Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Janna]

I've made some revisions, combining what I have read here with what I am hoping to create.  And trying not to do too much destruction of the original building.

I am wondering how I am to post them.  We are limited to a set number of posts, do I have to delete them or do I just add them to a follow-up, like I am doing now, except add the photos along with what I state?  Don't want to break any rules here. 

I've moved the kitchen to the other side as suggested, put the dinning table and chairs in what was the sitting room.  Added the cabinets and such around the entrance, took a bit to get it to look okay, but will be more than willing to get some feedback.  Put the couches and chairs where the kitchen was at.  Moved the chess set to the second floor and put where the dining table and chairs were a tv on the wall and a couple of couches. 
The upstairs, I enlarged the family room, moved out a wall and had to do some changes in the wall on the walkway to the master bedroom, but made the family room bigger.  Put flooring down in the open area near the bedroom at the far left, where the circular stairs are, and put the alchemy station there.  Didn't like closing off that open area, looked so nice, but to get what I wanted it had to be done and it works.


A concern I have is that the area that I moved the walls has a window on the first floor.  You can see the top of the window, it is one of the Victorian single bay windows, and will it cause a pathing issue?

Tomorrow I will post the photos I have taken so you can get a better idea of what I am trying to describe and give some feedback on more improvements.

I will be doing a lot of changing of plants, adding rugs, photos and such when I am completely finished.  Most are to give an idea to help in placement of furniture and such. 

Thanks so much for the help and suggestions, am looking forward to getting more ideas for making this a much nicer home.   



 

[FireRaye93]

@Janna,

You are limited to 10 pictures per post. The exception is story post (and possibly this thread as well, I'll double check). When you have photos to post, you can just create a new Post and add them there. There's no need to edit a previous post unless a new post would result in a double post.

I look forward to seeing what you've done with the house!

[Pam]

The limit for this thread is 10 images per post. If you have more than that, you'll need to put a link in you post to where the images are stored (such as our gallery. You don't need to edit your previous post to show changes in your build. Just make a new post and limit the images to 10. I haven't looked yet, but if you've already posted more than 10, you'll have to remove some of them.

[Janna]

Spanish Summer shell  -- Lombardi Estate


Here are the revisions to the house.  Feedback will be greatly appreciated.



This is the family room moved to the opposite side.  I took out the half walls and put the tv and a couple of couches where the dinning room table had been.




From this angle you can see the light in the wall where the statue is. 






Here is the kitchen moved to the area where the family room was




This gives a better view of the dinning room, I moved the wall over one to give more room where the table was at, which made the room for the cabinets less, but I think it come out okay.




This is the revised family room on the second floor.  You can see the bay window section.  As this is at present a blank town, I don't have any sims to test it, so does anyone know if it will cause a pathing issue? 

Moved the wall out further, had to take out a section of the wall where the window was, hated to do so.  and inside the house take out a window, but it did make the room larger and allowed me to set it up better.




I moved the alchemy station here from where it was by the family room.  Had to put in a floor as it had been an open area, which I hated to do, but the alchemy station didn't look right where it has been at, by the family room. 


Will appreciate any and all feedback on these revision and suggestions for improvements.

[Randox]

To start off, I really like what you did with the Kitchen and Dinning room, I think that turned out quite nicely. Same goes for the new seating area where the kitchen used to be.

Upstairs, I agree with you on the adding in that bit of floor, it's a shame. The only thing I can think of though would probably be to add either a basement or a small third floor (call it your alchemy tower). For the expanded TV room, I think the pathing will be alright, though the look might drive you crazy even if there are no technical issues (if there are no issuer, you might be able to cover it with a rug?). I'm surprised it's showing though, since it looks like you only moved the wall out one space, so the floor was over that window before. If moving the wall back a square would fix that issue, there are some 3 square wide arches that might make that layout work nicely.

[Janna]

I was thinking of putting up an octagon floor (on a foundation) that would be an exercise area. Sims could look out at the ocean while exercising.  I could add a room to it that would have a shower area and put overtop of it an alchemy station. 
Have to be careful that it wouldn't block the view of the ocean from the house, but if I did it in a side area, that should work. 

Will check it out and see how that works today.

Perhaps build two sections, having them connected by a walkway, one with the exercise equipment and the other set up for martial arts.  Over the top build a room for alchemy.  Leaving the ground floor open, except for the support columns and a stairway to get to the second floor.   

I had tried to place tile over the bay window, but for some reason it didn't cover it, will check and see if a rug works.  May have to create a family to test it. 

This is to be the final home for a project family.  Returning to the ancestral home town after visiting other towns.  I will be playing for a while, then saving the game for a later story, but the house fits perfect for what I want to do in the ending of my project story.   

[FireRaye93]

@Janna,

I've been thinking about your potential pathing issues and I may have come up with a solution.



BEHOLD! My not so great diagram showing how to reorganize the room. Allow me to explain.

I'm firstly assuming that the loveseat facing the entry doors is in front of a TV. What was bothering me about this was the fact that this area was separate from the fireplace. I know there are some fireplaces that allow you to place a mirror, TV, or painting over it. I think that fireplace might be one of them. If not, you can either replace it with one that does OR you can use the "moveobjects on" cheat to place it over. Both the fireplace and TV should function regularly if you use the cheat.

By combining the TV and fireplace, you can get rid of the loveseat right in front of the window. Problem solved!

