Old Grandparents Cottage Is Not What It Seems

At first glance, there really isn't anything suspicious about Illestra's house. Except maybe being in the spooky part of Founder's Point.

The cosy little home by the water, surrounded by trees purposefully matches the landscape. There's a watermill sitting beside the stream, a little woodshed outside and even a fawn wandering around the garden.

Perfectly ordinary.

Which, as I've learned from previous house visits, is exactly when you should start getting suspicious.

A perfectly ordinary house

Illestra meets me outside and gives me a small tour of the exterior.

The watermill was built specifically to take advantage of the plot's position near the water. From the right angle, the wheel looks like it belongs directly in the stream, with splash effects underneath helping sell the illusion of the paddles interacting with the water.

I love the small details - they help bring a little realism to the builds.

Nearby, there's a woodshed with a few logs. Illestra tells me there will be lots of wood inside. These must be the leftovers.

Then there's the tree - perhaps the only surviving one from the original forest that once covered this plot.

A huge portion of the exterior budget has apparently gone into it, with large roots spreading around the house and foliage cleverly used to hide other foliage.

It's impressive.

Where did all the wood go?

Illestra opens the door for me and I stand in a cosy entrance hall. She wasn't kidding: the whole interior uses so much wood.

I spot a shoe rack by the entrance, with a couple of boots neatly placed on it.

Dosaki: Oh, so I should take my shoes off too.

Illestra: I should get some slippers!

Dosaki: I'll do my best not to leave stray toes lying around. I got it all sewn up recently, we should be all right though!

The interior continues the rustic theme.

There is a lot of dark wood, exposed logs and a beautiful custom ceiling and walls - there are so many …! Illestra tells me she enjoys making custom furniture and artwork - it doesn't take long before I start spotting examples everywhere.

The bedroom

The first room my guide shows me is the bedroom. Illestra explains that this cottage is owned by an elderly couple.

The bed has a quilted cover made using … - a technique she's seen other builders use - and small pieces of artwork decorate the room.

I take a moment to appreciate each piece of artwork - I'm very impressed by how much detail she manages to squeeze into such small paintings. Making small things look detailed is not easy.

But there are also little clues that perhaps this isn't just the home of a normal elderly couple: There's a suspicious witch hat resting on a hook and there's a strange purple smoke escaping from the desk.

The wardrobe also has functional doors, but Illestra doesn't open them.

Maybe I'm overthinking this.

A cosy kitchen

As we exit the bedroom, and walk the corridor deeper into the house, I admire the series of custom paintings adorning the walls. It really feels like a grandmother's house.

As soon as we leave the corridor, the resident dog, Marmaduke, comes charging towards me. I jump back stoically maintain my composure - I'm sure he's going to go after one of my bones.

Illestra: He is well behaved, just friendly.

Though I've got to work on him not jumping up on everything.

Note to self: Replace the leg with the exposed bone.

The kitchen is similarly cosy, with both a grate and fire, with something cooking on the rack in the fireplace. It feels very rustic and inviting - the sort of kitchen you would expect your grandmother to have.

Illestra: We're a bit casual here so the dishes are just drying on the side.

I didn't even notice until she said it. Honestly, I do the same at home... I thought leaving the dishes out to dry was pretty normal.

With that, and a couple of other details, Illestra did a really good job at making this kitchen feel lived in.

The sitting room

We move into another room. The rustic vibe continues. There's a seating area with another place and lots of bookshelves! But I've seen enough … to know that something unusual is going on here.

Illestra: So, here we discover that this is not just an ordinary house.

And the occupants, who the grandchildren think are just a nice old couple, are actually powerful wizards.

I knew the purple smoke was suspicious.

The first bookcase conceals a small staircase. Purple glows, flying books and, as I ascend the steps, floating furniture - Things have, apparently, got a little out of control... Occupational hazards.

The other passage looks considerably more ominous than the others, although Illestra explains that this particular section isn't finished yet.

The doors currently don't go anywhere. I imagine that it requires quite a bit of magic to keep them active.

I then notice a smaller door. I nearly missed it and it's really just an actual door, but it's well disguised. I open it and I crawl inside. It's so cramped!

The furniture is very small too.

Maybe a gnome could fit comfortably in here.

A house full of portals

The real concept behind the house is that this seemingly ordinary cottage is actually a portal hub - all the hidden doors eventually open into completely different lands.

