This is the post I mentioned above.
It was really funny explaining to my friends what I am doing. Almost every one of them had a suggestion of their own about how to enhance it and some of those were quite useful. As an architecture student I have to say that doing this project felt very therapeutic and I had a lot of fun:)
So, beside those suggestions, I found some more nice references on the web:
I then made a selection and did these modifications to the model:
I decided to go with yellow for the facade, to make it a "happier" house;) I used a stucco texture and give it a little bump, painted the interior orange and added some curtains and chandeleirs. Also some other changes you can notice in the picture that I do not know the english word for.
I planted an indoor palm, because they are the latest fashion. Also to help me with composition.
Some balustrades, and a little balcony to relax at. Gold plated parts of columns show the owner has class.
The entrance to the estate is guarded by wildcats, showing the owner likes wildcats. As he cannot own one, he bought a dog and made him a doghouse.
Some details of the entrance.
A friendly garden gnome and some wines going upwards.
A satellite dish and some wall lamps.
And of course, a tower for the daughter, the princess.
So this is the final composition. I added some detail to the ground to make it not so flat, and used three different grass groups, because other wise sketchup crashed frequently due to its ram limitations. The further the group, the smaller the density of the blades. The trees are mainly 2d except for a few in the foreground.
I will post the final render with the wireframe picture in the next post in a minute or so, hoping the guys at Maxwell will accept it this way, because of this submission situation.