompaniment to the Chilled Drink.
You'll spot that the Table Tennis section is back. It's been in storage for some time, but I fancied bringing it out again since the Ping Pong Table is such an exclusive item - I paid 55 gems for it and it's now removed, as are the rest of the table tennis decorations, so this is a rather special area. And who doesn't want to see a panda and tiger duking it out in a fiesty game of ping pong?!
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| Kitchen section of The Garlic Tree |
Moving up to the corner, the kitchen section is looking very active. The Swedish Kitchen was one of the mega bargains of Black Friday (just 13 gems) and takes pride of place here. Because it includes two walls in itself, I felt forced to place it in the corner. However it works out well because this is the area of the restaurant the game automatically opens to, so I no longer have to scroll across very time I check up on dishes.
I didn't originally plan to lay a Sandy Brick floor or apply a Dark Grey wallpaper, but the darker tones of the Swedish Kitchen meant that there was a high contrast with the white outlook I originally intended to use. These blend in better. I'm even tempted to spend gems on the Blue wallpaper to completely match the interior walls of the Swedish Kitchen, but blowing gems on wallpaper isn't my thing.
What I did pay gems for was the Jam and Jellies wall decoration. Alongside the Christmas Cupboard these provide further realism to the kitchen, and the Valentine Menu which I already owned extends this further. Finally, the number of staff straining in the kitchen is up. Action Chef Lee remains the head of proceedings, while the two Swedes are well experienced caterers, plus the Swedish Server and 50's Chef are helping cope with demand.
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| Retro Diner section of The Garlic Tree |
The 50's Chef was actually supposed to be in the new look Retro Diner area, but I underestimated the size of the Bowling Alley. It's a superb capture from Black Friday 2013, but because it's so big I couldn't put the Popcorn Cart up against the wall as it was mostly obscured, hence why the 50's Chef got a transfer. The Jock is still slouching around though, and seemingly checking out the quality of bowling on show.
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| Musical section of The Garlic Tree |
The last themed area of The Garlic Tree is totally new:
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| Garden section of The Garlic Tree |
Also included are a couple of spring themed items from 2013 - the Playful Parasol and Picnic Painting were bought in anticipation of a garden area, I just didn't realise at the time how long it would take to get there! Finally, the Potted Palm has made the move from my old Beach section.
The exciting thing about this garden is that I plan to make changes to it as the year progresses to mirror the season. For this reason I'm begging for some Spring updates (and specifically a lavish 4x4 limited time offer!) so that I can really mark the area out as being in Springtime. I feel that the Action Dining is more suited to summer really. I'm even tempted to take a dip in the Lucky Chest to try and obtain one of the larger items, but the odds are stacked against me!
Previous expansion posts
24/08/13 A Sporting Expansion
So that's the end of the tour. There's just a couple of technicalities I want to mention. Firstly, as you may spot in my plan, I had hoped to place a second host table in the kitchen which the cook could preside over. With no tables in that closed off area, I assumed no customers would try to enter through the kitchen door, but alas it wasn't to be. No matter what order I placed the host tables in, the cook persisted in appearing over the one in the foyer, plus the customers still tried to get in via the backdoor. So that plan had to be benched!
Secondly, my layout is now lacking in efficiency. I can seat 25 punters at any one time, which is six less than previously and below the maximum of 28 that can be in the restaurant at any one time. It's not a serious issue since there are only three or four leave in a huff in the initial wave.
The other problem is with my counters. Before there were 38 which allowed me to cook liberally and not worry about overstocking too much. But now I've got just 28, which will require me to be disciplined with my appliances. In summary, I've sacrificed a bit of efficiency in favour of appearance.
There's now just one expansion to go before I reach the maximum size.
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| Expansion to 23x26 |
It may be a long time before I reach the 15,000,000 coins required to make the final expansion to 23x26, while I'll also need to be on the lookout for new neighbours. But the stoves are stacked and I'm starting to climb the last mountain. And if I get tired, I could always take a break and have a seat in the garden!
My favorite bits are:
ReplyDelete- the pong pong wall decoration, which is so cute and detailed and you're right, it's been out of the game long enough that it inspires a lot of jealousy
- the door in the kitchen, with the floor mat (another piece long gone that I'm jealous of!) in front of it. Using the door as a decoration looks terrific. I think the dark colors look great in the kitchen, as well. And we all know how strongly I feel about kitchens!
- the 50s diner, which I've always loved. You've long had me debating making one of my own, and the bowling alley is obviously a pretty fantastic addition, though I'm partial to the popcorn maker myself. :)
- the garden area, obviously. I can see why, if this is what you had in your head, you could never make it work with your previous set up! It feels so open and lovely now.
- and finally, a general point, that you managed to work in room for six 4x4 decorations and two 3x3 without it feeling cramped or unnatural. That's really the biggest achievement here, making each of the pieces fit without any of them being overwhelming.
On the music area, maybe if your broke with your usual pattern of 4 chairs and 2 tables? If you took out 2 of the chairs, you'd have a big more space in there to maneuver and maybe bring back the trumpeter. The instrument display is definitely a bit tough to work around, though.
The thing I miss the most is your foyer. I always liked having the chef in the kitchen but still greeting folks and the reflecting pools as they entered the dining area. It's hard to argue when you've added so much, though!
Really interesting thoughts Fat Bear!
DeleteThe Autumn Welcome Mat wasn't planned to be in front of the kitchen door, but became a neccessity because otherwise the customers tried to enter that way - we can't have the bots coming in the kitchen! luckily it matches well with the floor.
Regarding the 50's Diner, I think you should go for it! The box is actually really good because with the exception of the statue, all the items combine well, plus there's lots of coin content for the theme too. The only caveat is the Red and White checkered flooring, which came at a gem per tile. But you could always use the Red and Black checkers instead.
The fitting of lots of large items in an organised fashion was always at the forefront of my mind, although I now feel under pressure to replicate that whenever another theme goes in. For example, I've always liked the Steampunk stuff, but without a serious piece I feel it will always be incomplete.
I tried your suggestion of dropping a couple of chairs in the Musical section, but I'm just too much of a perfectionist and can't live with having a different number of tables/chairs in one of the themed areas compared to the others! The only solution is to expand again - easier said than done!
I miss the foyer too. The way the cook with host table was able to cover both the foyer and the kitchen was great, while the long pools of water complete with Flamingos and Lotus Flowers were so posh. But all good things come to an end, and something had to be downgraded to make space. :)