Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[BACKDROPsilhouette]

Speaking of LOTR, my sims need a hobbit hole.

Tiny space pods?! Brilliant. I'll start sketching some plans. I've got a 36 hour bus ride coming up and will probably get a lot of planning for houses done. I just got the most recent futuristic and modern object sets from the Sims store, so I'll have some material to work with. My mind keeps picturing rocket ships instead of space pods, though.

I saw that heart house in the brief amount of time I was in LL! I wanted to live in it, but of course it was occupied. I didn't stay because a lot of the affordable homes weren't up to my standards.

What kind of pools do you make? I've only ever made one pool with see-through walls. Can the goldfish only be put in the little bowls, or can they be put in the large in-wall aquarium as well?

I think the accent squares and corner pieces aren't too much; they kind of tie the place together in a way. Applying patterns to things and over-using colors is a weakness of mine, though, so I can see how you'd worry. When I find a collection of colors I like, I apply them to everything. Like in my little cottage, everything downstairs uses the same combination of colors and patterns, and the loft does the same. It's much easier to drop customized colors to every piece of furniture than change it up. I'll have to work on that once I get into more wacky designs.

[pallyndrome]

backdrop, only thing is you can't upload it to the swap shop with custom content in it. You could try a fireman's pole though - I think I heard sims can climb up as well as slide down?

[BACKDROPsilhouette]

Ah, I was unaware of that. Thanks for the tip, I'll try it out and see if it works!

Edit: It's too tall and too large to fit in my tiny cottage, but I'm going to play around with some stair options once I've perfected some other things with the landscaping. 

[macphile]

@Backdrop: I've not been toying with pools for very long, but I was introduced to two helpful design tips from this board. One is to change the floors and walls, which I'd honestly never even thought to do before (!). In fact, I'm probably doing it too often now, which is one reason I made the pool in that house blue, although it uses the blue tile in the downstairs rooms rather than the default (and tragically looks different colors by the lighting conditions). The other is to create islands in the pool with plants on them.

Lately, I've gotten into placing fountains in pools, too, which I did in that house above. In general, I'm in love with running them indoors and up against walls, where I can. I've done a few for townies that run around one edge of the house. I'm only saddened by this one not having a "downstairs" to it where you could see in. I guess I'll have to toy with that sometime. I guess it requires a basement?

If I had any clue what I was doing, I'd try a Japanese house (not for LL, I guess), although I know there's one on here I could download (well, it's on the board; I don't know if it's downloadable). It's either that or I get myself into a world of trouble trying CFE for the first time to make a curved bridge. :-)

This house required rooms for 5 sims. In the end of the day, the master bedroom is just a bed with stairs in it. There may be a lesson here about going crazy with the staircases and exterior walkways and so forth and not thinking about where the sims will actually live. I'm especially amused by the exhausting climb to the roof via one giant staircase. Honestly, the only reason I'd ever consider getting Generations (I only have Ambitions installed) is for that spiral staircase. Gah!

[BACKDROPsilhouette]

I'm going to have to look into fountains. I'd never been able to figure out how to make them work properly; although that's partly because I had no internet when I attempted to use them. Those are some great tips for pools, though! I'm going to have to try them out.

The last time I made a pool with a downstairs where you could see in, I built a room on the ground floor and placed the pool inside it from the second floor. After I added full-length windows where necessary, the inside of the pool could be viewed from the couches in front of the television. Entry to the pool was from the second floor just off the master bedroom. I'd like to make a little playhouse for children with a pool as a moat so that the kids have to swim across to reach their toys!

My CFE skills are limited to simple structures on a hill and making split stairs. I think if I tried anything else my brain would exploooodeee.

I thought you could get the spiral staircase even without Generations? I assumed the patch for Generations included the spiral staircase. Or maybe you can buy it in the Sims 3 Store. Hm, I'm not too sure. I've never thought about it because I have all stuff packs and expansions. With Late Night there are elevators as well. The time it takes to climb stairs is one of the reasons why I use my handy dandy stackable ladder. Since it's custom content and has no animation, it simply teleports  the user to the desired floor. For houses intended for other people to use, I usually have to take it out and adjust design. Bleh. 

[macphile]

My understanding is that the spiral staircase only comes with Generations, yes. I have always hated stairs in the Sims, and that hasn't changed in Sims 3. Maybe a spiral one would quiet my hatred slightly. :-)

I find it really helps to have pictures to look at without being distracted by the game environment, so I have had the following thoughts regarding the house posted above:

1. Change the inside walls and windows to half walls or fencing to open the space up, save money (important!), and hide the backs of objects like counters.
2. Change the current dining table/chair configuration to a bar, possibly even on the side of the kitchen without the fridge rather than a new area...but I doubt there'll be room.
3. Possibly enlarge the roof garden and add needed game objects (like the telescope that's already there) so the sims will actually go up there and appreciate my hard work.
4. Move one of the bathrooms to the downstairs "side" building, along with a laundry room, so the upstairs will have more bedroom space.

And I may try to find some use for the "wasted" space around the inside pool, but I suspect I will fail because it's there in the first place so the sims can get in and out without a long swim to a floor.

If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to share. Bonus points if you have ideas about the back deck, which just kind of stops onto plain ground...no idea what to do with that. Maybe I could expand the garden areas...alternating with non-vegetable garden plots? I may also build a half wall or fence on the side to hide their stupid game. Why do all sims want that stupid game? Also, I'm fuzzy on how to decorate the downstairs with all those windows and limited space. Ugh.

