Houses on Sand

There's some lovely desert-themed worlds out there these days. Here's a little adobe number to put in them.

This house was designed with a large, busy household in mind. Actually, it was designed for my own primary household: between the parents, the butler, 3 children, and the childrens' Imaginary Friends, I had a lot of sims running around… and a lot of road blocks taking up my sim-day.

This 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house attempts to maximize efficiency in getting around without sacrificing personality. It's a single-story, no-foundation build with an open floorplan. The entire home is wrapped around a generous central courtyard and loggia, so there's plenty of common space to socialize and entertain. In addition, each major room has access to outside, making getting around a breeze.

It is, however, NOT cheap. This is a house for sims who have more money than they know what to do with.

Here's the bullet list:

- Sits on a 40 x 40 lot.
- 5 bedrooms, currently furnished for a couple, 3 children, and a live-in servant. The house also has a crib.
- 3 bathrooms
- 2 fireplaces, upgraded to be Fireproof
- Large garage - 2 cars, laundry area, and workshop, with room to spare.
- Luxurious eat-in kitchen, including a mixologist bar
- Heat-beating backyard (Have I mentioned I live in Texas and there's a drought and a heat wave and it's August?) includes a hot tub, pool, and water-slide. Oh, and a hopscotch court.
- No CC. Store and Expansion items used willy-nilly.
- Final price tag: If you have to ask, you can't afford it (Well over $200k)

This lot has been lived in by its intended family - parents, 2 children, one toddler, the butler, and two Imaginary Friends. Probably the easiest-to-get-around house I've ever lived in with such a big family. I also threw a party in it, and all the guests proclaimed it awesome.


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(Includes list of Store/Stuff objects used.)

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Pics ahoy! Click to embiggen:

Moar Pics

Man, it feels good to be able to travel again.

(Okay, I know your Lifetime Wish is tied to tomb exploration, but you're maybe enjoying that canned shower a bit too much there, dear...)

Something between the latest patch, installing Town Life Stuff, and updating all my NRaas Mods accordingly made travel a reasonably safe venture again.  At least, I've been on 3 trips so far and nothing's exploded, which is a lot more than I can say about the last 3 trips my sims took before the patch.

Got the whole "Can't add pre-established households to my town without it dying" thing fixed, too - had a custom skill that was causing that issue.  Earlier versions didn't retain levels when a household was saved to bin, which kinda sucked, but apparently updates that tried to remedy this went horribly, horribly wrong.

Nixed the custom skill and all is well again.

I'mma keep Mikayla around for awhile longer, though.  Having fun with her.

She's doing pretty well with this whole "Private Eye" thing.  Still conducting the Least Subtle Stakeouts Ever.  Pay no attention to the woman in the bright red coat... just go ahead and bribe the cop.  Yeah, that's a girl.

Been a long time since I've had a single girl around town, anyway.  More chances to play around with the romantic reputation system.  She's now officially a "Natasha" - a female Casanova.  8 Romantic Interests (not necessarily at the same time - she did dump one of 'em) without getting caught cheating.  The woman has skills.  ... and No Jealousy.

Synchronized Strutting..

It's actually been a pretty handy reputation to have.  I was a bit disappointed that only her lovers got the "Incredible Time" moodlet, and not her, but she is now Instant Friends with every new man she meets.  On top of the relationship boosts you can get from Charisma challenges and the Attractive reward.  Convenient.

'Course that does mean that guys tend to throw themselves at her now...

The travel made exploring Reputations easier, too.  It's hard to find 8 interesting single guys in one town, but in four...

... quit singing and come back to bed, silly.

And speaking of silly...

I'm sure everyone's done it at least once - throwing a load of laundry in the wash, you decide "might as well wash these, too" and take off the clothes you're currently wearing to add to it.  But at the laundromat?

That's it... point and laugh.  Silly vampires.

And I'll just wrap up today's picture-pile with this:

Being able to travel again means going to Egypt.  Going to Egypt means Tiberium.  Tiberium means no more starter shacks for me.  YAY!

Current work-in-progress.  Something a little different.  What would you call this? Southwestern Modern?  Either way, I think it's turning out pretty neat so far.

