A year later my first house is still not done! I built it for a couple who lived in it while I was building, but it developed a refrigerator glitch. I couldn't open the fridge anymore, it got stinky, I tried to delete it, but it kept saying that it was in use by the wife. I bought another fridge, and put it in front of the first fridge, it got stinky right away, but I could clean it out, and the other fridge was cleaned too, but I still couldn't use or delete the first one. (Much later I came here, and found out how to get rid of the first fridge).
Next were stair issues, I tried to put in a split staircase, which I now know (from visiting here) is pretty tricky. I gave up on the stairs, kept them simple, and got to work on the second floor. My family kept getting the unfinished room moodlet, I guessed from the open railed area around the stairs, because everything was finished. Then I got fed up with that house, saved it to the bin, and decided to work on renovating existing houses in SV until I learned enough to build properly.
That couple flipped through four home renovations, until they had the funds to buy and renovate the house on the beach in SV that has the pool running under it. They loved it there, and I loved that renovation. I put a second floor on the side wing over the bedrooms. I added a basement (with stairs in an outside shed)! The basement is a gallery, that also contains a nectary, salon, bathrooms, and hidden rooms for the teleporter and treasure. I created an arts and play park on the empty lot next door. All was well, until they went to China and never came back.
My renovating has been a lot of fun, and it's evolving into building again. Sometimes there is nothing left from the original house by the time I'm done. I'll get back to that first house eventually, now that I know more, but I've been sucked into a mansion that I'm building from scratch which is taking awhile, and (finally!) has my long dreamed of split staircase (thanks to Anushka and Twin Mum) and lots of chimneyless fireplaces (thanks to Filly). Plus I was grateful to learn the family funds cheat, so now I can build extravagantly, without going mad playing to get cash for projects. Building is often my sole purpose for playing, hopefully I'll soon have something worthy of sharing here. But I will never forget that first house, because it had so many trials that I learned from. Thanks to all of the great builders in the showboat thread for informing and inspiring.
