Household Skills Project Mk 3

[hazelnut]

Yes, I'm still working on it.  It keeps getting sidelined in favour of other projects but it's still there in the background.  I'm currently struggling with construction of the next house (modern architecture is definitely not my strong point as a builder), so I'm not sure how long it'll be until the next update.

[hazelnut]

House 12

Harmony said goodbye to her mother and drove down the hill into town.



Pinochle Point might have suited her parents but she wanted to be somewhere more central.  As the daughter of an architect, she also wanted a house that made a statement.  (Possibly one that said 'I am insane but extremely rich'  .)  So she bought an interestingly sloping plot of land and had the existing house demolished and a new one built in its place.





She bought a guitar, so that she could make a start on the second half of her lifetime wish, and then started looking for a husband.



Playing in the park failed to attract any NPCs, although she did add considerably to her number of friends.  She gave up for the night and went home to bed.

The next morning, the post arrived and she rushed out to meet the (clearly male) person who’d delivered it.  She quite liked whatever-his-name-was but he had awful traits and appeared to be a full adult already.  Ideally, I’d like her to marry someone younger.  Maybe keep him as a reserve…



There was a SimFest at Performance Park that afternoon.  She met the grown-up paperboy Skip Javeed (seen inexplicably onstage talking to the current contestant in the screenshot below) and a singer she very much liked, but both of those NPC types were already represented in the family tree .

]

Over the next few days, she wandered rather desperately all over Sunset Valley.  A tattooist seemed like a reasonable match but, unfortunately, when she visited the salon, the tattooist turned out to be Milton Tong, who was both old and prematurely underground, with only his walking stick visible.

At last, she met someone.  The One, in fact.  An Egyptian tourist, the internationally-named Cartier Sawalha, was doing nothing very much at Summer Hill Springs… and, for once, “Caught anything?” made perfect sense as a conversational gambit.



Cartier was, like the postman, apparently already an adult but he had great traits (virtuoso, handy and a great kisser).  He was pretty obviously also evil but I could live with that.  And, more to the point, Harmony fancied the pants off him.

Within the hour, he had moved in.



His fifth trait turned out to be neat.  Better and better.

Oh. 

Cartier was only three days away from elder.  So much for my plans for a small but well-spaced family in this house.  Still, he was a good match for Harmony in every other way.  I’d just have to speed up the programme a bit.



By the end of the day, Harmony was pregnant.



Despite his evil nature, Cartier wanted to make an honest woman of her at once.  Harmony took a little longer to come round to the idea but eventually she agreed to a romantic private wedding at the beach.





That evening, the bride, still in her wedding dress, was admitted to hospital with abdominal pain and came out, unexpectedly, with twin boys.





No sooner had they got the babies settled into their new cots than Cartier started sparkling.



Yep, an eventful day all round.

[hazelnut]

Riff and Chad became toddlers and proved that Narcissa’s genes are nearly as persistent as Arlo’s, although there was a hint that Cartier’s very wide nose might have been added into the mix .


                                                                (Riff on the left, Chad on the right)

Once Harmony had taught them the basic skills, they were free to spend the rest of their preschool life playing…



…while their parents provided the soundtrack.



Cartier had arrived with the Hit Movie Composer LTW but it seemed unlikely that he’d have time to complete it.  Shortly after the twins were born, he was able to change it to the much more doable Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers.  While Harmony ran the house and family, he concentrated on skilling – and achieved his wish on the twins’ next birthday.





Artistic Chad wished to learn painting as soon as he aged up.



Riff carried on playing.  Whenever he could, he dragged Chad away from his easel to join in the games.



With Cartier now free to share the housework and the boys able to look after themselves, Harmony had more time to practise the guitar.



She and Cartier often played for tips in town.  They had no need at all for the money but kept wishing to make more anyway  .



Narcissa, who must have been well past ninety, came to watch her daughter one evening (or maybe to admire some of her odder makeovers of surviving townies).  That was the last time I saw her – she died a day or two later  .



Harmony maxed guitar and completed her lifetime wish shortly before the twins aged up to teens.



It seemed like a good time to add to the family.  Cartier was in his late eighties by this point, so they’d better hurry.



The boys had their birthdays…





…and Harmony celebrated by going into labour.  Cartier had been wishing for a daughter since Harmony had told him she was pregnant, so she’d been gorging on watermelon.  Very late in her pregnancy, she decided she also wanted a girl.  They got their wish.



Cartier had never seemed all that bothered about his sons but he was obsessed with Melody.  Since her mother and brothers were also keen to feed, change and cuddle her, there was a lot of queuing and foot-stamping around her cot.

Cartier didn’t have much time with his adored little daughter.  Three days after her birth, he started sparkling while loading the dishwasher.



It was Prom night.  The boys still went but I don’t think they enjoyed it much.



