Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Lisa46]

I love the exterior, first of all, and when this home is posted I'll download it. Some of the walls on the bottom floor look a bit rough - you could try using diagonal walls or something to smooth out the bathrooms. Other than that, great job!

[Randox]

No plans to upload the house for now because it's been built in an active save with my own custom content. My hope is that anyone who wants to would be able to recreate the house using my build mode pictures (and I'll provide specific pictures on request if anyone wants them), and perhaps put their own twist on my design (and then show off what you did because I would love to see what other people do with it).

As for the rough walls on the first floor, I think I see what you are getting at. I think the house is closing in on the final floor plan for me (at which point I might consider cleaning up the save and uploading the house), but I can never speak for my future whims. What I do know is that I have some ideas for which I am going to need a new house or two, so once I have the money for a second (or vacation) house, I'll be shifting my focus to that.

For anyone interested, here are the oldest pictures of the house I have (these are from the second version of the house. The pictures in my previous post are from the fifth). You can see the general layout I have maintained since the beginning, as well as where I have made the house larger (the garage, and the section of house behind it), but also that there really isn't space for me to cram anything else in without major alterations to the exterior look.

[Lisa46]

Yeah the bathroom corrections really made a difference.

[smilesdude98]

This is a house I'm currently working on. The story is that a botanist came into a large sum of money and wished to create a house that joined indoor and outdoor space into one. She wanted to keep her house intact while building a conservatory where people could throw parties while taking in a wide variety of plant life.

I'm having a little trouble deciding how to finish the exterior faces. I'm not sure what look/style I want to achieve on the conservatory. Also want to add in some sort of science lab, but not sure where to put it. Any ideas?

[Randox]

I think that's going to be quite lovely once you finish painting it. Really liking the interior work too!

Had a thought looking at your house, and I think the paint scheme for this house would look quite nicely on yours if you can tie it into the conservatory. You might even be able to do up one of the stone paints in this scheme if that ticked your fancy on the conservatory (pretty sure nothing like this in the game, you'll have to pick the colours yourself).



I'm a fan of tucking away the lab in a basement, but that's mostly a personal taste thing. If you wanted it to be neatly tucked away, you might be able to find a way to put it under the conservatory which I assume has no basement. Might even be a good opourtunity to use one of those secret bookcase doors. If not, than perhaps you could make it a detached building. I'd have to play around with it I think, but I'd be inclined to try and fit it in with the greenhouses so that it's not an eyesore for guests on the far side of the conservatory in the room which I think is the one with the bar. I think you could totally do some pond or fountain work on that side though.

[smilesdude98]

@Randox

Thanks for the input! It's really funny that you found a house with that color scheme. I was working on it some more and came up with one really close to that. I added a shed with the science lab. I thought about adding a basement, but decided she needed faster access to the lab. Also, it gives guests a chance to come in and see her work on the various plants in the sims world!

I've finished the landscaping, cottage, and interior of the conservatory, but I still can't decide what the exterior of the conservatory should look like...maybe I should just do all windows? I like your idea of blending the look of the conservatory with the house. I just don't quite know how to do it.

I don't play gardeners very often, so this should be a very interesting experience once complete. I'm still trying to decide between a residential and a community lot. I would be interesting trying to run a household from a community lot full-time.

Any other comments?

[Jordan101]

Hi. Been lurking for awhile and decided to sign up.

Here are a couple commercial buildings I've been working on. One's a laundromat and the other is a bowling alley. They're part of a small neighborhood commercial area a couple blocks from downtown. I'm still working on these and I'll try to have a couple shots of the interiors and updated exteriors soon.

The Alder Street Laundromat. The 2nd floor and neighboring building are just shells and the interior of the laundromat has a dated 1970s brown and orange color scheme. Right now I'm working on changing the facade of the one-story brown building. I don't like how it turned out.


The Gutter Ball Bowling Alley across the street from the laundromat. the Hillwood City Library is behind the trees to the left of the building. I'll try to get some pictures of it soon...

[smilesdude98]

Wow, Jordan, those look fantastic! I can't wait to see what they look like finished. Looks like they would be right at home in Twinbrook or even Bridgeport.

Keep up the good work, and welcome to the forum!

[symphonicanima]

Since I'm not sure if this should be made its own topic or put in another thread or something, kindly move this to the correct place if necessary, mods! Thank you


While this isn't exactly a finished product, I'm actually pretty proud of what I have so far given that I almost never build houses/lots (well, and keep the final designs, anyways). I was very inspired by the building trailer from a certain future game that I simply had to build a version of it in the game.

(Now, if only I knew how to layout and decorate...)



This was originally a 'modern home for a multigenerational family', but I'm planning on turning it into a small apartment instead- I simply can't get enough apartment buildings. (Literally )



Another view, this time from the back of the lot.





Since I'm not sure what's behind, I simply turned this area into a future parking space instead. (Ignore that road sign, I was building this in Starlight Shores but plan on moving it later, haha.)

Hopefully the rest of the building & landscaping goes just as smoothly. Unfortunately, not so much high hopes when it comes to interior decorating.

[Dellena]

It looks great!  If you're interested, I start a thread a while back asking for decorators for some of the builds I was doing.  Several of them spoke up.  Have a look through here and you're welcome to post there and ask for help with the decorating.  You'd simple share it in game to make it appear in your exports folder.  Then send that sims3pack file to the appropriate decorator and they'll send you back the finished build.

[Jordan101]

Here is an update...

This is the Hillwood City Library. It's backstory is that it was built in the 70s and has recently undergone an extensive renovation...
Exterior


1st floor


2nd floor




Here are a couple of other buildings I'm working on.
This is an office building that will have an art gallery and studio. The studio will be on the first floor and the rest of the building is just a decorative shell.


This is the Hillwood Fire Station. The living quarters will be on the 2nd floor in the back of the building while the Fire Chief's office and gym will be on the back of the 1st floor.


This is a warehouse type building in the downtown area. It's just a decorative shell.


This is another decorative shell. By the way, the sim in front of the house is Dan Armstrong, the corrupt police chief and one of the main 'antagonists' in the city.

[_Annika_]

@Jordan101 I love the city feel of the buildings you have posted. You have excellent attention to detail.

[bubbles]

I really love the first two buildings, not because they're particularly pretty, but because they are so reminiscent of some of the buildings in my town. You're really talented!

[roguebait]

Reviving this thread because Mrs. Flynn asked me to share pictures of the house I'm building once it's done. Well, It's not done yet, but I'm so ridiculously pleased with how the master bath turned out that I'm posting a couple shots early.

Call them preview shots, if you will.



Just noticed that I need to recolor the towels on the counter. Whoops. Also I think I need to switch the wallpaper on the platforms to something with a thicker baseboard, so that the whole of the height is covered. Opinion?

House isn't finished yet because I had to take a break from it. I ran into a wall trying to furnish an empty space next to the living room. So I took a couple days off from contemporary prairie and built a log cabin in the woods:

[_Annika_]

I like the combination you chose for the bathroom walls. It really suits.