EAxis house of Phail: April 09

[CatOfEvilGenius]

Rules question: Is it okay to just completely hide the existing house and build a new one elsewhere on the lot?  I'm thinking of raising the terrain around the existing house as much as possible, and putting trees on top of that.  Then build a steep climbing trail to an overlook platform at the top of all that.  The house gets completely hidden, can't be entered or used by sims, but is still there.  Is that allowed?  This is just a hypothetical question because my build-fu is weak, but I am curious about it.

[witch]

I can't picture how it might be done but feel free to go loose. 

Although the spirit of the competition is about making over the lots, so it seems kind of redundant?

[Mootilda]

Rules question: Is it okay to just completely hide the existing house and build a new one elsewhere on the lot?

That seems to break the rules... the whole purpose is to make the existing house usable.  However, there's no reward for following the rules and there's no penalty for breaking them...  Perhaps you could at least try to maintain an entrance to the existing house, so that sims can use it as an underground bunker?

[CatOfEvilGenius]

I love Mootilda's idea of making a secret hidden bunker.  Not sure how I would go about it though.  My idea of hiding the original house with hills and trees could be rather problematic when playing, due to view obstruction.  Perhaps surround the existing walls with another building?  Shopping center or something else innocuous.  Then put PMBD Super Sekrit Headquarters in the hidden house, or under it.  Might try this for fun, but don't think I'll be uploading anything until I learn to make basements that don't look like a sinkhole opened under the house.

[Pandaah]

True sunken basement tutorial.

[Zazazu]

Just tried that, but it didn't make any difference. Thanks for your help, but please don't go to the trouble of testing the lot on your pc. I've just deleted it permanently. I was hoping this was a known problem with an easy solution, but if it's nothing obvious, the lot's not worth wasting any more time on. I've evicted so many testers here, I was actually dreaming about being evicted the other night. I really need to get away from this now!

Jim, I finally got to testing and had no issues. Did you happen to move the mailbox far off the original spot? That can screw up portals.

[jim]

I didn't touch the trash can, but there was obviously confusion about where the front door was. The paper boy always left the paper at the garden gate; nobody ever used the front door. To read the paper, they went upstairs by the internal stairs, downstairs by the external stairs, trailed over to the gate, and retraced their steps back to the sofa. Then they had to make the whole trip again to get rid of the paper when they'd read it. I tried putting a sofa next to the gate, but they still went the long way round.

Notice the past tense, though. This house is no more, it has ceased to be, it's expired etc. etc. Plus my eviction dream has progressed to the point that I've found storage and a good removal firm, so no worries.

[jim]

Double posting because I finally managed to get a house where people can go to work and come back at the end of the working day. It sleeps 4, and tests out ok, but I haven't tried children in it, so I don't know for sure if the playground equipment functions where it is.

4 Closure

Cost: $82,241. Nothing fancy, but comfortable.









Slideshow: http://tinyurl.com/cl5lcs
Download: http://tinyurl.com/dhoh6m

I have all EPs and M&G SP.

That's it. I'm going out.

[witch]

I reckon we're getting some good family lots this month. I like yours Jim, the frontage is enhanced by the lovely star garden. I'm glad I thought of it. I see the climbing frame stretched over the water - very effective and cool use for the kids, must try it out.

Using all the ball rugs in one room is something I wouldn't have thought of but which looks really effective.

[chobeegal]

The links don't work for me for some reason . I had to do a copy/paste with both  . House looks pretty great though .

[jim]

That's because I hyperlinked it up all wrong, but it should work now - I hope.

[cwieberdink]

I love that house jim.  It really looks beautiful!

[jim]

I haven't tried children in it, so I don't know for sure if the playground equipment functions where it is.

It doesn't, of course. You have to build a land bridge. On the plus side, if you then delete the land bridge, wussy kid gets really fit - well, for a while, anyway.

[SalixTree]

Just a quick post, I'll be back tomorrow with a finished house (hopefully). I started this a few weeks back, lost interest, and forgot about it. I looked at it today, thought it wasn't too bad. Maybe I'll go and finish it. Maybe this house belongs to an Irish old lady who has moved to the coast of California. I tried to do tacky, Ive been kind of in a tacky mood recently. (hmm.. maybe I'm always in a tacky mood?)

I like Weezy Sue's lot, very woodsy. I like woods...

[chobeegal]

Salix, do finish it. It's green. Me likes green very much! 
Oh yes, I'm doing "tacky" this time too.

P.S. Weezy says "thank you". I can speak for her since she is my daughter and I'm responsible for getting her into this "competition" in the first place. LOL

[witch]

Salixtree: I love the bathtub out front with flowers in it, hell, I love the whole garden. I have a house ready too, that just needs the garden finished and I planned a casual style very similar to yours, hopefully it won't be too much alike although I'm so taken with the bathtub idea. 

