More Awesome Than You!

In other words, if you build an apartment and put a table in it, when you change the zoning, does the table disappear or stay? In other other words lot A was a row house complex that came with the game. Sim A moves in and serves food all over the damn place. Lot B is one I built, loosely based off of the row house lot. Sim B moved into Lot B. Sim B serves food to only him and his roomate. I much prefer this and am trying to figure out why.
My theory is that if you build a lot with a table in place and change the zoning, this flicks a switch in the objects to make them stay when you move in. Those that can't switch over vanish. So if a table can stay and be rented, something in it has been changed to make it associated with the lot, then a sim looking for a table will go to all the lot tables. But if a sim buys a table, it is not lot associated, but household associated. So the sim uses their own table.
Since I don't remember if a table came with Lot A, then I realize I could be wrong entirely.

The first apartment building I made, I did FURNISHED apartments.

When I went to move the first sims in, the furniture was ALL GONE.

So NO, you can't have furnishings in the apartments, especially because those 'missing' furnishings jack the rent up!

So I scrapped that apartment building.

I now build them unfurnished save for kitchen counters, stove, fridge, and optional dishwasher/trash compactor. Also I put in the bathroom fixtures.  Also any place I want overhead lighting - that goes in.  No other furnishings as they just disappear.

Or you could just go into debug mode, shift+click the door and select "Rent Furnished Apartment".

Well crappers. Any ideas on why apartment A served food to everyone, God and God's dog while B didn't? Lot B did have a common picnic area, only it's the bbq from vacation instead of the one with the base game. The landlord still throws parties in the common area.

In the same vein as the title-what about apartments with phones? I built my own little test apartment, just to make sure I was 'doing it right', placed no furniture, but placed ceiling lights, a smoke and burglar alarm and one of the Freetime phones. When I got the Goodies to rent it the phone had vanished. I was wondering if it was a phone issue or if it was meant to be like that? I've noticed that EAxis-made apartments do not come equipped with phones as standard.

I spend most of my time building, and it doesn't make me too happy that "rent furnished apt" isn't already an option.  I have been using the cheat to do so.  After all of the apartments I have built (from scratch or by modifying pre-built ones), I never have the phones stay put without shift clicking for a furnished apartment.  It also seems that my garbage chutes don't stay in either.  My kitchen/bathroom cabinets and fixtures stay put (excluding mirrors & small appliances)... as well as my smoke detectors.  I guess the guys at EA were concerned my sims are all too stupid to cook without burning down the complex.

Carrigon has done some hacks for this, you can rent an apartment fully furnished.
http://www.sims2workshop.com/viewtopic.php?t=2900&sid=d9386d985e1b268cd1e3e4f0e65db135

The rest of the hacks for Apartment Life are here
http://www.sims2workshop.com/viewforum.php?f=164

See, now where's the fun in that? For lobotomized fools, these sims are surprisingly difficult to kill without intent. I see no need for that sort of default babysitting. Can't cook without burning down your flat? Fine, then. Have someone call the fire brigade. Can't stop your hysterics long enough to call the fire brigade? Roast.

Now, see that is actually realistic to me.  Where I live, it is the law that landlords have to provide smoke detectors in all units, and even provide batteries for them as well.

It is also the law (in my area) that those smoke detectors must be checked with a representative of the Fire Department in attendance at least once a year. My unit's management company does it every six months after the fire that was in my building, as a CYA method, since no smoke alarms went off and an alternate fire escape had not been marked (in their defense, there was one escape marked, but a stairway about a foot away from my apartment was not).

yeah, because I loathe the frequency of cooking fires...even by skilled sims, I install the fire sprinkler directly above all stoves - in all houses and apartment units.

In reality, I've had exactly ONE cooking fire...ONE. and I've been cooking since age 11 (and I had the fire in my early 20's shortly after I got married).  It's kinda like the idiotic frequency with which trees on any lot get set on fire by lightning. Does that happen 4 to 5 times a day in Maxis employees' yards? Cuz it's NEVER happened in one of mine...and I am unlucky around lightning.

In real life, cooking fires are relatively uncommon and short because food tends to have a high water content, which burns poorly.

Oh, I don't know about that, my step-mom could do it.

And there's the ever-popular grease fire while cooking. Always a festive event.

They're even more festive when you throw water on them.

Try running out of the kitchen with burning pan in hand and dropping it on the carpet. Melted carpet is way cool.  ::)