Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Pam]

We have only one thread for sharing construction and building projects.  I'm going to merge this thread with it.  Dellena, please post your pictures there.

[Dellena]

I was actually considering making it more of a tutorial type thread.  Something along the lines of answering the old question:

I've found this great houseplan I want to build in Sims, how do I do it?

For many houseplans, it's fairly simple and straight forward.  However, for a project like this, it's going to be Complicated (capital C intended).  So I was thinking of expanding on my thinking processes on how to build it as well as opening it up for other awesome builders to add comments or suggestions (particularly if I run into issues here or there, which I probably will). 

However, all that being said, I can do it all here and folks can sift through.

[Dellena]

Villa Capri House Build

So, the first step in building from an actual house plan is to study it carefully, and if you can, print it out so you can make notes on it.

Studying my house plan (http://www.archivaldesigns.com/home-plans/villa-capri-house-plan), the first thing I note (and that will be a challenge to build) is the fact that is has a minimum of two floors that are fully above ground and two floors that are partially underground.  Not an easy thing to build in Sims.  So I had to think of some ways to do it.

I don’t like trying to build a walkout basement with the basement tool.  It’s too complicated.  So I’m going to do it the ‘old school’ way.

I’ve decided that I’m going to raise the front elevation on the property by one floor height.  This will be the base of the first floor - the garages will also be on this elevation.  That way, the ‘basement’ will be at the original ground elevation and then I’ll lower that by one floor level for the ‘sub-basement’.  This will make more sense when you see the screenshots after I have the floors in.

Now comes some calculations.  I’m going to build this on a 64 x 64 lot and I’ll probably need all of that space.  I need to calculate, roughly, the depth of the build (including the garages) so I know how far back into the lot I’ll start so I have a nice gradual incline up to the first floor level.

So, now I’m looking at the stairs and figuring out how I’m going to make it work.  Sims doesn’t allow you to place a staircase right above another one (only exception is the spiral stairs).  So I can’t stack them like it shows in the plan.  Instead, I’m going to go with one up the center and then the next level, there will be one on either side, and the next floor will go up the center again, etc.  I’ll end up with something like this:



If I allow two floor tiles on either side (as pictured) then the central stairwell is a minimum of 14 tiles wide and 8 tiles deep.  Now I need to figure the rest of the width of the house.  I use a rough measurement of one tile equals about three feet in the real world.

Laundry room = 11 x 11 (close enough to 12 x 12 so 4 x 4 tiles in the Sim world)
Dining room = 18 x 15 (6 x 5 tiles)
Foyer = Doesn’t show a measurement so I’ll use the double door and the wall bits on either side to equal a 4 tile width Foyer. 

Now, I don’t need to measure the other side as this house will be perfectly symetrical from the center.  Taking half of the Foyer (2 tiles) and adding the Laundry room and Dining room together (10 tiles), I get 12 tiles as half the width of the house.  Which means 24 tiles wide for the whole house.  But I need to consider those garages. 

They are 21 x 21 on the plans.  This would come out to 7 x 7 tiles, HOWEVER, the Sims Parking Space is 3 x 7 tiles.  So 7 x 7 wouldn’t strictly work.  Plus the Sims garage doors are 4 tiles wide and there’s two of them per building.  This calls for some alterations.  I’m going to go with a depth of 12 tiles (2 garage doors plus three wall pieces) and since the buildings show as square, they will be 12 x 12 tiles each.  The garages are inset in relation to the house by about 2 tiles on each side.  If I add the two garages together, I get 24 tiles, minus the tiles inset by the house (4 tiles) I get an additional width to the build of 20 tiles.  So now the house is a total of 44 tiles wide (I’m glad I don’t have to clean it in real life! lol).

Now for the depth.

Garage = 12 tiles
Distance between Garages and house = I’m allowing 4 tiles for safety
Dining room = 5 tiles
Stair well = 8 tiles (this includes the Gallery on the plans)
Grand Room = 6 tiles (20 x 18 = 7 x 6 tiles)

Total depth = 35 tiles

My house will require a space of 44 x 35 tiles leaving 20 tiles to split for the sides and 29 tiles to split for the back and front.  I’ll split the sides evenly and save 16 tiles for the front leaving 13 tiles for the back.

Now I have a plan.   And you guys can check my math.

[Dellena]

Figuring out how to do a 2 storey walkout basement is giving me fits at the moment but I'm still working on it, but bed time now.  Back at it tomorrow.

