Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Twinmum]

Ummmm.....Twinmum?   Can I live on your houseboat? 

This is the loveliest, most peaceful, happy making place I've seen in a long time.  I love the colors, I love the layout, I love the feeling of openess and the spaciousness.  It's amazing.  (I saw ALL the pictures, lol)

Of course you can live on my houseboat... well you can live vicariously through your Sims on my houseboat lol. It's in the SwapShop to download.
And thank you for the compliments. I'm glad people like it, I enjoyed building it and my Sim is enjoying living on it.

[Janna]

Name: Luxury Afloat
Hull Size: Large Barge- 20x15

This is the houseboat the Twinmum created.  I'm not listing all that she has as that won't show up in what I have here.
The expansion packs that I have are SN, IP, SEA, I have the worlds of DV, RV, AS and MV, but I don't think I have anything from those store towns and the few freebies that came with towns and expansion packs in my revised version.  I changed it from two to three bedrooms, have a study/library area, kitchen downstairs and a few other changes.

I revised it and am showing it because I am sure that there are others who don't have all the ones she used and so this might help them to get an idea of how it will show up.  And see the changes I made, which I will appreciate any feedback on what I have done.





Naturally, the skylight didn't show up so I replaced them with the full windows to give an open view of the sea.  I did do some changes in the colors of the furniture, added and took away some items also.  I changed the statute to a fountain that I like and added the screens.




starting at the bottom and working my way up.
The loss of the movie area, the piano, sauna and some other items left blank spots.  I filled it in with a library that I have pictures and items on the walls that are from WA; to look as if they are mementos of trips.  When I play the game and use the houseboat, I can add vases and other artifacts to round it all out as a display/work area.
The sauna was missing and I replaced it with a bathroom opened up that area and added a kitchen for the downstairs.  The movie room I turned into a master bedroom with attached double bath.  Put in a foosball table, wall tv and a couple of other things. 



The next floor



I took one of the bedrooms and put in twin beds for a family, now if there are two boys or two girls they can share a bedroom.  I also changed the colors, as I can't stand pink, so went with blues and neutrals in tans for most of the rooms.  Left some as Twinmum designed them, made changes such as I like light colors in woods, not dark.  But did as little as possible.



Better view of this room as it was cut off some.




In the dining area, I changed the colors to blue, added a stereo in a section and another couch that doesn't seem to be showing up and changed the colors, obviously.  In the kitchen, which for some reason I didn't get a photo of, the changes was in moving the appliances around, either the trash disposal or dishwasher wasn't there, so I added the missing one and moved the dishwasher to beside the sink and of course, changed the colors of the wood. 





This is the changes to the statute, as I prefer fountains and added the screens as it looked so empty.

Other changes that I can remember is the lights, when I had to rearranged where the grill was at, I moved the lights out and added in some path lights. 

I also replaced the stairs, I fell through some stairs like the ones that were originally there when I was around three, so I have a thing about that type; can't stand to see them. 

Feedback will be appreciated.

Just want to state again, this is the Luxury Afloat Houseboat that Twinmum created, I just made some changes.  She gets credit for it (except areas that don't look good, that is). 

[Swirl-Girl]

That's a gorgeous remodel Janna!

[Twinmum]

Thanks for sharing what you did Janna. I'm so glad you were not put off by the number of items you didn't have. You've done a great job of remodeling to suit your own game.

[Janna]

Thank you Twinmum and Swirl-Girl for your kind words.  It has been a rough day and you have no idea of how much it means to me to get such positive feedback. 

I just don't have the flair to make things look nice and so it feels good to know that what I did looks good to others. 

[Kaemarie]

I've skimmed through a good bit of these posts and I have to say it puts all my buildings to shame  I had to remodel just to feel marginally better, but I wanted to show off my best work, even if it still is a work in progress. I rebuilt my finished home and ended up running out of funds, and since this is part of my life states dynasty I can't just cheat to finish (more fun that way, honestly).



The windows are terrible, I know, I've been tweaking them constantly but nothing works. Hopefully I'll find a proper look. It's based partially on WDW's Haunted Mansion, my all time favorite non-rollercoaster ride. And its not a haunted mansion if it doesn't have a graveyard on the side.



Of course, only one is actually occupied. The other building is a crypt, which has a few creepy statues of the non-singing variety. I don't have a lot of pictures, as its only partially furnished inside and the outside will probably stand a few more tweaks, but theres a little playground for the children that come and go, a pool and poolhouse and a maze that has a little pond, a nice spot for a garden and a staircase going into another basement.

I do have a few rooms mostly finished, however, and my little heart swells with some pride that I put more than thought into wallpapers then just slapping what-have-you up.



The living room of sorts, even if its just tucked away in a corner.



The founders bedroom.



A yet to be born generations bedroom.

My only problem is, the house is bigger than I intended, so there's quite a lot of free space that just drives me crazy, but I'm not quite up to tearing it down and having another go. I'll just have to play with space whenever I get the funds back up.