While they were away, Melody had her first birthday.



Riff wasn’t a teenager for long.  As soon as he’d reached an A in school, he had an early cake.



Or tried to.



I’d never noticed before that cake fires start on the floor below the table  .  It spread horribly quickly, while the family panicked and I wished I’d made one of them brave and/or installed a fire alarm in the living room.



Even after Harmony called the firefighters, they still took ages to arrive.

With the blaze finally extinguished, the carpet cleaned and the (surprisingly few) burnt items replaced, Riff tried again.  This time, he aged up uneventfully.  Well, unless you count his young adult look.



It’d be quite hard to think of a style less suited to a future rocker .

He ran off to the mirror and dresser to sort out something more appropriate.



I think he turned out quite well, considering.

[hazelnut]

While Riff started learning the guitar (at last!) Chad carried on working on his street art and rebel credentials.



He was still devoted to his little sister, spending every unsupervised moment playing with her.



A few days after his twin’s birthday, Chad became a level ten rebel and was ready for his own cake.



He went right back to defacing the walls.



He became Street Credible (and simultaneously supermaxed the skill) before his first shift as an art appraiser.



Melody also had a birthday.



She became a diva, which put a strain on her relationship with hot-headed Chad.  They never quite reached the point of fighting but there were at least two or three heated arguments every day.  Somehow, they always made it up afterwards and remained best friends.


Harmony’s career as a painter had been on hold since the last house move; she’d been at level eight for ages.  Now she put her guitar away and returned to her easels.  Shortly before her elder birthday, she sold her final masterpiece and reached level ten.



I can’t remember any other artist Sim taking anything like as long to max their career.

With the rest of the family all needing a lot of watcherly attention, Mel’s childhood was largely ignored.  It came as quite a surprise when she aged up again.





She inherited Cartier’s old acoustic guitar and played it every night between homework and bedtime…



…although she seemed to despair of ever being as good as her big brother.



Harmony didn’t quite live long enough to see her youngest child graduate.  I’m pretty sure she’s the first Haskill to fail to make it to ninety.  She seemed happy to go anyway.



Less than a day after her mother’s death, Mel became a young adult.





Like Chad, she graduated as valedictorian (but also Most likely to Burn Down Her Own House.  Her clumsy trait, presumably.  In fact, she was very unlikely to do that – a day or two before her teen birthday, she’d rolled a wish to buy a blocks table and had been addicted to the handiness skill ever since.  Maybe it was a hidden trait passed down from her handy father.  Whatever the reason, guitar practice and upgrading appliances were pretty much tied for first place in her affections – and all of the fireplaces were now fireproof.)


Life went on quietly for a while but then everything seemed to happen at once.  First, Riff became a Rock Star.



Chad maxed his career the following day.  As soon as he’d fulfilled a wish to max the painting skill, he moved out to the old Crumplebottom house.



Riff was asked to compete in his third guitar contest at the theatre.  I was pretty sure it was his tenth opportunity (but then, I’d thought that about the previous two .)  He arrived early and filled in the time by playing for tips.



Despite his audience’s apparent lack of interest, it was enough to take him over §25000, to complete the Money Maker challenge – and winning the contest did make him a Guitar Star.  He was overjoyed :



That same evening, Mel was given a work opportunity to travel to Egypt and learn about the local musical traditions.  Clearly, they’d lost the notes that Riff had made when he’d done the same thing a couple of weeks earlier.

Quite a few of my Sims have done this opportunity but I can’t remember seeing this response before :



With her research completed, Mel spent the rest of her visit playing for tips in the marketplace.



Shortly after her arrival back in Sunset Valley, Riff completed his supermax…



…and, a few hours later, Mel reached level ten of guitar.



She delayed her move for a day, so that she could cash in the credit for her Egyptian trip and join the symphonic branch of the music career.  Then she and Riff placed the family gravestones in the cemetery…


                                                (From left to right: Inigo, Narcissa, Harmony and Cartier)

..and she drove out of town.




House 12 summary
Skills: guitar and street art

Harmony
Career: Painter
LTW: Master of the Arts
Supermaxed painting; level 10 guitar and street art

Cartier
(Traits: (virtuoso, handy, great kisser, evil, neat)
LTW: Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers
Level 10 guitar, charisma and handiness

Riff
Traits: virtuoso, heavy sleeper, rebellious, dramatic, party animal
Career: Music (Rock)
LTW: Rock Star
Supermaxed guitar

Chad
Traits: artistic, heavy sleeper, rebellious, avant garde, vehicle enthusiast (rebel), hot-headed
Career: Art Appraisal (Appraisal)
LTW: Street Credible
Supermaxed street art; level 10 painting

Melody
Traits: virtuoso, absent-minded, diva, hopeless romantic, clumsy
Career and LTW to be finished in next house
Level 10 handiness and guitar
Building/property: Central Park
Unique rewards: Change of taste (to classical music, pink and a food that I’ve forgotten  ), carefree.

