EAxis House of Fail: November

[witch]

I forgot to mention, the house is a bit on the expensive side - S186-187K.

Are you, by any chance, a real estate agent on the side?

[Jorganza]

Here's my house.


Front view.


Back view.


Side view.

I tried to do it in a Gothic/Victorian style.
It's a two and a half bath, two bedroom house.


First Floor.


Second floor.


Third floor.


Living room.


Kitchen.


Stairway leading to second floor.


Dining Room.


Study.


Master bedroom.

Edit: Thanks Jolrei, it can be downloaded here http://www.4shared.com/file/70420201/ceed7ee2/130_Sim_Lane-Jorganza.html
All EPs and SPs used. It's roughy 180K.

[jolrei]

That's fantastic, Jorganza.  One can imagine Gomez Addams feeling quite at home there.

To upload, get an account at a file sharing site, like 4shared.com.
In your neighbourhood view in the game, click on your lot, and click on the icon for "package your lot".  Select "package to file".  Your lot will be saved in your game's "packaged lots" folder.

Then go to your 4shared account on the internet.  Follow the steps to upload the file.  When you're done, 4shared will even provide you with a URL to copy and paste into your post here.


@witch:  No, not a real estate agent.  I hate selling things.  My actual job is far less interesting, and probably less lucrative in the long run.

[witch]

@witch:  No, not a real estate agent.  I hate selling things.  My actual job is far less interesting, and probably less lucrative in the long run.

I hate selling things too. I especially hate being sold things. I know what things I want to buy and I go look for those things and research them when the need arises. I tried selling Amway once. I was utterly and completely  useless. I couldn't bring myself to lie, I merely asked, when the front door was opened, "would you like to buy some Amway?" People said no, I said fine, and we left it there. 

[eevilcat]

I am working on this one and trying not to be too modern so have something sort of traditional modern instead. My only bugbear is the fireplace, or more specifically the chimney flue, so I've a couple of questions:

- do we have to use the same fireplace that it came with?
- is there anything in the game that can be used to disguise/alter the appearance of the chimney, especially where it pokes out the roof?

The red brick looks really ugly against my new colour scheme so I need to either hide it or blend it in. I've had a dig around build mode but have been unable to find anything appropriate.

[Emma]

Nope, you can change it. If you use the fireplaces with the brick flues, you can delete the smokestack by placing the fireplace, turning on 'moveobjects on' and using the sledgehammer tool to delete the individual pieces of smokestack. They will come back if you move the fireplace though. Or, you can just build wall around the stack (place the fireplace on a little bit of extra foundation), building up as far as the stack goes. At the top, the flue will poke through slightly though. You could always just delete that little bit of smokestack though.

(I can't remember who gave me the tip about deleting the smokestack pieces, whoever you are, thanks)

[jim]

I've got too many elders now in my game. They've worked hard, raised their kids, built up their homes and businesses - and now I've moved on to other Sims, and I don't know what to do with them. I can't bring myself to euthanise them, so I've used this month's house to build them their own 'old folks home'.

I bring you Jim's Last Resort.  It has three bedrooms (two of which share a bathroom, unfortunately), three bathrooms, a dining kitchen, and play room (just reading, violin, poker and computer). There is no nursery provision, since their spawning days are behind them, but there are plenty of activities for sims who catnap and wander round the place in the small hours aimlessly.  They have a workroom with crafting benches, easel, sewing machine, potter's wheel. The garden has a nice big greenhouse, with fruit trees, and a fishing pond, for the outdoors type; there's a hot tub and a hot spring, for the luxuriant type; there's a bbq area, for those early morning hunger pangs, and a piano to wake the neighbours, so that they can come over to join the grilling. I've tacked a shop onto the front of the house, so enterprising sims can sell off their fruit, veg, fish and home-crafted items, if they want.  And when the day finally comes for them to shuffle off this mortal coil, there's a private cemetery round the back (with its own little crematorium, i.e. the fireplace. I've never had a fireplace inside that didn't set fire to something. Here, it can't do much damage, and it's flanked by fountains, just in case.)