Now if only fences and walls would actually match when painted the exact same texture...

What's This All About, Anyway?

So I was in the middle of building a deliciously opulent Queen Anne mansion, with not only bells and whistles but a few chimes thrown in for extra glitter, and it was turning out dark and gothy and spookylicious, when my game decided to just crash to desktop out of nowhere.

Fiddlesticks.

Checked the time I'd last saved, and it was right before I started adding the foundation.

I'm an idiot. An annoyed idiot.

And then it hit me: You know, when was the last time I exited Build Mode and just played my sims? (That weren't for play-testing?)  What's the point of smacking your head against the keyboard making stuff for a game you don't even play?

… Oh, right. The last time I played was right before I discovered that if I added any pre-existing household to my town, one with funds and skills and careers and objects in inventory, my town would promptly break.

I'd Googled this issue.  Only advice to be had on the internet is the usual blanket accusation of "some sort of bad CC." but without being able to helpfully point out an example of bad CC which causes this sort of thing to happen. It's the sort of "reinstall everything and hope for the best" solution generally given out by people who have no idea what the hell they're doing, but are sure if you flail hard enough, something will happen.

It might just be worth a shot, but i'm going to procrastinate on it a bit longer to see if something a bit more sure of itself pops up in the meantime.

And in that meantime, I played with my sims.

Put down Kali for a bit, though. I'm rather terrified of playing her town, in case something breaks and I can't just save her household to bin and move.

Playing this girl instead. Mikayla. She looks plain, but that's kinda the point. This one's a replica of an old pen-and-paper RPG character of mine, but I don't need to get into that here.

What I need to get into, instead, is the silliness that keeps me interested in and entertained by this game even while dodging its ever-shifting minefield of instability.  The silliness that Mikayla managed to remind me of in the span of a few sim-days.

Now that I'm done whining, this is a Random Pictures post.

The first career wish she rolled after introducing her to simhood was Private Investigator. I never thought this would be a terribly entertaining Ambitions career choice, but I'm being proven wrong…

Subtle, girl. Real subtle.

Thaaaat's better

She's still stuck with low-level snooping work for now.

And in the meantime, she does what any charismatic young single girl does in a town with nothing but young, single, Fresh-From-CAS sims populating it.

Boys.

Look at her. She's all "I can't believe that worked!"

There's plenty to choose from.

Including some familiar faces.

… Who have a curious habit of wetting themselves in public.

No really. It's that guitar. My town's buskers will happily keep strumming until their bladders can't take it anymore.

Oh yeah, vampires are springing up like weeds, too. Started with 3, there were 10 by the end of the first week.

They're so… scary!

No really, I'm a spooky creature of the night!

Mikayla is… oh, I can't even try to caption this one. Just let your mind wander where it will. I'll see you there.

And I think I'll wrap this up with one of the odder things I've ever seen a sim roast over a fire.

Little Homestead

There's not much that can really be said about a starter home.  They're fun to make.  When I feel my attention span faltering after contending with large family builds, a little starter is refreshing.  A mansion will take me a week or more to finish.  I can hammer out one of these in a day.

I always loved those tired-looking old ranch houses I drive by in the Texas countryside. I thought one of 'em would make a great little fixer-upper for some young sim.

Here's the details:

- Sits on a 20 x 30, facing the short side
- 2 bedrooms, furnished for a couple and one child
- 1 bath
- Living/Dining/Kitchen all share the same open space, warmed by a cute little tin fireplace (which, unlike my more expensive builds, is not Fireproofed. You can't afford fireproofing!)
- A garden in the backyard with lettuce, tomatoes, grapes, potatoes, onions, and an apple tree. All at Very Nice quality. Could keep the pantry stocked, or be the start of a farm.
- Only one store item: a bookshelf. Several Expansion items, however. As always, No CC.
- Priced under $16.5k

The lot has been playtested at full capacity. Future owners may want to check the property carefully. The previous owners could swear they heard termites in the walls.

Exchange Download
(Includes list of Store/Stuff objects used.)

Mediafire Download

Have pics, will click to embiggen: