House Layout?

[TaWanda]

I have both of those and I use them in some houses (when I remember) but I get a kick out of watching the little pixels fuss and carry on in mass confusion when they get up in the mornings and all rush for the same bathrooms at once. Parties are fun too especially when there are so many people they can hardly move around the house. Somehow it just seems more true to life to me, but then I live in a tiny cramped house in RL

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I suppose it depends really on what you play for - I just like to create lots of happy little sim families, and I've only put these things in my game recently, just to see what everyone was on about, and I must admit it's probably good for a 1984 version of the sims, and whether I shall continue to use them all remains to be seen.......  But without control, simmies tend to NOT be happy!  So I'd still be controlling them, because if left to themselves they fall out with each other over the stupidest things!  (RL?)

[BlueSoup]

It's too bad the OP's thread has to get overrun with RetardoLanders mocking gali. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I wasn't mocking anyone - what you have in your game is up to you, and what works for you is the right thing to have.  And I have wierd houses in my game at times, depending on how I'm playing.  I have a strangetown Adam and Eve and their family who don't even have a house and a couple of shipwrecked mariners and their families who live in packing cases! Plus I have several families who live in bits of space wreckage. (Not to mention all sim houses look odd in top-down view anyway.)

I think we should all get back to the question posed at the beginning of the thread, and try to give some helpful suggestions.  My own would be, make sure you have enough room behind doors - don't put a staircase only one tile from the front door, and never put a ceiling light in front of it either.  If you get a Maxis house with any of these problems (and you will) change them before you move anyone in - in other words, always inspect a Maxis house you might be considering using before you decide if it will work for you.  Some will need major rejigging and it's often easier to put them in the bin and build your own in their place.

[KellyQ]

At least Gali builds houses. I don't build unless I'm forced to, like with the Legacy Challenge.

I have a very hard time with scale so I end up with bathrooms/bedrooms/livingrooms either too large or too small. The only thing that really works for me is putting in the furnishings and then building around them. Of course then the house ends up looking like a box.

I download houses for functionality rather then great beauty (and I do not want great big, beautiful houses that make my game slow down to a crawl). However, I am great at "adding on". My sims seldomly move, I just keep rearranging walls and adding on if I need to.
I wish it was that simple in real life; honey, I need you to tear down that wall, add some flooring and erect a wall over there.  

[ZephyrZodiac]

And for it all to be done while you just shut your eyes and blink!

[ElfPuddle]

Or even, "I don't much like that couch..." instantaneously..."That new couch is lovely!" Or the RL hassle of plumbing when adding a bathroom! Making sure you a wall for a terlet and TP is nothing!

edited to fix typos. I blame the last-day-of-school-syndrome.

[ZephyrZodiac]

And with move objects on, you can stick the toilet in the middle of the living room floor if you want!  (I've sometimes stuck one out on the lawn when the family only had 250 simoleons to their name and a distinct shortage of loos!  After dark they seem to be quite happy to use it!)

[Myth]

It's too bad the OP's thread has to get overrun with RetardoLanders mocking gali. 

When it gets moved to RL what do you expect?   

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think this thread was already spinning out of control, presumably because some people like to see these things happen.

The original poster was asking for help, and unless you are prepared to offer help and advice, why offer anything?

[ZiggyDoodle]

don't put a staircase only one tile from the front door, and never put a ceiling light in front of it either.

Okay, I'll bite:  why wouldn't you put a ceiling light above a front door or a staircase [wasn't sure which one you meant]?

[Myth]

The original poster was asking for help, and unless you are prepared to offer help and advice, why offer anything?

If you are responding to me, I did offer help.  Reply #7.

[Carmelita]

I think this thread was already spinning out of control, presumably because some people like to see these things happen.

The original poster was asking for help, and unless you are prepared to offer help and advice, why offer anything?

Unsolicited comments are what makes the web go 'round.

[ZephyrZodiac]

The original poster was asking for help, and unless you are prepared to offer help and advice, why offer anything?

If you are responding to me, I did offer help.  Reply #7.

Myth, I was not responding to you in particular, I'm aware that you've offered help, not just in this thread, but in others, I was merely trying as best I could to get us all back to the point.

Okay, I'll bite:  why wouldn't you put a ceiling light above a front door or a staircase [wasn't sure which one you meant]?

If you put the staircase too close to the front door, then sims may go out that way, but they'll come in by the back door (if there is one, because when the door opens it's awkward.  Also, the door will stay forever open, which is wierd if you want to take a pic.  the same applies to ceiling lights, get one in the wrong place and again the door will stay open.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Also, the door will stay forever open, which is wierd if you want to take a pic.  the same applies to ceiling lights, get one in the wrong place and again the door will stay open.

Eureka!  So that's why my doors remain open.  Of course, it makes no sense whatsoever but thanks for the tip.  The lights will go bye-bye tonight (when I get home from work).