But wait! There's a giant, empty space in the family room. This is fixed by rearranging what you already have. (1) move the desk over to where the chess table is; (2) move the chess table to where the current TV is; and (3) move the current bookshelf to where the current desk is. If you want, you could move the couch in front of the fireplace back a space or two in order to put some distance between it and the TV/fireplace.

This should solve any potential pathing problems you might have.

On another note, I love what you've done with the sitting areas, dining and kitchen. This way really opens and connects the first floor from room to room.

[Janna]

You are right, there is a tv there across from the love seat.  I had planned on it being where a couple could relax sitting at the fire and read a book while someone else watched tv, or someone could play chess and another on the computer playing game, chatting or whatever.   What you suggest is a great idea, we have even considered it here in my own home, placing a tv over top of the fireplace.  If I can get my hubby willing to get rid of the monstrosity of a mantle that goes from floor to ceiling of carvings.  It over whelms the room.

Back to the topic.

The pathing issue is the walkway area, it is the odd colors seen in the tiles, behind the fireplace.  As you go through the archway, you can see it.  It is almost in the middle between the archway and the double doors leading to the hallway to the master bedroom.

 I think that what I am going to do is put a family in there temporarily to see if they can walk the hallway fine, and if not then redo that area.  If worst comes to worst, I can take out the bay window (it is the one in the sitting room now beside the stereo, in what used to be the kitchen).   I could build in an outset around the same size as the bay window and put in a bookshelf there, or have a wicker loveseat there with  windows in that spot.  Or put a wet bar there.  I never have any because of Bonehilda, the maid. 

I like the new setup of the kitchen and the sitting area also.  I will be changing the color of the couches and chairs, probably keep the blue for the chairs and have the couches be gold in color.  Do as much as I can in blues and gold's throughout the house. 

Again, feedback is greatly appreciated in any of the rooms.

[Neashaleigh]

I love what you've done with the place, Janna, and there are some really good suggestions here.

Oh, and please feel free to change walls/windows etc. Like you said, once you downloaded it, it became your house to change how you like.

[CodyAlex]

This is the house I made for my immortal dynasty. (Second try ) I believe in building bigger afterwards, so even after moving Agnes in (and recieving the 100,000 that she comes with) I made a small house with good appliances. after a few weeks into the game...
This is the front. Quite simple really. There is a mini porch where the front door is, and you're imediately entering the hallway. Then, you can choose to what room you want to go to, since there isn't a room here.


This is the overhead of the first (and only) floor. And yes, Agnes is painting Generation two's toddler portrait . The house actually looks kind of like a box, as I'm no builder, unlike Samo and Joria . But I think I'll do a reconstruction as the generations go by.

[roguebait]

WIP:



It's been a while since I sat down with pen and paper and plotted a floorplan of my own instead of modifying one I found on a website. Slow going, but fulfilling.

[ladybug53]

@ roguebait - Love what you've done so far . I admirer your roof creation . 

[roguebait]

@ roguebait - Love what you've done so far . I admirer your roof creation . 

You only say that because you can't see the roof over the angled section to the side. It's cringeworthy, I tell you what. I'll figure it out there, eventually, though. It may take some reworking of the layout - that area's set to be the pool/arboretum attached to the garage. I may make a workout loft or something overlooking it? Not sure.

[norenegonc]

Hello everyone, new and old! Been a long time since I was on the sims 3, I had to work abroad in France for a bit so there was no building for me at all But I am back now! Looks like the game went and released the last expansion while I was gone haha. In any case, I started simming again, although instead of building constantly like before, I am actually playing my sims, which can be fun too <.<

But I did need to build them houses of course! The first one was an old build, I included an image below because I finally got the search lights working on the lot haha, which was cool. But the house was too big for me, I was too annoyed by how much moving the camera around I had to do, but I will miss the decadence of that castle. My second house is much smaller in area of course, and I decided to build more floors rather than space everything out. I must say I was really pleased with the end build, even if it took forever to fully furnish. I could probably remove a few of the more elaborate build designs to make it more realistic looking but what fun is that.

One thing that surprised my as a builder actually playing the game though was how many routing errors a house could do. Things I didn't think about while building were pretty major routing issues, which in turn probably cause a lot of lag for those that use the content we build. So… I guess playing the game does have its use haha. Anyway let me know what you think!

@Codyalex, I wasn't sure if you were asking for suggestions, but in case you were, I had a few to augment the realism of your build
You could attach the fenced garden to the house so it doesn't seem so lonely, probably make one end attached to the right side of the house (looking at the image not the actual right side lol) and the other end to the back of the house, and maybe with one or two corners being diagonal lines will likely diminish the overall box feel.

I cannot see the roofing very well but the sections that extend off the main structure (forgot what you call them lol), like the two in the front and the small one to the left side of the house, I usually like to make those areas another wall pattern than the rest of the house, usually something stony or masonry, sometimes even the same pattern as the foundation.

Another thing you could do as well is to extend the foundation in the front by 2-3 tiles to the front of the lot and then extend the sides of the foundation as well to cover the distance of the front length of the house, to create a sort of nice little porch area. Throw a matching fence on there and a few column pillars and then either tile over it or maybe something like the small fences for an open air roof and a rocking chair and bam, cozy porch haha.

Final recommendation would be landscaping and terrain paints. Throw a few clusters of fauna around and blend a few grassy terrains around should be good

[ladybug53]

Wow ... this is just amazing ! Very creative .