[Batelle]

Let's pretend Kyuss was flipped by the same designer that did It's Apartments, my submission from last month.  The two lots share tons of physical and stylistic similarities and would look good as neighbors, but Kyuss is a single family residence.




Pod-style and fully furnished from the first floor up, wiith three bedrooms, five bathrooms, a pool/hot tub area and huge unfinished basement, this lot will run your sims $77,000 (wanded down from $141,770).


Grounds: There is minimal landscaping as this is a house designed for the young at heart who have better things to do than garden or weed.



First floor: Foyer with desk, large living/fun room with a corner arcade. The kitchen/dining room decor is condiment inspired and there is a small bonus room off of the kitchen that can easily function as a nursery. Sims can cut through the greenhouse section to go directly from the front porch to the back porch.




Second floor: Master bathroom with attached bath, small single with attached bath (and the only room that can't be accessed from inside the house) and a double-single with a lounge and private bath. I grew up in a bungalow with no doors between rooms (save the bathroom) so I love the idea of having the bedrooms be almost like their own private clubhouses.




No CC was used in the making of this house.  I have all EP's, SP's, Store Stuffs and Pre-order items.  While not AwesomeSpecs, Kyuss was, as usual, briefly tested by a family of five.  There were some stupid routing decisions, mostly due to the exterior staircase (I recommended nuking that thing) but otherwise everything seems to be accessible.

Download:  Kyuss

[SalixTree]

Witch, do the bathtub! Do do do! Yours will probably be slightly different than mine anyway.

So here is 25 Tacky Way:


view from the back pond


view from the front. (someone's big head fell into the ocean)


first floor, sitting room


view from the kitchen. Sims can watch TV while cooking and eating


snack machine, so Sims don't have to feed freeloaders


view of the kitchen


bedroom


computer area, with old man in toilet, leaving the door open.


close-up of the back, curtained in lounges, so Sims don't get sunburned


Bathtub planter and many flamingos


tacky front garden


outdoor eating area and flower "bed"


hedgemaze


no idea how this happened


birdie's view

slideshow:

I have all expansion packs plus M&G. Lot costs 40,000

download here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmlgdmtojnk

[Giggy]

I think it's a great house.

I nearly made a comment about how you had to crash the car into the pond but then I've realised that it made a good effect. Does that have insurance?

[Fikcija]

I usually quietly just read, look and download, but I just have to say something this time. SalixTree, this is AMAZING!!! I LOVE IT!!! I totally MUST HAVE IT in my game!!!

P. S. Since I'm writing something here anyway, would it be ok to post in some older house of fail threads if I happen to have a makeover of a house that was already done some time ago in one of them? I really have one that I like how it turned out and I'd love to share it.

[chobeegal]

As this is not an actual competition but a challenge, I personally can not see any reason you should not go ahead and post yours. I'd definitely like to see them.

[HomeschooledByTards]

I took a little bit of liberty with the bonus rule. The stairs and porch haven't been moved, but I did enclose them within the house walls.

Download lot here.

The house looks a little odd in the neighborhood. I'm assuming that it's because of the slope of the roofs on the porches (15 degrees).

Outside:






Entry:


Hall with stairs:


Kitchen (Island seats 10):


Living room (Includes reading nook):



Bar:


Two bathrooms, both on the second floor:



Master bedroom:


Bedroom #1:


Bedroom #2:

[thegrimtuesday]

I've screwed with this lot for 23 days now. It's been epic and silly. But here it is. Not awesomespec, scanned squeaky clean. I've got everything but Happy Holidays installed. Linking out to my website because I fail photo-hosting sites.



More pictures and the download here: http://www.cuptowels.com/sims/lotpages/25tuesdaycommons.html.

[jolrei]

no idea how this happened

Inspector Clouseau?  Looks like his MO.

[chobeegal]

OK, here's my one for this month. It's a rental home, 4 bedrooms, nursery, 3 & 1/2 baths.


Front view.


Front view.


Side play area view.


Backyard view.


Backyard view.


Nursery, Nanny's room, Master Suite.


Livingroom, Diningroom, Kitchen.


Boys' Bedrooms and Bathroom.

http://www.box.net/shared/ymfp79x799 (CC)

IMPORTANT EDIT: I just realized I forgot to pull my CC downloads folder out of my game before I uploaded this and there is quite a lot of CC piggybacking on it. Either be sure to use the clean installer to remove unwanted content or I can remove this link and reupload a "cleaned" lot. Let me know which option is best.

http://www.box.net/shared/ks2sv3kjnd (clean)