At least the way I see it, if the building side of things is all you're really into, then you'd probably want to lean towards a server where everyone gets creative powers handed out. However, if you are in a survival-only setting, you kind of have to tailor your construction activities to the limitations of that format. I don't want to sound like I'm picking on you or anything, but I was sort of surprised to see that you were using pine wood for all the walls/floor of your structure, since pine trees are a bit more of a pain to farm on a larger scale. If you had your heart set on going all-wood, normal oak trees would have been a better choice on Survival, since you can really mash those farms together. Building a decent chunk of it out of wood planks, or even stone, would have helped matters too.
Wooo, finally found a stronghold in my SP map, after I managed to scrape together a few Ender Pearls. The Eyes of Ender were originally leading me in a completely-different direction, probably to a place where there wasn't even one in this version of the game, so I was pleasantly surprised when the new location turned out to be right next to a desert where I'd been attempting to hunt Endermen. Strongholds are really goofy structures, especially when they form partially inside an underground ravine.