[hazelnut]

House 13

I’m not superstitious about the number thirteen.  This has to be pure coincidence…



It started out all right.  Melody’s new home suited her hopeless-romantic nature and she happily took to her two new skills...





…but even with only one Sim in the house again, the game was taking more concentration than usual.  Mel had always been absent-minded but it was never all that obvious back in Sunset Valley.  Maybe being saved to the library and plonked down in a new town upset her.  Whatever the reason, it was now hard to get her to do anything at all.  She kept dropping her action queue and standing around going “errrrmmm…..”.

Finding the next spouse was also proving to be a problem.  The trouble with playing this challenge in Moonlight Falls is that most of the NPCs are supernatural Sims.  It only occurred to me far too late that she could have asked them to Forsake the Whatever and become human.  Never mind.  It wasn’t as though she found any of them particularly attractive, anyway.

Time passed.  Mel was approaching full adulthood and the top of her career (despite being The Most Absent-Minded Sim Ever, she did manage to get to work every day), with no obvious prospect of continuing the Haskill line.  Eventually, I got her to Call for Services and adopt a little boy.



Oh! An attractive human NPC at last  .





While Dorian was sorting out his hair and clothing – and discovering the dressing-up box – Mel invited Brett, the adoption worker, back over for a chat.



By the end of the day, the household had tripled in size.



Then I looked at their traits.  Oh, terrific  .  Dorian was an adventurous coward (how does that work?) while Brett was unlucky and frugal.

All three of them got on well, united by their shared love of classical music, but Mel seemed reluctant to take her relationship with Brett to the next stage.  For a hopeless romantic, she was unbelievably slow off the mark.  It took some pretty forcible nudging from me to get them beyond friendship.







Even then, they seemed happier duetting than kissing.




Melody became a hit movie composer…



…and got home from work just in time to see Dorian age up from child to teen.



He was only at high school for a day or two.  Thanks to Mel’s tutoring, he was soon on an A and ready for an early cake.





Dorian joined the business career, with a lifetime wish to match, but his first love was music.  So far, I’d managed to keep him away from keyboards (as well as any other skilling objects) but I wasn’t confident of doing it for long.  Now he could start to learn the piano.  I’d never tried supermaxing any of the Late Night instruments before and had no idea how long it would take.  To start with, it went amazingly well.  He received four opportunities on consecutive days and another one a few days later.  Then it all went very quiet.  Brett was asked to play the organ at the stadium but it appeared that no-one was interested in his talented stepson.




I don’t know whether it was her midlife crisis or his revealing swimming trunks that did it but Mel suddenly started rolling wishes about Brett – and he reciprocated.

On their next shared day off, I sent them out on a date.  They watched a film, ate at the bistro and ended up at the beach.



I’d assumed a hopeless romantic would want to get married at once but Mel took the standard three days to roll the wish.  Brett, who could have used the happiness points, didn’t roll it at all.



They had a private wedding at Stone Troll Fishing Hole and then hurried back home so that the groom could go indoors… and so that they could both get back to their pianos.



They did eventually get around to more conventional honeymoon activities… with the conventional result.



I had several girl’s names picked out for the piano house but (naturally) Mel and Brett both wished for a boy.





Blake was born at home, while his father and big brother played pianos elsewhere in the house, oblivious to the screaming.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d prefer another redheaded Haskill or for the baby to inherit his father’s unique blond hair.



He got Granddad Cartier’s greenish brown instead.  Of course  .

[hazelnut]

Amazingly, Moonlight Falls provided a really good babysitter, although he looked a little worried by the whole looking-after-a-toddler business.



He had an unconventional dress sense, as well.  (Jacket and tie with ripped jeans?)  Maybe that was why Mel wished to retire as soon as she had her elder birthday, so that she could take care of Blake herself.



Dorian’s career was going well, even if the piano opportunities were still noticeable by their absence.  I always forget how fast the business career goes at the higher levels and Dorian caught me out by being promoted to CEO while I was watching Mel teaching Blake to walk.  By the time I’d moved the camera across town, the numbers over his head had disappeared.



I also missed him becoming a power broker two days later  .  At least I did manage to capture the moment later that evening when he reached level 10 of the piano skill.



Blake aged up to child and chose his lifetime wish about thirty seconds later.  Progress was slow at first: with all objects that might tempt Dorian to pick up another skill banned from the house, Blake had to practise painting at the fire station.



He had a cake on the morning of his teen birthday…



…so that he could legitimately take the day off school and spend the time being skill-tutored by Mel instead (something she kept rolling wishes to do).