[Janna]

I'm not that good at decorating so others can give lots better feedback.

But I have two suggestions.  If the flowers are your maze, to me that makes them too open.  I would go with a hedge, there is small one in the selections of fences.

One photo is quite dark.  You could put in a couple of lights (use the cheapest) and note that they are there just to let us see the room.  I like what I do see, and I find windows to be hard to pick, and especially to line up.  I go with posting it when you want feedback, but I think you should definitely show it when you are finished. You can get more tips if you want and put it on the Swapshop, I wouldn't mind checking it out.  I like the Gothic look of it.

[Kaemarie]

I'm not that good at decorating so others can give lots better feedback.

But I have two suggestions.  If the flowers are your maze, to me that makes them too open.  I would go with a hedge, there is small one in the selections of fences.

One photo is quite dark.  You could put in a couple of lights (use the cheapest) and note that they are there just to let us see the room.  I like what I do see, and I find windows to be hard to pick, and especially to line up.  I go with posting it when you want feedback, but I think you should definitely show it when you are finished. You can get more tips if you want and put it on the Swapshop, I wouldn't mind checking it out.  I like the Gothic look of it.

My maze is made of the hedges. You did remind me I forgot lights on the outside of the house, though. As for the room, I know its rather dark, I didn't even consider putting extra lights up just for the screenshot, I'll keep that in mind! Once its all finished I plan on reposting it, but I'm not sure how long that'll be. But thanks for the feedback 

[Frey]

I personally find windows are the hardest part when building... but I recently discovered two great options that you could try. I think they came with Supernaturals. One is square and the other is rounded in the upper part (maybe they are the same you used on the left side of the house?). When you put the rounded one on top of the other, they automatically line up and form a two-story giant window. I think that would look good maybe. I really like the house, though I agree the windows look strange... I think maybe they are too small for the house, and look a little out of proportion.

I hope I explained myself well, my english isn't very good today since I've been reading in german for hours

[Kaemarie]

I think I know which windows you're talking about, I'll give them a go and see how it works. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Joria]

I've got kind of a puzzle going on in my head and need some suggestions/advice.  I've not been happy with Pier Fun O Won because it didn't do anything except look good.  If you're going to have something that object/graphics intensive it should do something.  So I've been remodeling it thinking you guys might like to have it.  What I need is some suggestions on what to do with two buildings.  Here's some photos first so you can see where I'm at currently:

This is the game room.



Gepetto's kids' play room.



Gepetto's upstairs.





The DragOn Inn, pub and dance area.



Pool and picnick area.



Rest rooms.



I've done a wee bit of testing and even unfinished the town is swarming there and using pretty much everything.  I had most of the teens in the game room, someone playing shuffleboard, people swimming and getting drinks and using the rest rooms.  So I figure it's going to be a success as far as use is concerned.  But I have two empty buildings at the moment.

I could remove the rest rooms, (cutting back on graphics and items), and replace with a couple of all in one bath rooms.  This would leave a lot of space where I could put a hot air balloon or just leave the rest rooms.

In one building I could, and am seriously thinking of, putting in a barrista and coffee stuff and computers so it's an internet cafe.  Not sure about the computers.  Second choice would be have coffee house half treats/ice cream place.

One building I have no clue what to do with.  I could tear down that building and put a hot air balloon in its space.  I could tear it down and add a karaoke machine but not sure that would get much use.  I could make it a reading room/supernatural hangout stuff. I could make it a wedding venue.   Sooooo, ideas please?  What would you like to see?

I've used things from pretty much every EP/SP and a few store items, (basketball thing and skee ball to name two), but I've tried to avoid store things as much as possible.  So unless you are willing to change a few things if you don't have these items, it wouldn't be for you.  I do like it so far!

[bubbles]

I love how it's so much more interactive now! I like the idea of an internet cafe/computer area combined with a library and the other building being a wedding area. You could always turn it into a resort and find a place for the beach hut tower thingy!

[Chuckles_82]

Here is my current WIP. I still have a lot of landscaping to do, and 4 rooms to furnish, but it's coming along. It's based on Arthur Casas' Inside Out house. The concept came to me whilst playing around with Rica's torment challenge. The only two rooms that have doors are the ensuit and bathroom (I might have to put a purely decorative door in for the paper kid and to designate the front door). I'm yet to test it to see if the 'loves the outdoors/hate the outdoors' traits remain present throughout the whole house, but I'm pretty confident I haven't closed anything in. Edit: Yup, the moodlet remains throughout the whole house

[Frey]

I love it Chuckles! I would love to play in it once you finish it, will you upload it to the Swap Shop when you finish it?

[Chuckles_82]

Thanks Frey It is all finished and uploaded to the swap shop. Link in my signature. I decided to leave it partly furnished, so people could add their own creativity to the extra rooms.