[ElfPuddle]

*thanks ZiggyDoodle for saying it first*
*thanks ZephyrZodiac for fixing the only issue I've ever had with stairs...the only time there's been a light there*

[TaWanda]

Well if you prefer function over form I tend to build my houses all on one floor because stairs really do take too long (usually 10-14 sims in the house at most times), I use one large bedroom with all single beds or bunks and one small bedroom with a double bed for any necessary woohoo. I put in a large bathroom and only use toilet stalls and communal showers. A kitchen with 2 stoves and 2 refrigerators and the longest table I can find. If I need nuseries they are tiny rooms, 2x3, in a row All of my rooms have 2 or 3 doors or arches..  Not very conventional, but it works

[Simlover]

I find putting all the living items downstairs and just bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs works well.  In houses with high traffic up and down the stairs I generally use the connect a stair and make the stairway double width like they do in the dorms.  I don't have a problem with sims going up and downstairs but then I don't tend to have terribly lazy sims in my games.

And Gali, I have said it before and will say it again,  keep doing what you do best, your sim makeovers and house designing reflects your extravagant and outrageous nature and individuality is a beautiful thing.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, Ta Wanda, your poor, overcrowded little simmies!  I'd personally go demented trying to play that many, even at Uni I only ever use the 5-roomed dorm!

Function to me is obviously of supreme importance, it has to be, or I'd get sick of rescuing stuck sims, but I do like my houses to look nice too.  I just don't like houses that look wonderful and absolutely don't work!


ZiggyDoodle and Elfpuddle, I was sitting looking at one of my college houses and thinking, why the heck won't that door close?  I turned it round, and puzzled as that made no difference, then I moved it sideways and lo and behold, it closed!  So I simply enlarged the doorstep, made the entryway a bit larger and everything was fine!  Then I noticed it happening where there weren't any stairs, and realised there was a ceiling light getting in the way!  I find it quite funny that a virtual light can block a virtual door, but a virtual sim can smustle dance virtually in the middle of a virtual kitchen counter!

And Simlover, I do much the same, although I always have one bathroom downstairs to save quite so much running up and down - and keep visitors downstairs as much as possible!)  And if I want a lot of instruments etc., I usually put a flat roof on the garage and stick them there!

[Onion Girl]

I don't tend to have many sims living ina house at once, maybe 4 tops. So my houses are often quite small, I usually have 2 floors.

First floor. I've always made hallways that you enter as soon as sims walk through the door, and in the hallway I have the stairs The hallway can lead to all ground floor rooms, or as with one house I did not long ago, to one 'main' rom, living room, with dining room at the end, and kitchen (seperated by a wall). There is also a small bathroom on the first floor, in the hallway area.

On the second floor, there's 3 bedroom's, and a bathroom. The master bedroom is the room room you get to, the hallway is quite small aswell.

If I build a house myself, since I like small homes, but with nice gardens, I always build on a 2x2 lot.

[TaWanda]

Ziggy, if you have seen the small bunker for JM in the MATYhood, I have 8 people living in it. It's "interesting". I like for there to always be some fun autonomous stuff going on, I get bored if I find myself just watching 2 or 3 sims sitting around having a meal and chatting

[Erica]

When I'm building a house, i try to make it as beautiful and realistic as posible. I usually make Realistic houses because, well, i intended on designing houses (but now im considering the amount of income, work, etc. oh, how a working life must suck ) And since i live in a sub-urban Area and not the huge Jersey area, I usually make small houses on small lots with that side yard thats Paved and surrounded by a big white fence. The houses i make have underground garages and basements (for space!), A small garden, stairs to enter the first floor, a open floor layout (the kitchen, living room, dining room, and study area are seperated by one L shaped wall but are all one "room" in itself with a simple change of tile seperating the bounderies) with a small 2X2 half bathroom and stairs tucked away. The upstairs consists of two bathrooms and 3-4 bedrooms, one master, one smaller, and one smaller than that- but all big enough to fit everything a sim needs. I make a wide hallway on the second floor. So basically my sims aren't living large, but living realisticly.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Don't get me wrong, Ta Wanda, I've played larger families, and I admire anyone who can handle it without tearing their hair out or murdering their sims!  The normal 8 is my absolute limit, and I find in most circumstances that's too much.  Funnily enough, though, if they are all the same sex, it seems easier.....

[Erica]

Well i never play with 8 sims because it reduces the quality of the game, so i play with 1-2 because im into high quality games.

[Simlover]

And Simlover, I do much the same, although I always have one bathroom downstairs to save quite so much running up and down - and keep visitors downstairs as much as possible!)  And if I want a lot of instruments etc., I usually put a flat roof on the garage and stick them there!

I always have bathrooms downstairs too, I just find if you limit the second floor to essentials such as beds and a bathroom there is less traffic on the stairs.