The following day, Blake had a mood swing.  I’ve never been so please to indulge a ‘dye or cut hair’ wish.  He changed it to black and, later, to a custom dark brown without even a suspicion of green.

After what seemed roughly like forever, Brett finally became a celebrity psychic…



…and promptly joined his wife in retirement.



Late in life, they’d discovered they really were very fond of each other but were running out of time to indulge their sudden flurry of romantic wishes.  Mel cooked a celebration dinner – or, at least, she started to and I failed to notice that she’d wandered off to play her violin instead.



And Dorian had another opportunity!  This one was to play for tips and he completed it almost immediately.



Realistically, though, I had to accept that a piano supermax had become vanishingly unlikely.  It had been nearly five weeks since the previous opportunity and Dorian was now in late adulthood.  His chances of getting even one more were very slim.  So House Thirteen would be the first where nobody supermaxed a skill.

I’m not going to give up on the game at this point – after all, the rules do say that only one instrument has to be supermaxed (although I wrote that before I bought Late Night, expecting that I’d either use just the guitar skill or do all of the instruments in the same house).  After two musical houses in a row, I’m going to concentrate on different skills for a generation or two and then do drum and bass later, either together or separately – and I’ll try not to mind if I can’t supermax them either  .


A quiet Sunday at the Haskills'.  The boys are jamming together (no surprise there)…



…while Brett has voluntarily gone outdoors, just so that he can harass a poor innocent pillar…



…and Mel… (camera suddenly pans across)…



Mel has unblocked her last toilet.  RIP, Melody Haskill.  Hopefully you’ll be able to do whatever you want in the afterlife and not have to remember anything.

The rest of the family found some comfort in their music.



Mel had tutored Blake to level nine in both violin and piano and that night, as the zombies gathered outside, he maxed his first skill.




With the difficulty several recent heirs have had in finding mates, I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance with Blake.  The family had been burgled several times since their arrival in Moonlight Falls and the same policewoman, Donella Cuffs, had turned up every time.  She’d never managed to catch the thieves but had partially made up for it by becoming a best friend of both Mel and Brett and one of Dorian’s most generous tippers.  As a fairy, she was still young, so Brett invited her over and she and Blake got acquainted.



They were so busy chatting about books and painting that she was still there when the birthday sparkles arrived…



…and Donella realised that, now he was legal, Blake was really rather attractive.  I hope this bodes well for the next house.



Blake graduated as valedictorian and was voted Most Likely to Become a Rock Star.   Another one.



Some of Mel’s absentmindedness seemed to have rubbed off on Brett and Dorian.  They didn’t actually make it into Commonwealth Court for the ceremony but stood outside gossiping instead.  Then they went home and left Blake to graduate on his own.

It’s been a while since a Haskill went to university.



Blake became the first Fine Artist in the family.



Asking one of your lecturers to pose nude on your first afternoon isn’t exactly a conventional approach to study but it didn’t seem to do Blake any harm.  He graduated with an A, maxed-out nerd influence and a job offer.  After a quick reunion with the family, he moved out.



Now to settle into his own place and invite Donella over…


House 13 summary
Skills: piano and violin

Melody
Career: Music (Symphonic)
LTW: Hit Movie Composer
Level 10 handiness, guitar, charisma, logic, piano and violin

Brett
(Traits: athletic, frugal, unlucky, hates the outdoors)
Career: Fortune Teller (Scam Artist)
LTW: Celebrity Psychic
Level 10 charisma, logic and piano

Dorian
Traits: (adventurous, coward, loves the outdoors), ambitious, virtuoso
Career: Business
LTW: CEO of a Mega-Corporation
Level 10 piano (plus two challenges)

Blake
Traits: artistic, virtuoso, bookworm, supernatural fan, family-oriented, gatherer (nerd influence), great kisser (degree)
Career and LTW to be finished in next house
Level 10 piano and violin
Building/property: Aleister’s Elixirs and Sundries
Unique rewards: Nerd influence, Philosopher’s Stone

Skull cuts of the three Supernatural gems (found, cut and transfigured by Dorian) were left behind in the old house.

[hazelnut]

House 14

Although I’ve grown very fond of Supernatural for building, I realised after Brett became a Celebrity Psychic that that was the first time I’d finished a Supernatural lifetime wish.  In this house, I’m planning to do several of them, along with supermaxing alchemy for the first time.  This could be chaos .

At least the house has plenty of space.  House 14 is the log cabin mansion I built for the family back in Hidden Springs but didn’t use in the end.  I’d realised that it would fit equally well into Moonlight Falls.  It’s had a slight makeover, from autumn to spring, largely because I wanted to use the daffodils from the Renaissance Faire.


