Best way to build a new house on your current lot?

[KimC]

I'm wondering what the easiest way would be to build a new house on the lot I'm currently on.  I'm on Generation 6 of a Legacy, so as you can imagine my house is fairly big, and I have a lot of 'stuff'.  I've decided I want to build an altogether different house, and would like to start from scratch.  The problem is I have quite a few money trees, and I don't want to lose them.  I'm a newbie with the whole Edit town thing, but I'm sure I could figure it out with all the info on here.  So basically, if I use Edit town to move them off the lot, then build the new house and move back in, am I going to lose the trees?  Or would it be easier to just make all the Sims go to one spot on the lot and start demolishing everything?  

Thanks for any input!
Kim

[Alexandria_]

Hello Kim, welcome to the forum (sorry that the welcome is a month late!)

I'm not really a big user of edit town, but as far as I've seen when I've used it, if you move out the family everything will stay on that lot. So you can move them off the lot, demolish the house and rebuild with the money trees still on the spot.
However, I'd just wait for another person to confirm this in case I am wrong. Like I said before, I don't use edit town much.

Also, I just thought I'd let you know that in buy mode you can actually pick up and move your money trees (and all plants for that matter). That may be helpful if you decide to move them to one spot and rebuild that way.

[TheChronicR]

Welcome to the forum, Kim!
I would recommend the second option. First, you can move some necessary items into the Family Inventory (i.e. recolored items, special rewards, books, etc), and second, you can easily move Money Trees while in the Build and Buy modes. I don't know for Edit Town, though. To move a group of Sims to a separate spot, click on the ground, and select 'Go Here with...', choose the required Sims, and all these Sims will go there. It's a lot easier than messing with Edit Town mode.

[KimC]

Thanks for the welcomes.  I thought that might be the best option, so thanks for confirming.  I guess I know what I'll be doing later this afternoon ;p

Kim

[Alexandria_]

Good luck with it all!

[TheChronicR]

Good luck! Inform us about your progress, please 

[Hosfac]

Actually, I think that when you demolish a lot in "Edit Town," it removes everything on the lot (junkyard spawners seem to be immune to this, however lol).  Honestly, I've never actually tried it, so I don't really know for sure.  My suggestion is that you try this immediately after loading the save, so if it does remove the trees, you can exit without saving without losing any progress.

But either way, this would be some handy information to know.  Please do give us an update. 

[Lilygirl]

I can confirm that if you go to Edit Town, move the family out to rebuild, and bulldoze the lot, everything gets deleted from the lot, including gardens. Your money trees will be lost if you use this method.

Your best choice is to have your family remove themselves from the lot, (having them all go to the park is a great idea, I usually just have them all line up on the sidewalk out front) and then using the hammer tool in Build or Buy mode to demolish the house, piece by agonizing piece! Be sure to move everything you want to keep into the family inventory first.

Good luck!

[Hosfac]

I thought so.  Thanks for confirming that for sure, though. 

and then using the hammer tool in Build or Buy mode to demolish the house, piece by agonizing piece!

Actually, if you're using the hammer tool and you hold the mouse button down and drag it along the wall or floor you're getting rid of, you can remove entire sections at a time.  You can even demolish entire areas at once (dragging corner to corner, highlighting an entire square), although I'm not sure how much can be removed with each pass.  For example, once when I was removing a section of the foundation for stairs to a basement, the first pass removed the floor covering, while the second pass removed the foundation.  Perhaps if you start in the yard, you can remove everything at once, but I honestly don't know as I've never done a complete demolition like what you're doing.

But either way, it would be quicker than clicking on every last wall section.

[Lilygirl]

Yes, Hosfac, the click and drag method is what I meant. For me, I think it deletes the thing you first select. Such as, if you start your click-and-drag on a floor tile, it removes all floor tiles. If your start on a wall, it removes all walls, etc. At least, that's what I've found. Some things, though, still have to be deleted piece by piece.

Is there a most efficient order in which to delete things, probably. I personally would start with the floor/foundation because if it deletes the furniture standing on the floor, BONUS! (I can't remember if it does or not.) I know click-and-drag of the walls deletes everything hanging on/attached to the walls: windows, paint, art, etc. Although, furniture attached to walls (ie. shower, toilet) need to be deleted before the wall can be deleted. In my experience.

