By the time Dobin was rested, Lana was as well. She went back to withering until the plants around her advised her "this was the spot" to start her tree shelter.
Lana had been thinking about this for a while but she didn't know how much room she would have. If the trees were saying this was the best place to start the corner, she should mark it with a tree for now.
This was going to just be a small two-bedroom with the bedrooms upstairs. The bottom was to be an open concept. She started a willow, just a shoot, really, then marked 20 feet. She placed another. She then placed one every foot in a circular pattern back toward the first she placed. She left 4 feet for a door then did the same thing on the other side. She closed her eyes and pictured what she was going for and sent that to the trees. They began weaving in a criss-cross pattern. When they got 7-feet tall, some branches split off to create the second floor. The whole process took 30 minutes. The trunks were then thick enough there were no gaps and no water could get inside the house structure. The branches were also thick with so many trees being used. There was still a gaping hole under the tree but outside the living area.
Still, she was quite happy with it. This type of tree house would be the border of her shelter. She also had designs in her head for 40-foot diameter and 80-foot diameter houses. The floor plan for the library kept changing so she was still thinking on that. For this tree, the stairs wrapped around the wall. There were no dividing walls on the first floor but the upstairs was divided in half with one room smaller because of the stairs. The tree formed branches to use as a door but she instantly decided she didn't like that when she went to use it. The branches were too thick to open all the way. Still, it would work for now.
They went in and set up the kitchen and placed a few light stones. They hung one each in the bedrooms upstairs. It was a small space so one would be fine for a sleeping area. The main floor would have natural separations. Since the basic kitchen was going here and would be left, they were going to use the back side as a natural wall to put a bathroom on the other side. The other half of the downstairs would be the dining and living area.
Lana was tired but didn't think the remaining food in her bag would give her what she needed. She sent Dobin back to the shelter to get the ship and the market system while she grew some food in the area on the other side of her walls which had a curtain of branches on the other side. She decided to call this area the equivalent of a yard. The yard area had two open arches near the doors. The outer branches here were also latticed together like the walls but these were much thinner. She didn't harvest just yet because she was really tired. She simply sat on the ground, drank some water then meditated on her white energy. By the time she was finished with her meditation and a bit more energized, Dobin was back with the ship.
She had him set the market up in the outer, public area and ordered furniture for 10 2-bedroom houses. She planned to create a bit of a row so she could start linking them together. She also wanted to put in a 40-foot house before leaving linked to the first three but inside. Each tree house had two sets of hanging branches. The inner set, the yard, would belong to the house. The outer set would be either linked to another house or building or they would be braided together to create a stronger outside wall. This would be the public area, like streets.
While Dobin got the furniture set up in the house, she harvested the food and cooked. She ate three servings and felt rejuvenated. She then went outside and withered a few more dumping bait beasts just to make sure they were not a threat. The smallest dumping baits were as big as the whole tree house. The biggest were bigger than the 80-foot diameter houses she was going to build.
There were also rocky outcrops separating some which Dobin planned to reform some to create grates to put over some of the holes. He had been thinking of the best way to go down on the way back to the Bree area. He decided steps simply would not be appropriate for the height that was needed. He wanted to put in a ramp and at least one elevator. At the same time, even though his sister started this with over 2 million in credits, it would spend really fast in getting these houses and such set up.
The houses had to be set up to bring in workers. Workers required pay. Food. Essentials. Did Lana have enough bedding and such? Perhaps Dobin needed to sit with her and create a list. Neither of them had purchased a house before so this was all new.
Done setting up the furniture, Dobin walked down and looked for his sister who was just walking in.
"You built a nice house, Sis!" Dobin smiled brightly at her. "Do you have bedding? Towels? A way to wash clothes? A toilet would be nice… The trees work but I'm sure they will get offended if we do that enough," he laughed.
Lana smiled and thought for a minute. "I have plenty of blankets… Well, I don't really think there is such a thing but we have enough as well as pillows."
She walked out to the outer circle to use the market again. Each shelter needed at least 2 sets of sheets per bed, 8 towels, something for a toilet, something for a shower, and something to wash clothes with. There would also need to be a table for the living room and a chair. She also bought nine more Basic kitchens. As the houses were created, they could get them outfitted.
She was okay with installing plumbing but didn't want any electric installed in the houses on the surface. The washers and the hot water tanks in the showers would need to be self-powered. She found options that worked like the watches and tablets where they lasted a lifetime. She bought toilets that worked like the one that Logan installed in the luxury kitchen.
The entire area under the tree was covered in stuff. Dobin suddenly felt like a moving man. He didn't mind though. His sister's mind was at work and expected this to turn out great. He found the boxes with the stuff they needed for the house they were staying in. He figured he would just keep this one. She would need something much bigger.
For just this stuff for 10 2-bedroom tree houses, she spent over 14,000 credits. So far, between everything she had purchased for this trip, the total had been 616,890 credits. She was truly glad the Green family had hired her. She got 100,000 credits a week for the commercials and the royalties on the kitchen was a monthly thing that changed based on sales. She expected a bigger commission soon since the Super and Basic models were going into her houses.
Lana was hoping to save her crystals. So far she wasn't sure. The numbers were adding up. If she wanted the underneath to be emergency shelter outfitting them would cost a great deal. Though she was spending more on the surface to get self-contained power. It might be cheaper to do the underneath portion. Though Lana doubted it. It was deep enough she could put in apartments and the area she was planning to use would create a small city. They would even be able to be self-contained with food growing, markets and so forth.
Lana was able to carry the toilet and the chair for the living room as well as blankets, towels and such. While Dobin worked on finishing up his house, she built another one and had them joined on the one side. She then had Dobin use the carts for the heavy stuff to get that one set up as well. In this case, though, it was getting late. The task before bed was to just put the stuff in the house that was going in there and get it set up tomorrow. The linens and pillows would stay in boxes. They could work on the rest while their MC recharged tomorrow. She would not need to grow food so that part was covered.
Lana stepped into Dobin's house and smiled. It looked like a house. He even used his ability to make the floor more like rock than dirt. She would need to add rugs to the list. Tomorrow, she told herself. She went upstairs, made both beds and slept in the bigger room with Caser at her side. She didn't even know when Dobin came in.