Blake invited Donella over as soon as he’d moved in but she had to leave almost immediately.  That night, she was back – there was another attempted burglary and Donella continued her unbroken record of failing to catch thieves  .



After that, things improved considerably.  They progressed rapidly from friendship to romantic interests and then boyfriend/girlfriend.  There were still a few hiccups, though – this wasn’t quite what I was expecting when Blake asked Donella if he could sketch her nude  .



Blake asked her to move in…



…and a day or two later, Donella suffered an embarrassing incident at Fae Ray Gardens.



After a pregnancy of almost constant exposure to kids’ music and kids’ TV, it was slightly surprising that she didn’t emerge from the Bloom Institute carrying a basket.  On the plus side, both twins were sparkly.  My first fairyboos!



Donella visited the arboretum for a second time…



…and emerged as a human.

With two babies at home, the couple settled for a quiet wedding in their own garden…





…and a private celebration afterwards resulted in more chimes.



Leaf and Grace, the fairy twins, became (exceedingly cute and self-sufficient) toddlers…





…and were taught their skills at top speed, so that they could have early cakes and make space in the nursery for the upcoming addition to the family.  Donella was far too busy to watch TV this time and Blake kept turning the stereos to classical, so I wasn’t expecting a second set of twins.



The babies aged up and Severus turned out to be dark-haired (yay!) but also to have the rosiest complexion of any of the kids.  That’s just not right – I may have to send him off for plastic surgery after his young adult birthday.  Wolfgang was another Haskill redhead.



They had a slightly more relaxed toddlerhood than their older siblings.



Wolfie had time to practice hunting rabbits across the landing, while Sevvy contemplated skills he wasn’t yet old enough to learn…



…and got into a few sticky situations.  Maybe you should leave Apparating until you’re older, Sev.



Even so, it wasn’t long before they too were ready for early cakes.



The four kids had a single day of shared childhood before the older two were due to age up again.  Since it was Saturday, they made the most of it.



That was one of the quieter moments.  The day was mostly filled with tag, giggling and booby traps .

Early on Sunday morning, Leaf and Grace became teens.



They made an immediate start on the skills they’d need for their (as yet unselected) lifetime wishes.  Leaf started planting a garden, while Grace headed off to a mirror to practise speeches.



She also became very fond of the train set.



Now that all four children were at school, the house was starting to feel very quiet during the day.   Blake and Donella did their best to rectify the situation .  Sybil was born before the week was out.





I’d been intending the family to have the full complement of six kids (Donella had changed her lifetime wish from Fashion Phenomenon to Surrounded by Family long before this) but the option to try for baby inexplicably disappeared after Sybil’s birth.  Clearing caches and restarting didn’t help.  After a day or two (my time), it was back, as mysteriously as it had disappeared.  By this point, Donella was only two days from elder.  Fortunately, there were chimes on the first attempt…



…and Wanda’s arrival completed the family.


A random screenshot to end with: one full moon, a zombie singer appeared in the garden.  He didn’t appear to get any tips, poor thing  .

[hazelnut]

By the way, I’m aware I bent my own rules to the breaking point in the last update. Strictly speaking, Donella was human by the time she became Blake’s wife and so she was technically a human spouse but that’s splitting hairs really  .

I tried to get Blake to ask her to forsake the fae shortly after he moved house but the option wasn’t there.  After that, they stayed in touch while he repeatedly bought out the elixir store in search of a potent cure.  None appeared.  I was going to get them to try for baby anyway but of course the NPC household was (more than) full, as usual, and so the option was greyed out.  Eventually, Blake asked her to move in and I decided to get them to try for baby without waiting for the elixir.  A potent cure turned up in the middle of Donella’s pregnancy but I decided to leave it until after the babies were born to use it – after all, none of my previous Sims had produced a fairyboo and I didn’t know then how easy it would be to turn a human into a fairy through alchemy.  And then I noticed that the ‘forsake the fae’ option had appeared, and so the potent cure was put into storage for later.


Blake reached the top of the Video Game developer career and then, a couple of hours after arriving home from work, maxed writing and completed his lifetime wish.



The younger twins became teenagers.  Now there were four of them in the house and mood-swing-free days became a rarity.  Sev, who had taken to alchemy with great enthusiasm, threw an elixir at his twin…



…and the family acquired a moody teenage werewolf.  Oh joy.



Shortly afterwards, there was a quadruple birthday: the fairy twins were due to age up to YA on the same day that Syb would become a child and Wanda, a toddler.



Three of them aged up uneventfully but Sybil was left in the nursery and had to have a cake on her own a bit later.



[
                                                                                       Sybil and Wanda


                                                                                         Grace and Leaf

Leaf (who doesn’t have the party animal trait but really should) was delighted.



Meanwhile, Severus sat out on the drive and contemplated the meaning of meaning.