Illestra leads me back to the bedroom - there is one currently active portal.

She opens the wardrobe and invites me in.

I look at it.

Then at her.

Dosaki: Is this a play on Narnia?

Illestra: Yeah!

Of course I'm going inside.

Through the wardrobe

The other side is nothing like the house. We walk through various types of vegetation until, suddenly, I'm standing in the middle of a clearing with an enormous tree.

Tiny dwellings are scattered throughout its branches, vine-bridges connect different areas and clouds drift through the tree.

And there are faeries living everywhere.

Illestra explains that this area is inspired by two things: the Haranir and an old children's book series by Enid Blyton called The Magic Faraway Tree.

The tree has lots of little references to characters and places from those stories.

She gives me a tour around the tree.

I point out a tiny bridge over the small stream - it exists largely because, as Illestra puts it, the faeries can't get their fairy toes wet!

Climbing the Tree

There's a spiral ramp that winds around the trunk, allowing visitors to ascend the tree gradually... to a point.

Illestra shows me a dedicated faerie washing area, complete with soap and buckets.

As I'm about to inspect the area, it dawns on me that you probably wouldn't want a giant undead starring at you while you bathe... I politely look away.

Further along, there's an area dedicated to a character called Saucepan Man, combining natural materials with metal.

I'm learning a lot about children's literature today.

The Land of Take What You Want

We keep climbing, this time through floating nodes held together with some sort of... lianas?

Then we reach the top.

Illestra explains that in The Magic Faraway Tree, different lands arrive at the top of the tree on clouds. This particular one is called the Land of Take What You Want.

There's food everywhere, piles of goods, toys and even a little Pandaren street food wagon. A small mechanical gnome manages one of the shops, ready to help guests.

Everything is abundant. Take whatever you want. Sounds great.

There is absolutely no possible way this could go wrong.

Illestra: If you would like, I can show you what happens when people get too greedy.

I nod.

Maybe don't take everything you want

Illestra takes a few too many items and suddenly, the peaceful little island changes.

The clean, welcoming marketplace is now a mess. Defence systems have activated.

Things have very clearly gone wrong.

We scramble to leave. Illestra points out a chain that we can use to descent back onto the tree. She goes ahead, elegantly showing me how to use it.

In my panic, trying to get away from all the chaos, I don't quite manage to grab the chain. I fall down, hitting a couple of branches on my way down.

As I stand up, dusting off my clothes and re-attaching my tibia and fibula so I could look for my left arm, I hear Illestra coming up behind me.

I quickly make up an excuse for my clumsiness.

Dosaki: It's hard to coordinate a body when half of the parts aren't yours.

She sees that I'm all right and explains: there are cleverly hidden seats attached to the chain which let visitors descend slowly - I clearly failed to find them.

The island might let you take whatever you want buuuut it has some opinions on greed.

Reminds me of my mum when she asked me if I wanted one or two chocolates. I'd pick two and she'd give me one anyway. Why was I even given the choice? She'd always tell me "It's so you can choose correctly". Mums, right?

Two versions of the same world

The transformation of the island is one of my favourite parts of this build.

Illestra built the entire area in its peaceful state first, then created the chaotic version afterwards.

Using housing blueprints, she can switch between the two - this turns blueprints into more than a way of saving your work. They're a storytelling device.

You can have a room before something happens, then another version after.

I have never considered this before - this is fantastic.

Her plan is to go even further. The world at the top of the tree can change every so often, with entirely different lands appearing there.

The house was always meant to be this way

With the tour complete, I ask whether this whole concept emerged naturally while she was building, or whether the old magical couple and their collection of portals had been planned from the beginning.

Illestra: Ahh, good question. Yeah, this was the original intent.

I guess, I always had these different ideas of different builds.

So this is a way that I'll be able to do them all.

That's clever.

Rather than having to pick one idea, she's built herself a house where any future idea is just one portal away.

The ordinary cottage itself was also designed with someone specific in mind: One of her friends, who she suspects will never actually get around to building his own house.

The dark wood, wintery feeling and general cosiness were designed around his tastes. While she built, he'd come over, watch and occasionally give input.

The story of the old couple, and the idea that there are little hints of magic around the home without anything being immediately obvious, was his contribution too.