[Alexandria_]

Actually, I think that when you demolish a lot in "Edit Town," it removes everything on the lot (junkyard spawners seem to be immune to this, however lol).

Oh, okay. I was actually thinking of going into Edit Town and then selecting "Build/Buy on this lot", not demolishing the whole thing.
If you select build/buy on this lot, I think you can remove your house and keep the money trees.

You could also move them off the lot and (if cheats are allowed in the legacy - I'm not entirely sure of the rules), hit control-shift-c and type in 'testingcheatsenabled true'. Then you could right click on the property and select build on this lot. That way you have control over what goes and what stays.

[Lilygirl]

Alexandria, you don't even have to go into Edit Town to demolish a house while keeping the garden. All you have to do is click on the Build or Buy mode buttons on the interface and go from there. All you have to do is drag the things you want to keep into the family inventory and make sure your Sims are off the lot.

[KimC]

Well, I did it, I just packed up everything, sent the sims to a corner, and spent the last day and a half building the new house. Ugh, that was a long task, they better be happy with this one for a while ;p

Thanks for all your suggestions/help. I don't think I will ever 'get' all the things you can do with Edit town mode, but I'm learning slowly.

Kim

[Alexandria_]

Alexandria, you don't even have to go into Edit Town to demolish a house while keeping the garden. All you have to do is click on the Build or Buy mode buttons on the interface and go from there. All you have to do is drag the things you want to keep into the family inventory and make sure your Sims are off the lot.

Yes, that is true. I don't know why I said to go into Edit Town and do it that way, when I usually do it the other way Thanks for correcting me lily.

Well, I did it, I just packed up everything, sent the sims to a corner, and spent the last day and a half building the new house. Ugh, that was a long task, they better be happy with this one for a while ;p

Thanks for all your suggestions/help. I don't think I will ever 'get' all the things you can do with Edit town mode, but I'm learning slowly.

Kim

Good job Kim

[Joria]

This is exactly the same thing I've been doing with my Thyme family dynasty!  Their house was two stories up and two stories down and filled to the brim with all kinds of stuff, not to mention an enormous garden.  It has taken me three days of my time so far and it's still not done. 

What I originally had in the lower basement was 7 large, ensuite rooms with a large central communal area.  I figured the easiest thing for me to do was actually set up three of the suites to house the family.  They had just gotten back from an extended vacation, (15 Sim days in France), and were exhausted, so I felt I could put them to bed and then work on the rest of the house.  I didn't want to spend a lot of cash since they had depleted most of their resources in France working on their mansion there. (Remodel of the Abandoned Nectary found in the swap shop.)  No cheats are allowed so testingcheatsenabled/build buy on this lot was out, but I could still use the regular build/buy. 

It took me a full day of my time to get their basement home built, complete with a kitchen etc. etc. and completed the museum as well.   Then, Quick Time/Itunes decided to update and BAM!  Black screen of death.    >:(Of course, stupid me I hadn't saved a darn thing.  When I calmed down enough to go back into the game, (day two), we were back in France.  I finished the day there and sent them home again and started over.  While they waited at the gate, game paused, I started piling stuff into the family inventory and moving it downstairs.

Rebuilt the downstairs, (differently but ok), and decided to save a LOT, (I sometimes do learn my lessons!), and faced day three with a much better attitude.  Yesterday, (day 3), I stayed up till 6 am and have the entire ground level and second story demolished,  saving construction materials where I could, (doors and windows), most of the museum floor done, and the lower level livable and resonably attractive.  The lower level should actually be large enough to house all 8 immortals but I didn't want them all being moles.  My intention with that level was, as the next gen was born the previous gen would move down stairs for privacy and to keep them out of the way while I played with the current gen and heir.  Now I'm not so sure I want to build a gigantic mansion above ground.  It was a whole lot more work than I had anticipated and it was sad to remove some of my favorite features but the game was so laggy with all that stuff I had to do something.  Still figuring it all out.