Strange problem...

[Elektro Guy]

I'm having issues with the homes I custom create.  It seems when I move into a home I created, a few days later it will turn into a garbled mess when I switch to map view...but when I zoom back in the home returns to normal.  And then a day later (I'm talking Sim days here), the house and everything on the lot will disappear in map view, but it will reappear when I zoom back in.  This has happened with two homes I've built in two different locations, and I'm baffled as to what's causing this.  I've tried removing all third party custom content, loading a previous save before the lot gets all funky, deleting caches, but the problem still occurs.  I'm using Dashboard to scan the little bit of third party custom content I have, but that shows no errors with anything.

I'm stumped.  It's an annoyance, but nothing majorly fucked up with my game.  I don't think it's a blue lot issue (because...well...my lot doesn't turn blue), and I've tried searching the forum for similar problems but came up with nothing.  It just happens to my home and no other pre-built houses or buildings.

Anyone have an idea of what's going on?  Are my custom made homes just screwed or something?  Any help is appreciated.

[The_Goddess]

This happened to me as well.  It took me quite some time to finally figure out what was the problem.  It may seem completely crazy but it was related to clothing the game had chosen for my sims after I deleted their original outfits from my CC.  If you go to the dresser and re-dress in all categories it should stop happening.

[Figwit]

This happens to me quite a lot too. It is annoying. I didn't think of changing their clothes but I found if you move the house to another location it seems to fix it.

[J. M. Pescado]

As far as I can tell, this is a caching issue, and you can fix it by making an externally visible change in build mode.

[The_Goddess]

Pescado's theory certainly makes a heck of a lot more sense than mine.  This does not explain how I was able to get this to stop in the crazy way I did though.  I'm curious if it had anything to do with the weird way un-selected households always seem to want to stand in their vegetable gardens. 

[jezzer]

I'm curious if it had anything to do with the weird way un-selected households always seem to want to stand in their vegetable gardens.

No, that's just a creepy "Children of the Corn" Sim-cult forming.  Nothing to worry about.

[Elektro Guy]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I actually accidentally discovered that if I go into Buy Mode and move a piece of furniture (this being the case of an overhead light) and then just move it back to its original location that fixes the Invisible Home bug.  Kinda like Pescado's idea but way easier.

I run into another problem rarely, but I don't want to get into it.  I'm usually able to fix it out of sheer luck.  Sims 3 is really such a poorly coded game...I can't believe EAxis released this piece of junk unto the masses.  Even so, it's a piece of junk I love!   

[ShortyBoo]

I'd been having this problem, too. I'm glad it's not a sign of something more serious happening to my hood.

[ElviraGoth]

I actually found out just the other day that all I had to do was go into buy mode and back into live mode to fix the invisible house from map view problem.  If the walls are collapsed, I had to go to build mode, then buy mode, then back to live mode.  I didn't even have to move anything or buy/build anything.

I originally thought this was a "special" seed problem, but that wouldn't always fix it.  I realized that when a toddler aged up and I went to buy mode to buy a bed or move something, that it fixed the problem.  Then I found that going to buy mode and moving something would fix it.  So I just tried going into buy mode and back and that's when I found out that it was all I needed to do.