Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Shewolf13]

I totally need to get the green house set as well as Roaring Heights lol and the mansion set XD But I WILL download it.

[Janna]

Even if you don't have the expansions or store worlds you can download the house.  It will either have replacements or empty spaces in the areas from those towns.

I had SEA and had placed some lamps on tables in a garden, when I had to uninstall SEA the lamps were exchanged with other lamps.  That looked totally out of place, frilly lamps sitting on table outside in gardens. 
Downloaded a house, the Adobe, don't remember who designed it, but the counters were from a town that I don't have and so it was blank.  There were no replacements, just an empty section of the kitchen.  I think a room was missing a door also.

Don't let the lack of having the towns stop you from downloading a building, you can just add what you have, or even change a room to be something else if you don't have anything that would go there.  A room that is set for entertainment, with arcade type games, can be changed by enlarging other rooms or even used as a bedroom, alchemy, study, exercise, nursery or whatever you want it to be. 

[Dellena]

I would say that the main set you would want to have is the Now & Then Century Manor set.  Otherwise, you don't get ANY of the mansard roof.  I guess you could change the entire style of the roof to something else that's available to you.

[Janna]

I looked at what you have in the shell thread and it is really nice.  Right now I'm not going to download it as I have way, way, to many homes already saved.   

On the roof, I am pretty sure that there is that style of roof with the base game.  I have only IP and SN for expansions, and the store worlds of RV, DV, MV and AS, so I would have very little in what you have in your home.   

I'm still learning how to add roofs to my homes when I remodel ones in the games, but I will figure it all out someday.   I do either the auto roof or work on making mine own, which end up looking a bit strange    Practice makes perfect as the saying goes.  And I need lots of practice

[Dellena]

The roof that you see isn't made with the roofing tool.  The new set has several roof decor pieces that you put together to make what you see there.

[Dellena]

Villa Capri Mansion Update

First off, I decided (after a lot of images research into Second Empire buildings) that the front tower was one floor too tall.  I've now altered that and here's the screenshots to show:






If you downloaded the house and want to copy this new look, you should be able to see what to do from the screenshots.  Two things to note: 1.  You'll need to use the MoveObjects On cheat for a couple of the roof decor pieces as they sit on top of lower pieces.  2.  For the floor tiles which the roofing pieces sit on and that extend out past the walls, you'll want to use the Create a Style tool on the sides of those floor tiles and I just changed the pattern to the Misc flat white pattern.  So it looks like white trim.

Now, onto changes in the rear of the house.

I wanted to alter the back of the house to bring the outside to the inside, so to speak.  So here's what I did:




The house is supported by those massive concrete with reinforced steel cores pillars.

And the basement is now complete.






So we have an extensive gym, unisex bathroom complete with a shower (can't have stinky sims going through the house ), and the movie/media room.  The screen is from the Movie Theatre venue store set and just has the "Watch movie..." interaction and you can pick different movies to watch.  I've confirmed (with my tester sim) that a sim can watch a movie from the back row.  One thing you can't see in that room is the snow cone machine.  You need a snack, right?   Any room with windows into the pool got the wall treatment which uses the same pattern as the pool itself.

[McHazy]

That looks absolutely magnificent Dellena, fabulous build! I have neither the time, talent or patience to do something as elegant, I am in awe!

[Dellena]

Thanks, McHazy   I'm currently working on a tricked out 'man cave'

[Dellena]

Villa Capri Mansion Update

I've pretty much completed the walkout basement level.

I did some further revision on the pool area and added a bunch of the waveboards which look nice up on the wall.


You can see a single white door on the right of that picture and that leads to the Sauna, which also has an entrance inside the house.


Now we get into the 'man cave' bit.  Feast your eyes, boys.


There's a bathroom:

(Complete with sofas for certain guests who might be too drunk to drive home to crash on if necessary.)

And a small wine cellar:


Tomorrow I'll work on the main floor more.  Started some today but need to stop for today.

[Randox]

Figured I've done enough renovating that it might be time to show my progress and get some more feedback.

I've included blueprint shots (building mode) this time to help out anyone that wants to try and rebuild the house themselves. I'm not interested in uploading the house (especially when I don't consider it complete), and I wish to encourage anyone who wants to use this design to put their own spin on it during construction.

Note that all these pictures go to full size if you click on them (refreshing the page should shrink the big ones again. If you just go back, they'll still be 1600x900), not just the thumbnails. I tried to include all the important pictures here, but for anyone interested, there are some more in their home gallery on my blog, found on this page.

Front View:


Back View:


Blueprint Mainfloor:


Blueprint Topfloor:


Select Interior Thumbnails:





Optional wall of Text!
Any suggestions, comments, and critiques welcome

Compare to my last post on this house here.

Attempting to cut down on the wall'o'text. The bathrooms are a problem. I added the second bathroom back in (in the space between walls) because I need it, and I shrunk the other one to make the bedroom big enough for two. I dislike having such small bathrooms in such a large house, but I have not yet arrived at a solution.

Backyard changes can be seen by looking at the last post. I think I overpatterend it. Plan is to turn the pool into a fountain, and put a new pool running down the right side of the backyard and house where I now have much more space.

I am also thinking that with the garage extension (it's longer now), I will turn the top of that into a guest loft, and connect it behind the stairs to turn the master bedroom into the guest bedroom (and possibly a bathroom). I'm not big on the party hall on the second floor anymore, so that would be remodeled into the new master bedroom, master bath, and gym.

If anyone really wants to take a shot at remaking this house and needs other views, send me a PM. Can't garuntee it will be shots of exactly the same house, but this design isn't going anywhere.

[Dellena]

@Randox

For the exterior, I would break up the constant stonework with siding or paint.  See the images here.

If you have bunk beds, that could solve your small spacing issue in the room with the two single beds.

For me, personally, I would build a separate building for the sauna and gym and that would open up the whole top floor around the master bedroom.

[Randox]

@Dellena

Missed it when I was posting last night. That house is simply gorgeous! I am particularly liking what you did with the backyard. It's a nice blend of old and modern architecture.


Thanks for the ideas as well. I'll see what I can do about making the exterior a bit more pleasant, and I think I am going to move some rooms around again and see if I can gain some space where I need it, and open a few rooms up.

[Dellena]

Villa Capri Mansion Update

I haven't posted on the mansion in a while because I've been working on several commissions.  But now that I have some free time again, I've been working on more of the decoration of the mansion.  So here goes:

The living room:




View from the living room to the entry hall:


Dining room:


The Dowager Suite:

[Shewolf13]

That is beautiful!  I am once again, in awe.  I wish I had half the talent in decorating even XD

[Dellena]

That is beautiful!  I am once again, in awe.  I wish I had half the talent in decorating even XD

I use a lot of CC and store content which helps.  You have more choices then - at least that works for me.

Villa Capri Mansion Update

With the completion of the kitchen/laundry areas, the main floor is now complete.

Kitchen:




I have almost all of the cooking appliances for special items (i.e. baker's station, japanese grill, etc.) and I placed them all in this kitchen.  Afterall, this is an estate kitchen.

Here's the first bedroom from the second floor.  It is VERY masculine (intentional) but I like how it turned out.  The black/gray colour scheme really makes the artwork pop.




And the ensuite bathroom with an Asian theme:






And here's a lesson I've learned from this build.  If you're going to tile the ceiling, make it the first step before any interior walls (if you can help it).  In small rooms, it can be impossible to get the camera to show the ceiling in build mode.  In this instance, I can to delete a wall in the bathroom so I could tile the ceiling of the bedroom and bathroom at the same time and then rebuild and recover that wall tile.  So learn from me, do it first!