Help with Expanding

[Swirl-Girl]

Hello all. I have a sim house, and they desperately need to expand, but I don't want to tack on another floor, because with the floor-plan, it'd look odd.
Can you see a good way to expand without adding a floor or redoing the whole mess? I can't use much of the backyard, so expanding at the sides or front would be preferable.

[LivvieLove]

Well, you could move the garden out by the patio and fill in what looks like a courtyard, however I don't know if you like that as a courtyard or if you wouldn't mind making it smaller.

What kind of rooms do you need to add? More bedrooms? A Study?

A second floor wouldn't look bad over the top of the living room, you wouldn't have to make a whole second story, but maybe one that goes over the living room, kitchen and bathroom by the kitchen, possibly a little over the courtyard to give it some shade/dimension.
If you wanted to add bedrooms on you could reverse the side that the second floor in on and cover the bedrooms/hallway up there.

Now if you're just needing something small (bathroom, laundryroom) then maybe take that small space beside the garden (above it in the picture) and add it there.

Just my thoughts. Best of luck!

[Schipperke]

As LivvieLove said, it really depends on what you want to add.  Looking at your diagram, it seems to me that a lot of your house space is taken up by hallways, and I'm wondering if some of that hallway space could be used.  Do you really need two hallways from the bedroom side to the living room side?  I can't tell from the diagram how wide the halls are, so I don't know if that suggestion is workable or not. 

[Swirl-Girl]

Yeah, the lay out is fundamentally bad. There is too much space between the bedroom wing and the living room wing. I need to add a bedroom and a bathroom, cause having  to walk across the whole house to shower is a pain. I like having the bathroom/courtyard and the hallway. It gives an interesting bridge effect. I really didn't want to do this, but I'll have to gut the place and layout a new floorplan I think. I'll do a bit more thinking. In the mean time, I'll get you guys an ingame picture.

[Zyffyr]

You can always expand downward.

[Swirl-Girl]

Same sort of awkwardness as expanding upwards sadly. Where would I put the stairs!
EDIT: Got an image!



(The empty bedroom belongs to the child at boarding school, I'm considering putting the new bedroom there but haven't decided)
(Also, this house contains 3 generations of sims)

[Schipperke]

The picture helps a lot.  What about extending the front wall out to the left, so that area in the lower left of the picture would be part of the house instead of having the set-back that you presently have?  I don't know if that makes sense or not - I'm talking about that rectangular area on the lower left.  It seems to me doing that would give you quite a bit of room for another bedroom and one or two bathrooms.  It would change the look of the front of your house but you'd still have the courtyard, which I understand you wanting to keep as it's an interesting feature of the house.

[Swirl-Girl]

I understand, but how would I extend the hallway over to access all the rooms that could fit there?

[Schipperke]

I understand, but how would I extend the hallway over to access all the rooms that could fit there?

You wouldn't need to extend the hallway.  If you put the new bedroom next to the existing one and made it one square wider than the present bedrooms, it could have a door into the hallway.  Then the bathroom could have a door on that same wall or on the side where you presently have the couch (I think the diagonal object is a couch).

[Swirl-Girl]

It is.
But if I did that, my perfectionist trait would murder me. Everything, has, to, be, equal!
But, the bathroom doesn't have to take up so much space, I could extend the hallway further that way, and my perfectionism wouldn't eat me.
(I was expecting comments on my "unique" decorating style. Especially with the umbrella in the green bedroom. And the black/yellow blob a.k.a. the kitchen.)

[Zyffyr]

Where to put stairs to expand down? Easy... Move the left front wall forward like Schipperke suggested, put the stairs in the newly opened up spot. In fact, you could probably move it to be even with the right side so that the center would still be jutting out as it does now. It will work a little better with Spiral stairs than normal, but they aren't strictly required.

[cndneh]

Whenever I don't want to put a second floor on, I go for a basement.  You could put all the bedrooms downstairs with a bathroom each and that would open up that whole section to be a entertainment area/study/arts&crafts/etc type area. 

or leave the bedrooms upstairs and put everything else downstairs.  Just a thought.

[Swirl-Girl]

I think I'll make a pre-WA basement. seeing as it's already on a foundation. Or I could have stairs room be sunken.

[Rune Walsh]

Same sort of awkwardness as expanding upwards sadly. Where would I put the stairs!

You could put the stairs in the courtyard.

[Swirl-Girl]

Well, I've made some edits to the floor-plan. It's no bigger, but I like it better.



I think I'll add a basement later, I need to save up some money first.