Grace headed off to the library to pick up her last couple of charisma points…



…and then went to the park to practise fairy magic.



The moon became full and Wolfgang transformed for the first time.  Syb took it in her stride.



Sev retreated to the attic and his alchemy station.  I think he’s composing a speech about the beauty of potion-making.



Grace starting casting Inner beauty on the hapless citizens of Moonlight Falls…



…and the younger twins became young adults.



Sev was close to maxing alchemy…



…but was reluctantly torn away from his experiments to go to the hospital for plastic surgery, followed by a visit to the tattoo parlour.



Sybil aged up to teen (and Wanda to child) but I missed it because I had the camera on Donella.



The two youngest had broomsticks as birthday presents.



A day or two later, Grace completed her Magic Makeover LTW and moved out.



A few hours after his twin, Leaf completed his Lifetime Wish.   I missed the screenshot because I thought he still had another ‘bloom’ to go – so here’s a picture of him becoming King of the Fae almost immediately afterwards.



Leaf hung around for quite a while, gardening and fishing, but I don’t think he appears in any more screenshots after this.  ‘Bye, Leaf.

And, three days later, Sev also completed his lifetime wish, although he would be working on his supermax for quite some time yet.




Thanks to Vera_J for the Dark Mark tattoo.

[hazelnut]

I remember saying a while back that none of my young Sims had ever been put in time out.  That’s no longer true.



Thanks, Sybs.  I think.

Wanda, in the finest dynasty/legacy tradition, had her teen birthday in a bathroom…



…and Sev gave her one of his special presents.



I think she appreciated it more than Wolf did.



And, of course, every witch needs a familiar.



Welcome to the family, Crookshanks.




It’s been a while since one of my Sims had a narrow escape from a meteor.  Run, Sev!







And, back at home, a different sort of disaster was striking.



RIP, Donella Cuffs-Haskill.  You were a devoted wife and mother, even though you made surprisingly few appearances in the story.  Sorry .

Sybil was so overcome by grief that she toadified herself, despite being quite a competent alchemist by this point.




Sybil reached her YA birthday and Wanda had an early cake.  Why not have three sets of ‘twins’?



Actually, that one didn’t take.  I’m not sure whether it was the Flight of Felicity that Leaf had gifted her with (Wanda seemed to spend most of her life surrounded by a fairyish glow) or just random variation but Wanda failed to blow out her candles and had to try again later.



And at last, the Haskills had a teenager-free house.





After graduation, Sybil rushed off to the gypsy caravan where Grandpa Brett had worked and signed up as a trainee fortune teller.

[hazelnut]

Ever since his teen birthday, Wolfgang had been working hard on his lycanthropy, roaming the town, hunting and howling.  He’d been a huge help to the family’s practical alchemists, Sev and Sybil (the others mostly learned from books) but his own lifetime wish was going infuriatingly slowly.  He didn’t have much trouble adding to the town’s werewolf population (although biting through a mascot outfit looks like a tricky proposition)…



…but he seemed to be a much more successful hunter on his own than with the pack.  As a group, they preferred hanging out at the Toadstool or howling at the moon together to concentrating on adding to the Haskills’ considerable wealth.  Come to think of it, I don’t really blame them.



Wolfgang was in mid-adulthood by the time they finally reached §40000-worth of collectables.  He celebrated by going to the park and biting one last victim.





I have to say, if I never do Leader of the Pack again, it’ll be too soon.


Wanda had a much easier time, although she wasn’t quite the good witch I’d envisaged when she was growing up.  It was much easier to toadify people and then cure them.





Not even her own father was safe.



She completed her LTW in a matter of days, finishing a few hours after Wolfgang.





Suddenly, the next move was imminent. All that was left was for the two youngest to max alchemy.



Early the following morning, Sybil phoned the estate agent…



…said goodbye to her family and ran outside, eager for new experiences.



She climbed on to her brand-new flying vacuum and headed out of town.




House 14 summary
Skill: alchemy

Blake
Career: Video Game Developer (Game Artist)
LTW: Illustrious Author
Supermaxed handiness; level 10 piano, violin, painting, logic, charisma, writing, alchemy, cooking and homework
He seemed to know a remarkably small number of violin compositions, though:



Donella
(Traits: genius, artistic, perfectionist, charismatic, friendly)
Career: nectar maker
(She only made one batch of nectar but maxed the career by selling off the single rack of nectar that the family had had in storage since Fleur made it, several houses ago – and this time I did get the trophy .)
LTW: Surrounded by Family
Level 10 alchemy and logic

Leaf
Traits: loves the outdoors, loner, angler, green thumb, born salesman
LTW: Greener Gardens
Supermaxed gardening, level 10 fairy magic, fishing and alchemy
Mushroom collector

Grace
Traits: loves the outdoors, genius, friendly, charismatic, inappropriate
LTW: Magic Makeover
Level 10 charisma, fairy magic, alchemy and homework

Severus
Traits: loner, grumpy, genius, brooding, dramatic
Career: Alchemist
LTW: Alchemy Artisan
Supermaxed alchemy, level 10 logic
He made every elixir at least once.