Learning from other builders

One thing that comes up repeatedly during our conversation is how much Illestra enjoys learning from other creators.

If she sees someone doing something interesting, she'll visit their house, talk to them and try to understand how they made it. Then she'll come home and put what she learned into practice.

The technique used around the cobwebbed area, where it's difficult to tell exactly where rooms join, came from her housing friend Tuulani Whisperlight.

The library clutter was influenced by lessons from Cogsworth (he doesn't have any socials, but here's his house).

Lighting in the tree area came from GP at Home.

There are storytelling ideas inspired by Radish.

She also watches other creators on YouTube, participates in the WoWKEA Discord, wanders around Azeroth taking reference screenshots and, when appropriate, looks at real-world photographs too.

This is my favourite part about housing: Everyone is learning from everyone else.

A clever trick appears in one house, someone adapts it for something completely different and a few weeks later you're seeing techniques evolve across the community.

Planning... eventually

Illestra is very happy with how the build is turning out, although a lot of this house developed organically.

She knew, for example, that there would be a tree with rocks in the room, but later had to push the entire thing backwards to get the entrance view she wanted.

Illestra: A big reason that has happened is because I haven't always been able to imagine where it would go.

So the builds just kind of happen.

But I am getting better at planning and it does help things fit better.

For this particular build, I think the organic approach actually works. A magical tree full of little houses, bridges, shops and hidden spaces probably shouldn't feel too carefully regimented.

It should feel like it grew.

Even magical houses cost gold

Dosaki: How much did all this cost?

She pauses.

Illestra: The short answer is A LOT.

She's heavily into professions, so most of the decor has been crafted rather than simply purchased.

Even then, she estimates she must be getting closer to a million gold.

And then there's all the time spent gathering resources.

She actually started building the tree before the Voidlight Marl discounts were introduced, so originally she could only add things a few items at a time.

Ooof.

She has developed a fairly clever system for acquiring decor, though.

Characters without reputations and currencies become builders.

Characters who do have access to useful vendors get sent around Azeroth, sometimes permanently stationed beside a vendor so they're ready whenever she needs more decor.

She has alts parked beside Gilnean vendors specifically because of how often she needs their tables.

It's basically a distributed logistics network.

Her Draenei house takes this even further. One room there apparently cost around 100,000 Garrison Resources by itself, acquired through multiple weeks of passive farming across eight alts.

Illestra's biggest tip

After seeing all of this, I ask Illestra whether she has any advice for other builders.

Illestra: Build what you love.

She participates in WoWKEA building challenges and sees people getting intimidated by what others create.

But, to her, if you build something you genuinely love, the time is always worth it and something special tends to come out of it.

This tree was that project for her.

And I think she's right.

These builds take an absurd amount of time.

If you're going to spend weeks farming materials, clipping objects into one another, rotating decor by fractions of a degree and desperately trying to work out where your remaining decor budget went, you should to enjoy what you're making.

Transmog to infinity

Illestra used to do Cutting Edge raiding, but stopped because of work and shifted more towards professions. She even mentions that the Dragonflight changes were perfect.

Then housing happened.

Illestra: Housing has kind of taken over everything :P

Dosaki: Housing is now the true endgame of WoW

Illestra: This is not necessarily a bad thing. It's like mog to infinity, right?

They've just given us such a flexible tool!

After walking through an ordinary winter cottage, discovering that its elderly owners are secretly powerful wizards, crawling through hidden passages designed for gnomes, stepping through a wardrobe and finding myself in a giant magical tree before being attacked by a floating island for excessive consumerism...

Yup - I'm inclined to agree.

Housing gives you entire rooms. Landscapes. Stories. Alternate realities triggered by greedy visitors.

Need more Illestra?

You should definitely check out her YouTube channel.

Illestra creates housing videos, including a series where she visits other builders to learn about their techniques and process.

Wrapping up

What I really love about this build is that the cottage itself could have been enough - It's cosy, detailed and full of wonderful little custom pieces.

Then you discover the secret portals. Then an enormous magical tree... with a floating land at the top.

And then Illestra reloads the house blueprints and the floating land changes too!

Since the entire premise of the house is built around portals to other places, Illestra can keep building new worlds and they can all become part of the same home.

I can't wait to see what other portals that elderly couple opens up next. I'll definitely need to revisit this one.

But... until then, I'll see you in the next house!