The decor is borderline fuddy duddy, but not too chintzy. These are baby boomers, after all. I've playtested it briefly, and my elders were thoroughly enjoying the facilities. It could do with more lights outside, maybe a tent for when the family wants to stay over, and some benches, but otherwise I like it. Here's a few shots:

Front:

Back:

Dinette:

Slideshow here: http://tinyurl.com/6bjt5d

Downloadable here: http://tinyurl.com/6blnbb

It comes in at $149,000.  I have all EPs and no SPs.

[Emma]

Jim, I LOVE that lot!

[HomeschooledByTards]

Jim, that's awesome! I love the idea of elder homes. I never know what to do with them either, a retirement home would be awesome for them.

[tryclyn]

Jim,  I am in awe. 

[J. M. Pescado]

Jim, that's awesome! I love the idea of elder homes. I never know what to do with them either, a retirement home would be awesome for them.

Putting elders alone in a house is a guaranteed recipe for boredom, since they would have nothing to do! It is generally not recommended to put a sim that has pretty much done everything and is now just waiting to die off alone, because playing them will be enormously boring.

[jim]

He's right. I've just spent the evening playing the Last Resort, and the elders were getting a lot more out of it than I was.

[jolrei]

I am trying to get my elders to start a business.  They usually have some money to establish one by then.  This keeps them out and about and gives them a goal.  If they build up the business, they can always leave it to some other sim when they snuff it.

[JennyJenny]

I've done the retirement home thing, I usually just put them in and set it to speed 3 until they die. Occasionally I would have them invite their grand kids over but for the most part, meh.

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes, but then they usually die messily and unpleasantly. Mashing the "skip day" button on the Lot Sync Timer is neater, tidier, and creates less fallout.

[littleblackdog]

 I want to download them all !! thank you for your awesomeness..

[Zazazu]

I am trying to get my elders to start a business.  They usually have some money to establish one by then.  This keeps them out and about and gives them a goal.  If they build up the business, they can always leave it to some other sim when they snuff it.

An elder sweat shop? I approve of this.

Retirement homes are fun if you also put some elder townies in there and set ACR to brothel.

[chobeegal]

An elder sweat shop? I approve of this.

Retirement homes are fun if you also put some elder townies in there and set ACR to brothel.

Sweat Shop or "Sweet" Shop? 

So here's the link to my remake. I did it as a kind of rustic style apartment house. I haven't quite figured out how to post decent sized pictures yet though. here's the link if anyone is interested
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=765575&asset_type=lot&user_id=5995290

[Zazazu]

An elder sweat shop? I approve of this.

Retirement homes are fun if you also put some elder townies in there and set ACR to brothel.

Sweat Shop or "Sweet" Shop? 

No, I already have a Sweet Shop, currently run by elders.



By the way, from a distance your lot looks like a German village or some sort of Essenhaus. This is not a bad thing.

[Cucumberpie]

Not playtested. Lazy Cucumberpie is lazy.
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/zztm3dmo2nm/130_Sim_Lane.rar

Back:


Ground floor (entry with The One Desk, living room, skilling room, nursery, kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms):


Second floor (master bedroom with bathroom, two bedrooms for children/teens and a bathroom):


Entry:


Kitchen:


Skilling room:


Master bedroom:


Child/teen room:


The other child/teen room:

[Liz]

Cucumberpie, I love the exterior, and the general colour theme is very attractive. I like the cool, neutral tones with the splashes of aqua/blue! If I could make one change, it would be to suggest a different choice of carpet for the other/teen bedroom to keep it more in tune with the overall theme, but I really like this house.

[jolrei]

No, I think the other teen bedroom is quite accurate.  Teens are notoriously bad at decorating within the overall style of a house.  This looks like a house where the parents simply caved in to the every whim of their 12.

[Liz]

Hur, good point. Sadly, my bedroom as a teen was "generously" decorated for me. I was not given a vote.

