I had an idea a long time ago for a supergeek character whose expensive technological needs were afforded by a family fortune, who lived alone in an inherited manor, but I never put much thought into the building before
Building name: The Krafton Estate
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 3
Storeys: 2
Archetecture: Most of the rooms and hallways have high, vaulted ceilings, and entryways favour arched openings instead of doors. It carries a common colour theme of dark hardwood and white marble. There is a lot of natural light through large windows and skylights. The lighting used to primarily be torches and antique chandeliers, but has been replaced with electric lighting.
Condition: Kept clean, but most of the rooms go unused; four of the bedrooms are living quarters for the two maids, gardener, and butler who keep the grounds, and the last one is kept empty as a guest bedroom. The lady of the manor lives alone and usually keeps to the basement levels.
Notable features: The front entryway is especially magnificent, with high ceilings buttressed with dark hardwood and small end tables with vases of silk flowers; it also boasts a row of seven large windows all east-facing and cut to reflect the morning sunrise. The dining room is also magnificent, large enough to host fifty people with plenty of elbow room; a large cherrywood table stretches down the center of the oblong room, and the walls are covered with hanging canvas pictures of the local landscape, flower gardens, etcetera.
The garden, though still presentable, is not the floral masterpiece it used to be; the inherited lady of the house doesn't care much for flowers, and keeps it only as an homage to the previous owners. Trimmed topiary bushes and hardy flowers add shape and colour to the area, and she had a few bird-feeders added in the form of carved stone statues in the warmer places.
The basement level is far less old-fashioned and formal; a spiral staircase descents into a well-lit, cool opening hall; immediately available are entryways to the cellars, which also connect to the kitchen by way of a recently-installed elevator. Another, straight set of steps lead out ot the back garden, but dead ahead is the room the lady of the house keeps herself most of the time. A large room that might have used to be an underground bunker or garage, is filled with cabinets - though most of them are spilling open- and has a generator installed to support the sheer number of machines and computers running. There is a fax machine, two printers with scanners, and four desktop PC's with three monitors apiece. The cleaning staff leaves this room alone under orders, and as a result the floor is almost wall-to-wall extention cords and wires. A larger closet toward the end of the room is locked securely with a bar and a padlock, and is more neat inside, containing the alien technology Samantha Krafton makes her living decoding.