                                                           The complete collection of elixirs

Wolfgang
Traits: friendly, excitable, brave, charismatic, gatherer (+ lucky – nerd influence)
LTW: Leader of the Pack
Level 10 alchemy and lycanthropy

Sybil
Traits: friendly, easily impressed, good sense of humour, social butterfly, schmoozer (+ dramatic – nerd influence)
Career and LTW to be finished in next house
Building/property: Library of Lore and Vault of Antiquity
Unique rewards: Flying Vacuum, Excellent Groupie
Level 10 alchemy and photography

Wanda
Traits: good, friendly, neat, cat person, vegetarian
Career: Bookstore clerk
LTW: Mystic Healer
Level 10 alchemy

[CeresIn]

I'm hooked on this project and I think it's one that I will try to do when I can complete at least one dynasty challenge. I like to see the family through the various houses and new skills.

[hazelnut]

Thanks for commenting .  I'd like to see someone else trying the challenge - I was beginning to wonder whether I was doing it entirely for my own amusement.  In fairness, it has been going on for a heck of a long time and I do keep getting distracted by shorter-term projects.  I'm still enjoying playing it, although I sometimes wish I wasn't so determined to build most of the houses .

[hazelnut]

They’re back again!  And with some extra expansions – I’ve now switched on everything except ITF.  Seasons are set at 7 days for this town, with all weather enabled, although the moon phase is fixed at waxing gibbous.  Pets and celebrities are switched on, horses and all supernaturals apart from vampires are off.

House 15

Sybil had always felt that her true mission in life was to run a small hotel.  However, when she arrived in Bridgeport, there didn’t seem to be any for sale (or any hotels at all, as far as she could see).  Instead, she settled for the next best thing – an old pub in the hills above the town.



Of course, she didn’t actually know how to make any drinks but that was easy to fix.  She headed off to the library to read a mixology book and then hit the bars by way of research.



She managed to talk one bouncer into letting her through.  In fact, he seemed to fancy her – while she was sitting sipping her drink, he left his post and joined her at the bar.  But she couldn’t rely on charming her way past all of them.  If she was going to research the higher-class establishments, she'd have to become a celebrity.



With her first star achieved, she returned home and practised mixing drinks.



Life went on quietly for a few days, working on her mixology skill, schmoozing celebrities and telling fortunes.  But time was ticking on: she was more than halfway through young adulthood and she was still single.  She’d been very much attracted to Alexander French, the bartender at Eugi’s, but he never came over to visit when she invited him.  His long work shifts were bad enough but, even when she called first thing in the morning, he promised to come over at once but never arrived.  He didn’t even turn up to her parties, despite her legendary host status.  In desperation, she threw a party with Alex as the only guest.  He arrived but left almost immediately .  But then, miraculously, he was able to visit – at any time.  It turned out to be because he’d lost his job (but I’m still going to count him as a mixologist NPC).  Now that they were finally able to chat properly, they quickly became best friends, helped by their shared sense of humour.



Sybil asked Alex to move in…



…and he inexplicably left again  .  The following day, she had one last try (I was almost ready to settle for the postman instead) and they became housemates.



I took Alex to the dresser for some new clothes and to the mirror to get a better look at his face.  Hmm, maybe it’s not just the women in Bridgeport who go in for surgical enhancement.  Those features look a bit doll-like to me.

Life settled into a pleasant routine.  Sybil cooked, worked on her mixology skill and made mystical pronouncements in the gypsy caravan up the road (although she’d now reached the point where her work shifts were short enough to make her progress through the career quite slow).  Alex, with his mixology skill already maxed, concentrated on playing the bass and fixing the plumbing.



And their relationship progressed rapidly from friendship to romance.



When Sybil proposed marriage, Alex was happy to accept.



She was delighted.  He looked more calculating, as though the effect on his celebrity status meant more than marrying the woman he supposedly loved.



OK, maybe I misjudged him.



Their wedding was a disaster.  To start with, I somehow managed to select ‘house party’ instead of ‘wedding party’.  Never mind – they could still get married.  But the guests weren’t cooperative.  Fights and arguments kept breaking out, distracting the bride and groom from their vows.



Then the bride had a birthday – and a midlife crisis.



Another two or three attempts to hold the ceremony were disrupted by the guests.  Alex looked ready to join his fiancée in her crisis, even though he was still a young adult.



Then he snapped.  Careless of the possible effect on his celebrity status and lifetime wish (which he’d recently changed to Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous), he sent everyone home.



