Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Twinmum]

I added a familiar house.  Recognize it?   THEN:

Awe shucks, I recognize it 
Not built on pillars Tommy, just a foundation.

Norma

[TommyT]

Figuratively speaking yes it is foundation and not actual columns.

[Swede1992]

Joria it's pretty much impossible to place any of the pre-built homes on a sloped lot or you get the results you've been seeing.  You'd have to build something new and toy around with the foundation like the one in SV, I wanna say it's the Koffi household, looks like it's build on pillars.

I'm just about now experimenting with building a house on a slope using pillar-like foundation in Twinbrook (must've missed the Koffi household (liked Riverview better); this is something I came up myself independently (sorry if it has been made before)). Now, it's not actually a house yet, because I'm building it with a real sim's money. She hasn't had enough to complete the house yet, but I've laid out the "foundation".

Up close:

Fantastic sea-view:

View over Twinbrook on a misty morning from my foundation:

I didn't know anyone had already made these things (bet they stole my idea a year before I came up with it! ), but I think I'm falling in love with the prospects of building a house like this.

[danefaith]

I built a TB pillar house myself, back on page 16.

Not that I'd feel my idea was robbed, especially given, like you, I was robbing the idea from Twinbrook.  

[Swede1992]

Hey! This is awful! I hadn't noticed there were these houses in Twinbrook either! I checked it right now and you are right, but all the time I've been in Twinbrook I've lived on the other side of town without taking much notice at those houses!
Now I really think I've been ripped off! And here I thought I was original.

I hadn't seen your house as well danefaith (it must have been posted when I was gone back then). That was a real beauty.

[LlamaMama]

I like how it's starting out, with the bare necessities: a time machine and an easel!

SV has at least a couple houses built on pillars. Or you could find inspiration here:

[danefaith]

...but all the time I've been in Twinbrook I've lived on the other side of town without taking much notice at those houses!

This is what we call a "sheltered childhood."  

Thanks, hope theirs and mine'll offer some inspiration.  I absolutely fell in love with the likeness of old shacks renovated in a contemporary fashion.

@ Llama's picture: What is this I don't even. 

[Swede1992]

I like how it's starting out, with the bare necessities: a time machine and an easel!

Thanks LlamaMama. I don't think any sim can survive without the basic survival stuff.
Sure, I am yet to give her a bed (she sleeps at the neighbours' house), but I am nice enough to have provided her with a telescope as well!

I'm also agreeing with danefaith: What is that house? It looks really cool, but where is it from?

[Telsey]

That is fascinating Swede.  One night I tried to do that and didn't get too far before getting stuck.  Are you using foundation to build the pillars?

[Storyteller]

Well, I got tired of my family of seven living in an overgrown box in Twinbrook, so I decided to try to build a house that WASN'T an overgrown box.  Easier said than done for me.  But here is my first attempt.  I know the color scheme isn't fabulous, but I'm looking for feedback as far as layout is concerned.  Be gentle, it's my first time!  (lol)




The front area (foyer, living room, dining room/kitchen and bathroom)...



The back of the house (three bedrooms, study, bathroom)

And close-ups of the outside.  







Let me know what you think!

[Swede1992]

That is fascinating Swede.  One night I tried to do that and didn't get too far before getting stuck.  Are you using foundation to build the pillars?

Yeah, you first raise the ground and make a flat plateau and lay a foundation on that. Then you can erase the foundation bits so that it forms small pillars to this earth plateau (between each pillar you can have 4 empty squares. Then you sporadically lower the terrain here and there to approximately the same level and angle as the slope, then you use the smoothing tool to form everything to a nice slope.

I also discovered that it may be bright to keep a bit of the earth plateau left (you can see on my pictures that the foundation row furthest back still lies normally on ground) because then if you want to expand your platform you can use the equal-levelling tool to recreate the earth plateau with and then place out a new foundation where you see fit and start the process over again. If you destroy the whole earth plateau you can never place a new foundation on the exact right level as everything else again.

Also, a glitch may occur where some squares of flooring on your platform may be missing. In that case, use the cheat "constrainFloorElevation false" and you can place the floor tiles, but don't alter the earth level again without using the cheat "constrainFloorElevation true" first, because your platform may get destroyed otherwise.

Hope this makes sense!

@Storyteller: I think it looks good actually. You can easily see that you've toyed around with the house shape to make it less box-like, but it works well with the house overall. It gives it a bit of character if you know what I mean.

[LlamaMama]

I'm also agreeing with danefaith: What is that house? It looks really cool, but where is it from?

My grandfather was an inventor, back in the mid-20th century. He patented all kinds of inventions and machinery, and eventually revolutionized the steel industry. This is an old photo of an idea he was playing around with in his twenties. It wasn't very popular so not much ever came of it, though. I googled "cantilevered house" and that picture came up.

(But I made up that story.)

[Twinmum]

If you destroy the whole earth plateau you can never place a new foundation on the exact right level as everything else again.

This isn't quite true. If you start the new bit of foundation right next to an existing pillar, the new foundation will be the same height. So all you need to do is drag out some new foundation where you want to extend, then delete most of it to create pillars.





Norma

[LlamaMama]

This is really fascinating. Contest possibilities abound!

[Swede1992]

Ah, you mean it like that! OK, it was just me who was being stupid.
I was just thinking if you'd have to repeat the process with the earth plateau, you'd need earth at the right height, but you don't need that apparently.