pallyndrone - very humbling, thank you! This is actually the first house that I've ever shared with anyone. You should have seen my houses before this, most were boxes (I still think this counts as one) and everything was the same color. Boring. I spent hours and hours Googling images of Sims houses or real life architecture to get some ideas. I also checked out a lot of the popular blogs and downloaded some houses for research. I have a lot more ideas, just can't do them yet until I install some more expansion packs down the road, as I am making my legacy family place through all the lifetime wishes before I'll install the next one. As for the color and styles, I decided that each room had to be a different color and the furniture had to be a different material from each other. I picked a focus piece (not sure if correct term?) and built a room around it. A lot of times the inspiration came from a painting or a pattern. Pam's hex code guide has been a savior! I'm not a fast builder, I spend hours sometimes just staring at my screen just trying to figure out where to place the walls. You'd be surprised how long this house actually took to build, one or two hours a day for a couple weeks.
Choccolatee - as soon as I figure out how to kick my Sims out without them selling everything I will upload it to the exchange and email Carl. I didn't think to save a copy of the house itself before I moved my Sims in. I mentioned I was going to wait until I had built my Sims their mansion and moved them out but at the rate that I build that could be a month! Let me play around with a backup save file and see if I can do that today.
Danefaith - I think I learned how to take interior shots from here, I love the tab feature. As for the lighting, I was only playing with the base game, but it was always currently patched. I used the area lights in the buydebug section which I think came with the WA patch because I always hated how many lights I had to add to a room just to get it beautifully lit. I learned that trick from SimEve and her Sushi Chef House from the official site.
Hosfac - moveobjects on is your friend!
I was surprised how much I could actually use it without affecting the playability of items. I did use that code to place the pillars to give the openings a little more of a dramatic look. Not originally my idea, I think it was from one of peacemaker ic's houses, again from the official forum, that I first saw it. I think danefaith answered the question about the tub, but it was a store item called the Ultimate Bath Tub. Also, the fireplaces are fully functional, again I just used moveobjects on to take out the back of the chimney because you can't recolor them and the red brick looked out of place on the outside of the house. Only the one I used in the dining room and the beige bedroom was from the store, called Jubillee. The other ones is the same fireplace just recolored or retextured minus the annoying red brick chimney part, that I am pretty sure came with the base game. I will have to double check.
Ausette - I am a little guilty of owning a lot of store items. I can't help it, I love clutter! Unfortunately I don't think the same items in my house will transfer through to another person's game unless they own them, right? Maybe the next house I build I will try and use only the base game items. I feel fortunate that I discovered these games when I was an adult (now 28) with a good job instead of when I was a teenager and my family lived more frugally. I also bought a lot of the points cards when the base game came out when Best Buy was selling $10 cards for $5. I tell my hubby there could be worse addictions than the Sims!
Oops another for Danefaith - how did you get the cube to extend over the roof? I've seen a lot of houses with features like that but I can't figure out how it was done. I've tried using half walls but you can't place ceiling tiles on them. And I loved the bright green in the picture you used. Going to have to figure out how to use it in my next house.
