This page is to help you place a home or possibly upgrade your current house to a larger one. I'll give you a few tips that are also general steps to take that you should follow. Tip 1 Always have the type of deed of house you currently have placed in your pack, along with the deed of the house you want to upgrade to. Tip 2 A required step to take, although rather inconvenient. Never try this while the shard is saving, wait to early morning to try, when the shard is not saving. To find out when your shard goes down, and when it stops saving is when you get the system message that the shard will shut down in a few minutes. Best is to wait until you see the message a second time. Tip 3 Before you tear down your current house, make sure you know the exact spot where it was, to the tile. That way if the upgrade does not go, you can put the original back. Sometimes the house won't go back, which is not a problem if you followed Tip/Step 2. ALWAYS put the house back when the upgrade doesn't fit, EVEN if you followed Tip 2. Housing rules have silently changed since the release of UO:R The old rules were this: Around the foundation of the house you must have 1 tile free of obstacles (East and West side. North and South side). Five tiles to Front of the house had to be clear of structures like other houses, same with the back. Now, that all is still the same, but the following has changed. The 1 free tile to the West and East sides of the house was also required to the West and East of tiles affected by North and South side of the house. Hard to picture, I know, just take a look at Figure 4.1 Figure 4.1 As you see in the pic, the Log cabin has red tiles, these tiles represent the old rules, 5 tiles from the front, but if you notice, there are red tiles extending to the South that are not directly in front of the house! (the tiles the arrow is over, but not including the circle) Those red tiles to the East of the Log represent the 1 tile rule that applies to both the east and west side of buildings. The old rules required that the row the Tile is on (where the arrow starts), also must be free 5 tiles to the South and 5 tiles to the North). OSI apparently redefined what 'in front' means. Here is the way to apply this. Find any large home, L-Shaped house, Villa, Small Tower, Large Tower...The larger the more likely the spot has been looked over. Turn your Circle of Transparency up to 200, then walk to the BASE of the house, in the upper North West corner. Then if you have a tool or a deed, use it. When the ghost image of the house appears, make it so the corners of the houses touch, then move the house to the north 1 tile (this is the 1 tile that is required to be free of obstacles). If it appears that you cannot place move it north 1 more time or until a) it places, or b) you cannot place due to some other obstacle. Figure 4.2 shows this being done. This does not work with all house types, however it is allways worth a shot. Figure 4.2 Legend: Yellow: is a Base Tile Red: is the villa's 1 tile restriction. Blue: is the small marble's 1 tile restriction. Here I am using a Villa and a Small Marble. The most important thing to remember is not to invade the 5 tiles directly to the South of the house or to the north with your house, nor should you invade the 1 tile directly East or directly West of the house. The Blue/Red tiles represent the mixture of the 1 tile to the EAST for the Marble and the 5 tiles to the North for the Villa, both houses are using the area to supplement their requirements. The basic rule here is that you MUST be able to walk between the 2 corners of the house. If you are thinking of upgrading, know that this change was done around the beginning of the year 2001, maybe longer ago. At first I thought people were just getting lucky, for I had seen may spots where a house would fit "if only" the rules were different, only to walk by them a month later to find a house. Well, after making sure it wasn't a fluke I wrote this page. So in other words, if you placed your house a long time ago, and it is around other houses, you may be in luck. For land that once was lost to other houses has been freed. To conclude we have a look at our new house placement template Figure 4.3.   The Red is the 1 tile all around the house that has to be clear of obstacles. The Yellow is the 5 tiles in front and back that have to be clear of other houses.   The Blue is the newly opened space that once Blocked house placement, but doesn't anymore. Figure 4.3