Description
Don't like your survival house? Want it to be better? Well here are eight things that can help to make your survival house perfect for survival!
Note: These are in no particular order.
Crafting Table and Furnace
The crafting table and furnace are very important. Basically, they make survival possible, allowing the player to smelt and craft things. Tip: more than one furnace is always a good idea.
Roof
Lightning might strike your house so it is important for it to be lightning-proof. Consider making the roof out of a non-flammable material, such as bricks. Basalt matches very well with wood, it is the classic roofing material in Survivalcraft.
Chests
Chests allow you to store things you can't carry. They are useful for many reasons (e.g. you are chopping a tree down to gather wood, you try to pick up the logs but you can't, your inventory is full). Looks like you need a chest! If you cannot get a chest for some reason, a good way to save space in your inventory is to stack things. Note: some things can't be stacked, like tools and boats. Tip: The more chests, the more storage!
Mine
A mine is useful for gathering resources, like coal, iron, copper, etc. These minerals can be used as fuel, or to make durable tools, electric components, etc. Never dig down when mining, always carve stairs or dig horizontally. This way you have more chance to find ores and don't have to waste resources getting back up again. Tip: always bring a pickaxe and a shovel of high grade when mining.
Place to Sleep
Sleeping is useful for avoiding the night, where visibility is low and dangerous animals like werewolves can sneak up on you. Sleep is also possible in the daytime. Birch Leaves, Birch Wood, Carpet, Chest, Dirt, Dispenser, Furniture, Grass, Mimosa Leaves, Mimosa Wood, Oak Leaves, Oak Wood, Planks, Sand, Soil, Spruce Leaves, Spruce Wood, Tall Spruce Leaves, Wire Through Planks, Wooden Slab and Workbench are all suitable for sleep. The player can sleep on as little as one block, as long is it is suitable for sleep and under good shelter. To make your shelter good enough, just place 9 blocks above you and stand in the center of the shadow. Tip: You can only sleep if you are tired enough.
Infinite Water Source
Water is a vital component for survival. It can be used especially for farming and making bread. But it's annoying when you have to walk all the way to that lake or ocean just to get water right? Well not anymore! A simple way to make an unlimited water source is by simply digging a two by two ditch that's one block deep, then fill it with water. Whenever water is taken from this ditch it will just fill back up again, making it infinite. Obviously, the well can be decorated if you want it to be. Tip: Making a three block strip of water is also an infinite water source.
Stables
A stable is a good place to keep a horse, donkey, or camel. Rideable animals are useful for getting from place to place quicker, and avoiding dangerous animals (as they can't attack you when your riding an animal). Stables can be as simple as a fenced off pen, but if making it a building make sure the entrance is three blocks high and two blocks wide (to allow you to ride in and out) this can be done with two doors and two trapdoors. Tip: camels can jump two blocks high.
Also note that you will die instantly if the animal you are riding jumps when you are on it if your head hit the ceiling. So build the stable high enough.
Cow Pen
A cow pen is useful for gathering milk. A decent 5 block by 5 block, fenced off area is a good place to keep cows. To herd cows, a whistle is useful. A rideable animal should be used to keep up with them as well. Keeping a bull around isn't a good idea, because if you attack one of the cows accidentally when milking them, the bull will attack. To milk a cow, Tap the underside of the cow with a bucket in your hand. Tip: black cows regenerate milk faster than brown cows.
Herding Tips: It is very difficult to get animals through the fence gate. You can use cheap blocks (dirt, sand, etc.) to make this easier: By placing cheap blocks around your fence, you are allowing animals to come into your fence, but not out. So you can simply use the whistle to herd the cows into the fence. They will jump onto the cheap blocks, and into the fence! Another thing you can do is throw a flower, ivy, etc. into a fence with cheap blocks surrounding it. Then the cows will just run into your fence :)
Note: In 1.26 bulls will be useful to protect your herds and be careful to separate bulls when you milk a cow, use flowers or grass to lead your bulls.
Crop Farm
A rye farm is useful for making bread, a cotton farm will clothe you for the foreseeable future and a pumpkin farm will fill your stomach in no time. To plant a seed, tap on a grass block with a rake, which will transform it into dirt if it isn't already. Then rake the dirt again and tap the top of the block with cotton, pumpkin or wild rye seeds in your hand. The soil should also be fertilized with Saltpeter Chunks, fenced off and have plenty of water. To make bread, place nine rye seeds in a each slot of a crafting table. This will make flour. Put flour and a bucket of water in a crafting table to make dough, then smelt the dough in the Furnace to create Bread. Filling your Crafting table with 9 Cotton Wads will create canvas, which can be used to make dyeable clothing (See the Farming page for a more detailed explanation) A large farm may be needed to sustain a player.
Tracking the way to HOME
You may need to travel around and may get lost. It is best to have a compass with you all time. Keep it in the handcrafting columns so that it won't use up a space that you use frequently. If also keep a magnet in your home so that even if you spent a night asleep away from home you can trackback your way back to your home.
It is a good idea to make your home on a small hill and make a few floors high so that it will be spotted from far. If you ever find magma take a bucket of magma and let it flow from the top of your house through 4 sides. This can keep your home warm inside and you can see it from far away even at night. Make sure to guide the magma to a hole so that it doesn't spread in your courtyard.