Poor Sybil was distraught.  Not exactly her dream wedding.



But then Alex made everything better.  Who needed guests and an archway?  They had each other.





By the time they were husband and wife, it was after 3am and they were both too exhausted to do anything other than fall into bed and pass out.  The ‘wedding night’ actually happened in the early afternoon, when they’d both recovered.





Chimes first time!  Well, they deserved some luck.  Sybil’s new Simmunity suppressed any morning sickness, so the first she knew of her impending motherhood was an unexpected change of outdoor clothing while she was at the library.



Sybil wanted a boy; Alex, a girl.  I left it up to chance but tried to encourage multiples in the hope that they’d both get their wishes.  Sybil wasn’t having any – either that or she just couldn’t stand the kids’ channel.  She kept turning off the TV or simply walking away.

Alex was as helpful as most Sim fathers, so Sybil and I sent him off to have a snack and then play his bass, safely out of the way.



Sybil’s resistance to my efforts paid off (for her) – there was only one baby and it was the son that she’d wanted.  They named him Oscar.  No prizes for guessing which career he’s headed for  .

[Alex]

Sybil had always felt that her true mission in life was to run a small hotel.

Although wasn't it Basil's dream?

Welcome, Oscar!

[hazelnut]

Although wasn't it Basil's dream?

I'm sure he'd have preferred something much classier .




Oscar had his first birthday – and Faylene’s hair is still going strong, twelve generations on.



He learned his toddler skills quickly and was also taken to the library to read the three writing books but still had plenty of time for playing with his special doll and Bafta, the Awards Season Bear.



That particular IF doll disconcerted me more than they usually do – not only did it look exactly like Riley but it was actually called Riley by default.  One of him was quite enough.  Oscar and I decided this one should be a girl instead and named her Twinkle, after his favourite nursery rhyme.

Alex took advantage of one of Sybil’s days off to head into own and play the bass for tips, in the hope of boosting his celebrity status.  The money part of his wish had never been a problem and he was now a four-star celeb, so I was hoping that a day of performing in the city might complete his LTW.



It didn’t work.  Nobody came over to watch, so he sat and chatted to the barman instead and picked up a couple of new drink recipes.  After a while, Matthew Hamming, looking unrecognisable (to me, anyway) as an elder, came in and they got into conversation.



Alex was within a whisker of his fifth star when they were kicked out because it was closing time.  They must have carried on talking in the lift and on their way out because the lifetime wish music played while I had the camera outside waiting for them to reappear.



Oscar had another birthday…





…and Twinkle changed from an inanimate doll into a proper imaginary friend.



Oscar seemed a little disconcerted to start with but soon started telling her all about his theatrical dreams.



They spent the rest of the day playing together.



(That doesn’t seem like the safest location for a game of tag  .)

That night, there was a burglary, the second since the family had moved to Bridgeport.



The first time, the burglar had beaten the policeman to a pulp and got away.  This one was obviously less fit.



While the policeman was busy congratulating himself on the arrest and being all excited about meeting Sybil, Oscar gave Twinkle a potion he’d found in an old chest in the attic…





…and she became a real girl.



Appropriately, Twinkle has star quality.  She’s also evil and has a photographer’s eye.

Becoming real wasn’t an entirely happy experience – now she’d have to go to school.  A kid with purple hair and called Twinkle was just asking to be bullied.  She went to Sybil for help.



“Well, you could always dye your hair but you’ll have to wait until you’re older to change your name by deed poll.  I’m not allowed to change it for you because you’re not my child.  I think you’ll be better off at a school where they’ll value your individuality and your name won’t seem so odd.”

And so Twinkle went off to Smuggsworth.



To add to her problems, she’d been in the middle of a joyride on the sofa when the car appeared and was still wearing her crash helmet and goggles when she left.  At least she got to travel by limo – although I have a nasty feeling that that would be regarded as terribly ostentatious and nouveau riche.  Oh well.



(Also, that’s a really strangely shaped stretch of road.)



With both their own child and the unexpected extra one at school, Sybil and Alex had more time for themselves.  Alex became a Legendary Musician.



He reached level ten almost entirely by playing for tips,  I’m intending to play with bands properly while the Haskills are in Bridgeport but I wanted someone to max the career first.

The following day, Sybil, with the help of basil* from their storage chests, became a Master of Mysticism.  She was quite overcome with emotion.  Maybe it’s her dramatic trait.



She and Alex decided to add to their family while they still could.



Their daughter was born in the living room…



…and was followed by another son as soon as she'd been tucked up in her cot.  Alex, who was still holding his ‘have a girl’ wish and had wanted a boy this time, was very happy.



So was Sybil.  A third baby had appeared in the living room.  She’d outwitted me again.


*  Basil actually helping Sybil?