For those who are interested, I've stumbled upon this website called
SimsByKate.com. It is a website full of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. And best of all, they are completely CC free. The user has custom paintings, except it's not really CC. Here's a quote about her paintings: "A note: this lot is entirely CC free. The artwork is sim photography of the lot itself or of my real life artwork. (My real life art was converted into sim art by my friend Dawn and my sim then photographed the sim art to keep it CC free). "
Personally, I think this is a splendid website. She does use a lot of EA store content, though. I downloaded her Wildwood Treetop Village (I got the quote from the description of this home specifically) and it is so beautiful. I definitely recommend people taking a look over on her website. There are lots and lots of pictures for each lot, so you will most likely see what store content she uses that you don't have before you download.
In summary, I saw one home and bookmarked it. Just beautiful.