[Dellena]

Villa Capri House Build Update

After a LOT of experimentation with different methods, I'm going to have to say that this house will NOT have two basement walkout floors - only one.  The sub-basement is using the actual basement tool and is all underground.  That being said, I'm going to try some stuff with the pool at the back that I'll add later to get some daylight into that sub-basement.

Another thing I had to change was the stairwell.  The way I did it in the test would work in certain builds (and I'll use it in the future).  However, this build requires the entry to pass through the stairs on either side and goes straight back to the great room.  So this build will use the sweeping stairs up to the second floor but I'll use the spiral stairs (one on either side) to descend to the walkout basement and the sub-basement.  There's also an elevator that hits all floors so there's plenty of pathing possibilities for the Sims to get around in the house.

Once I sorted those two things out, I was able to get up a rough shell of those three floors.

In the first picture, you'll see that I used walls to help me center the build on the lot.  I then used those walls as a guide when I raised the terrain to as close to the top of those walls as I could manage.


Now I'll show you where I am with the build right now:




Note that I'm using the large, glass block, circular windows from Roaring Heights so if you want to eventually download this house, you'll need that World from the EA Store.

Next step is to sort out the pool I spoke of and then extend up to the second floor and possibly the third floor (haven't decided on that yet).

There are plenty of resources out there to show how I did the walkout basement.  I haven't checked, but there's probably a guide to it here on Carl's site.  If there isn't, let me know and I'll try to explain or give you a link to some video tutorials that I used.

[Dellena]

Villa Capri House Build Update

I've gotten a lot more done today than I thought I would.  I'll probably stop for today on this project as I've found that doing too much too fast can be bad for the build in the long run.  But at least the roof is on!  I've built my own tower which will be usable and will be the only access to the actual roof (they have to get up there to clean the windows somehow!).

I haven't settled on the exterior walls yet for decorating.  I used the green scalloped roof and matched the roof decor pieces as close as possible.  I'm fairly happy with how it's shaping up.  And yes, I went with the third floor which boasts an amazing Atrium with a walkout terrace and stupendous views of the water.

Now, rather than giving every step, if anyone has a question on how I did a specific part, please feel free to post and I'll try to answer as best as I can.

Oh, and I was able to get the pool fixed so the sub-basement now gets actual daylight through the water.

[Shewolf13]

That is gorgeous!  Absolutely gorgeous!  I'm in awe, Dellena.

[Dellena]

That is gorgeous!  Absolutely gorgeous!  I'm in awe, Dellena.

Thanks!  I'm debating exterior wall decor.  I've done some research and found both masonry exteriors and clapboard.  But I think clapboard was more common (and likely cheaper).  If I go that route, I was thinking white for the end trim and the siding to be a pale, cheerful yellow.  Also, the foundation pieces will eventually be made to look like raised flower beds.  I'm also wondering about the garages if they should have the mansard pieces, like the house, but without any windows.  What do you guys think?

[Shewolf13]

Thanks!  I'm debating exterior wall decor.  I've done some research and found both masonry exteriors and clapboard.  But I think clapboard was more common (and likely cheaper).  If I go that route, I was thinking white for the end trim and the siding to be a pale, cheerful yellow.  Also, the foundation pieces will eventually be made to look like raised flower beds.  I'm also wondering about the garages if they should have the mansard pieces, like the house, but without any windows.  What do you guys think?

I like that combination of the yellow and the white trim.  I can't wait to see the raised flower bed idea ^^.  I think the mansard roof would work, though I'd probably have to see it to judge fully.  I tend to need visuals XD

[Dellena]

Villa Capri House Build Update

Ok, see what you think now.  I've completed (so far) the windows and doors on the front of the house as well as the roof and some windows on the two garages.

What do you think of the yellow?  Too light, too dark, wrong shade?  I think it works with the stained glass doors (from Supernatural).



And here's a closer look at the raised flower bed.



Now it's bed time.

[Rhoxi]

Lovely! I like the yellow.

[Shewolf13]

Oooooo!  I love that!  Looks great!  Will you be uploading this to the Swap Shop by any chance once it's complete?

[Dellena]

Yes, I will.  None of the interior will be decorated.  The walls will be up, stairs and doors but I will leave the decorating to the individuals.  So it will go in the shells thread.  But I'll give the link to that here once it's at a point to be released.  Eventually, I'll show you how I decorated it.

Edit: It's up.

Second Empire Mansion

[Lisa46]

If we don't own some of those sets, could we still download it?

[Dellena]

Which sets are you missing?