[BACKDROPsilhouette]

Hmph. Well if you feel like spending the money for Generations, I'd go for it! I like what it adds to the game.

Those are all good thoughts. I never thought of looking at pictures rather than looking at the house in-game to come up with changes.

You could probably do a bar setup, but room would be an issue. Maybe put a little bar eating setup slightly under the stairs if it fits well?
As for the deck, you could add small shrubs and such around the perimeter, although I like alternating non-vegetable garden plots better. I'll try to think of other things and see what I can do to help!

I moved my tiny house to a bigger lot and haven't changed the custom staircase yet, but this is what I have now.
I am definitely going to change the pond; I placed that there to get an idea of how I wanted it to be. It's too big or too deep. 

[ZapKid]

Since my last home didn't go well (forgot the kitchen ) I decided to ditch the first one (a mod can remove if desired) and start again with a more clear mind.







I personally like it loads more then the other one. What do you guys think? This is going to be the new Sunset Villa pretty much.

[JudesSims]

I like the style much better...but that's just personal preference. Good job!

[fortheloveofcake]

Really nice house Zap! My only comment would be the trellis-type thing over the pool in the back. The spacing of the slats looks odd to me. But then I am something of a symmetry-freak. 

[ZapKid]

Really nice house Zap! My only comment would be the trellis-type thing over the pool in the back. The spacing of the slats looks odd to me. But then I am something of a symmetry-freak. 

They look odd to me to. I'm going to work with them a bit more and see what I can change.

[Sims3Clacla123]

Wow looks amazing Zap .
Trying my hand at some modern style house right now. 

[macphile]

I've been working on my house some more. It still isn't sitting right with me, though. I guess it still looks a bit "institutional" to me, and I don't think it has a cohesive style.

Anyway, the front, with a car in the driveway now. I added some extra walls on the porch to keep it from being so boxy.



The downstairs. I think I need to get rid of the tile in the entry. I was having fun doing it, but it's kind of insane. It'd probably be better off as just wood. I'm also not sure what to fill the spaces with. I moved the pool to the outer edge, which gave me some more space, but now I don't know what to do with it.



Speaking of insane, my attempt to fill out the backyard. It looks a bit junky to me. It was also my first time trying spawners. That may or may not have been a good idea. (I don't know what that white box next to the table is. It won't let me grab it or anything...? I didn't place a random white box anywhere, AFAIK. It'd just turned up when I went back into build mode to get these pictures.)



I moved the roof garden to the ground, heh. I won't swear as to how pathable it is.



I sorted out the upstairs layout some. The boys' bedroom uses a pattern I downloaded on this forum.



I took inside shots of the downstairs, but I guess they didn't upload. I won't bore you with the pictures of the upstairs rooms.

Meanwhile, the whole original point was to build a new house for my family. So I threw this together for them. The inside is a random assortment of their junk, so I'll skip that. But even with some rather tight outside spaces, it's still an improvement over the architectural vomit they used to live in.



P.S. to all this because I assume I can't or shouldn't double post. :-)

1) I was looking back through some houses in the thread and found myself suddenly impressed by one Zapkid posted on page 92 (assuming you have a default number of posts per page, I guess)--the little modern one. Anyway, I've seen that house before in here, but I suddenly realized that it was an oddly impressive house--oddly in that it's very simple, but he/she (sorry) makes it work. The house itself is relatively boxy, and the rooms are square instead of having angled walls, which people like to do to add interest. Yet because of the modern rectangular furniture and lack of clutter, it works.

2) I was thinking, if anyone has any ideas on what to do with the master bedroom (the one in the "outbuilding" that has a staircase plonked down in it), I'm all ears. Because it's long and narrow and has stairs, it's hard for me to find a way to make it into a cohesive unit. It looks like what it is--a long, narrow room with some furniture plonked down on one end. Would a wall, fence, or half wall help? Some architectural thing like that?

3) I can totally see I need to buy new furniture, yet again. I don't have enough modern stuff for this house. Darn my lack of EPs.

[FireRaye93]

That blue house looks really neat macphile!  Your other one is coming along nicely too.

The white boxes half to with spawners. I don't know what it is exactly that they do. I just know that whenever you place a fish or insect spawner, they show up.

About your master bedroom, I think you should use sleeker furniture. Modern furniture would definitely be a good idea for this space. The furniture that is currently in place clashes with the long rectangular shape of the room due to their "bulky" and "aged" shape and theme. Modern furniture (in the game at least) tends to be less "bulk" and more "art" which is what you need here. Also you should put something in that bigger corner next to the staircase like a sitting/reading area, an easel, chess table etc. Because the staircase is not in the direct middle, you need to put something on the bigger side to create a more symmetrical appearance like the rest of the house has.

[Lynley1248]

2) I was thinking, if anyone has any ideas on what to do with the master bedroom (the one in the "outbuilding" that has a staircase plonked down in it), I'm all ears. Because it's long and narrow and has stairs, it's hard for me to find a way to make it into a cohesive unit. It looks like what it is--a long, narrow room with some furniture plonked down on one end. Would a wall, fence, or half wall help? Some architectural thing like that?

I really like the outside of your house, especially the colors and front landscaping.  For the bedroom, you could try moving the staircase so it is against the left wall, to open up the space on the right side. You could also use a half wall instead of railing if you wanted. Then, maybe add a tv area or reading nook.  You could separate the area from the bed with one of the decorative folding screen dividers (not sure of the exact name), to make it more of an individual space.  As long as the furniture and colors coordinate, it should look cohesive.