I hated that room.

[pbox]

Here's my contribution:



Actually, not here, but at mts2 (because the files were too big for here and I don't have SimPE so can't get rid of the bloat).

There's two versions, a hotel (non-BV, just a regular community lot) and a residential lot; the picture is of the hotel but they don't look much different from the street.

I completely gutted everything and added a basement (not very basement-like, with indoor pool and outdoor terrace), plus a small expansion to the main building. I may have cheated a little bit by making the backside decking one tile wider, but it just looked stupid otherwise and made no sense. All of the other stupidity I workarounded somehow.

Both of the lots require NL, OfB, Pets and Seasons, need no custom content, and are built on Mootilda's lot. Both are fully furnished with the exception of 3 rooms in the residential that I left empty on purpose; in-game price is a bit more than 200.000§ each. The hotel is thoroughly playtested (full game, no hacks), the residential is not. It's very playable; the "basement" in particular is easily viewable from both front and back, since it doesn't have many foundation walls.


"Green Star" Hotel
http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=308130











Copypasta from the upload post (not all of it, so if you d/l it, check the actual post for additional notes -- there are more and bigger pics over there s well):

• Indoor and outdoor pool, indoor hot tub, and a small gym (this is all the gym equipment I can has, for lack of EPs -- Uni etc users will have to put the rest outdoors)
• Restaurant
• Outdoor grill with dining
• Minigolf
• Lounge with bar and fireplace; rooftop bar (outdoor) with fireplace and free espresso
• Beauty salon, with back room that could be used for a massage table (BV owners); I put a small clothing store there instead
• Public toilets and showers downstairs -- I believe a BV sauna would fit into the shower room (you could make one of the toilets into a shower instead)
• Three double rooms, one of them with a private bath, the other two share a bath across the hall
• Two of the rooms have a balcony, the other one has direct access to the upstairs greenhouse and rooftop bar

Other points:

• Inobtrusively fenced off (i.e., without looking like a fortress) so that pets can't mess around -- except for one small flowerbed which I forgot, the one next to the driveway
• The lot impostor looks surprisingly good (no bomb crater appearance)
• One could probably actually grow fresh fruit in the upstairs greenhouse if this is run as an owned business, so that visitors can pick them and make their own juice (I believe you need a hack for greenhouses that aren't on the ground floor -- there is one on this site mts2 I think)
  

--


The residential version is basically the same building but turned into a residential lot, with a different downstairs floorplan and decorated/furnished differently. It has four bedrooms, two of which are empty. No garage, because I think cars should be wheatherproof. 

"Blue Star" Residence
http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=308131







See the mts2 post for more/bigger pics, and the complete text -- excerpt:

• In- and outdoor pool, gym, indoor hot tub, rooftop bar with outdoor fireplace and karaoke, outdoor grill with dining
• Greenhouse with direct access to the kitchen (I believe you need a hack for greenhouses that aren't on the ground floor -- there is one on this site mts2 I think); another room upstairs that is technically a greenhouse
  
• Ground floor with living/dining room, lockable kitchen, nursery and two bathrooms (one public, one private)
• Top floor with three bedrooms, two baths, lounge and roof terrace
• "Basement" (very un-basement-like) with pool, tub, gym, outdoor terrace
• Parking for four cars, cars included
• Low-maintenance landscaping (except for the hedge in front perhaps) -- I believe the off-grid shrubs should still be trimmable (in my game they are)
• Inobtrusively fenced off (i.e., without looking like a fortress) so that pets and neighbors can't mess around
• Built along the lines of Awesomespec for the most part (I ignored the vampire stuff though -- why would a vampire want to live in a house full of balconies and outdoor terraces?)
  

Also, the lot impostors:






I don't often do modern buildings, but this was really fun -- the challenge part made it interesting, having to find good excuses for the every weird angle of the Maxis lot .. Thanks for the challenge! =)

[jolrei]

That's extremely nice, pbox.  Yoinking that.  I like the '60s window and terrace look.