Nethergrass

Say hello to my Nether house.  Using Creative Mode in 1.8.1, I've been playing around with altering the Nether.  I'm basically just biding my time until 1.9 is released.

I threw down some saplings and hit them with bone meal, and then hit the grass with bone meal to give it some life.  Normally, grass won't grow in the Nether, but with Creative Mode, I could just place it.

This is the first little oasis I built.  I was playing around with making this little cutout behind my house look as much like the normal world as possible.  Because of the atmosphere of the Nether, it's pretty much impossible to match it exactly, but I sure have been trying.

And here's the inside.  It's pretty open.  I can't put down a bed or I might be tempted to use it out of habit, with explosive results.  In Creative Mode, it wouldn't kill me or even harm me, but it sure would destroy my work.

I think I heard a knock.  Somebody must be at the door.  I wonder who it could be at this hour.

Nevermind.  No one's there.  This is a view from one of the towers out front.  See that path sticking out directly in the center of the image?  The one lined with glowstone?  Keep it in mind for the next pictures.

Here's my glowstone/stone brick path that will eventually connect all of the different things I want to build in the Nether.  Here you can see it spiraling down around a single shaft of water.  I've made quite a bit of progress and some changes since I took that screenshot.

 See?  All water.  No lava.  I used ice blocks to get water into the Nether.

And here's a nice little glass tunnel.

Some more views of my floating path and the waterfalls that surround it.

Here's my alternate portal, which connects to the same portal in the normal world.  When I first came into the Nether on this map, I got lost, so I just built this portal to get back to the surface.  It turns out I was so close to my original location that it connected me to the same portal in the normal world.

And here's a nice archway surrounding my floating path.

 So there's that.  It's a work in progress, so I'll try to keep it updated.  If you're wondering what texture pack I'm using, it's one of my own design, but it's based mostly off of the Cube, Inc. texture pack available here (direct download) or here (MinecraftForum thread).  I'm still working to get it compatible with 1.8 (a few textures aren't showing up properly).  I've designed a lot of stuff myself, and I've cannibalized other texture packs for a few textures I liked (especially Pixeludi, which isn't 1.8-compatible).  Before I release the pack anywhere, I'll contact the owners of the packs I cannibalized and see if they're okay with me using parts of their packs.  I'll post here if I get the okay!