More Awesome Than You!

I am horrible at laying out houses. My sims usually have to go out the back door walk alllll the way around the garden to greet anyone who has rung the front door bell. And let's not go into my fiasco wherein the social worker took my todder away because it had crawled into the bathroom and no one could get it out again.

What are some things that you keep in mind while building a house? What room layouts work best? How can I make my sims go out the front door and not the back door?

And, additionally, any creators out there that make well layed out furnished or unfurnished houses?

I try to put no objects near the front door, make sure the front door opens into a large living room (not a hallway or such). I also try to make all main floor room open off of the living room. Hallways suck. When I do make a hall, it absolutely MUST be at least two tiles wide with nothing but a phone in it. (In the case of the toddler, why didn't you have it "go here" and crawl out on its own?...I use the infamous Kitten Killer, so when if my sim were to get stuck somewhere, they can "teleport" elsewhere...)

When it comes to well-built houses, Emma?

Make lists of what objects certain rooms MUST have and what you want to have room for later. Sketch designs on graph paper. Try to lay out objects in a way that makes sense based on how Sims use them (i.e. line up fridge to free counter space to stove). Playtest. Leave lots of empty space for Sims to walk around objects and each other.

(Also, don't have a back door. ;))

Sometimes, particularly in challenges and especially the Legacy challenge, I place the furniture and build around it.

And there is a frontdoor hack, I think by Pescado, that should help with your front door thing.

I am not the best at desiging either but you could take a look at Plasticbox houses over at the MTS2 site.

He made about 70 starter houses and all have a nice layouts.  He played with each of them to make sure it did have a good layout.  There are picture of all of them so it can give you an idea of how to place your furniture.  Here is a link to all the stuff he made so far:  http://www.modthesims2.com/member.php?u=178282 (http://www.modthesims2.com/member.php?u=178282)

I could be wrong, it has been known to happen, but don't sims take the most attractive route? So if you have a lovely garden in the  backyard, and your front yard is boring, they'd take the long way?

I do have standard for myself that I use for building.  Two tile width for hallways or any walk space including kitchens, minimal four tile wall for double beds in all rooms (even if you do not put one in the room, it's always good for potential growth), minimal two full bathrooms unless it's a starter home and lastly I always try to leave room on the lot for expansion.  

For design purposes I usually do Blue's suggestion of having some items handy for placement like a bed, tub etc.  I utilize building cheats a lot for decor.  Nothing annoys me more than an off centered ceiling light.  ;)  Most importantly is if you are going to share your lots, always, always Sim test before uploading.  

If you are looking for a variety of residential and commercial lots stop by TheSimposieum (http://www.simposieum.net), there are a lot of building challenges like Tru's 1"x3" that produced some very creative end results, as well as mansions, starter homes, great commercial lots, floors, walls, painting recolors and other cool stuff.

I had a problem with my sims using the back door, too, until I made the front step two or three tiles wide.  (My houses have basements and therefore have foundations, so I need steps.)  I had made the back door foundation extension two tiles wide and the front door foundation extension was only one tile wide, so they took the route that was easiest to travel, even if it was the long way around.  Adding another tile-wide foundation with steps solved it for me.

Or add a patio out around the door.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves for alot of uploaded houses.  they were ne ver play tested, and you find they can't get in the tub or something equally stupid.

"The distance between two points is a straight line"...

Sorry to ruin your new building concept (basements and front terraces), but sims hate to use stairs. They will use them when they have no choice.
Another thing they hate is - walking on the bare ground; if there is a tiled pathway to the front of the house, and bare ground in the front of the house - they will go first on the tiled pathway.

I build all my houses on 5x5 lots, with at least 6-7 doors to the yard. But I put floor tiles all over the unused yard (bushes, trees, and flowers).
No basements, and no porches - straight on the ground, leaving 7 tiles at least between the road and the front wall of the house.

My sims never go to greet a visitor around the yard, always through the front doors, pointing to the road. Even if they are at the back of the house, they choose to pass inside the house to the front door.

Besides, I put tons of objects in front of the house and around - my sims move freely beside them.

(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c230/gali123/frontyard.jpg)

For my smaller houses the hallway is at least 3-4 tiles wide and for my larger houses from about 4-7 tiles wide (depending on the size of my house) I nearly always have a back door, but my sim only use it if they need to go to the back garden for something :)

Look at any of my houses on Laverwinkle, I have usually included a picture of a floorplan-type layout. Copy any you like for your own personal use ;)

I make all my lots based on what the sims I am moving in will be doing there. Most are one story, and I generally have one more bathroom than bedroom - especially since OFB ,since it starts every sim with a low bladder. I keep my hallways 2 squares wide, and keep  at least one 6x8 square area open somewhere in the house so they have room for pillow fights and kicky bag without complaining as often. Also, If I have a back door, I will fence off the back part of the house so no one tries to ring the bell on the back door, or ring the front bell, and then walk around to the back door, causing an annoying game of cat and mouse. Almost all of my residential lots are 2x3 and smaller, and I have very few complaining sims. I will post a link of one of my floorplans to give you an idea. I like functional houses more than anything.

OK, here is one, it is actually a test house, but the floorplan is great. Enclosing the kitchen/dining area would not be a problem for your sims.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Screenshothouse.jpg

And here is one of my 3 story houses
fl.1: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/house2.jpg
fl 2: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/house3.jpg
fl 3: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/snapshot_9119110c_114f0fa6.jpg

Hopefully, between all of us you will come up with something that works for you :)

Make sure the bathroom is in a central location, but not with more than one door, to keep them from using it as a hallway. Make sure there is always plenty of space by the front door for the delivery man, greeting visitors, etc. A back door is not always a good idea, I avoid them unless I have a pool out there or something.

I second that hallways should always be at least two tiles wide- this may not be realistic, but there you are.

A bathroom only accessible throught the master bedroom is a bad idea. Again, make it central, and make sure the stairs are nearby. It is also good to have everything useful on the first floor, and only let them sleep on the second. Targa's ladders/elevators or the stealth stairs method can also make a layout with several floors more efficient than a single floor layout, and again, is great when the bathroom is nearby.

I agree, Targa's stairs make sim life much easier. No more complaining about someone else on the stairs - unless they get stupid and stand on them or hang out on them.

I picked up the habit in Sims1 days of only putting walls where they were absolutely needed. The bedroom, to keep out noise so that sims could sleep as woohoo hadn't been 'invented' yet, and the bathroom, for privacy. The rest of the house was one big room with kitchen/dining/lounge/study/etc. Also, if there was a back door, which there usually wasn't, it opened into a fenced in area so that Sims would always use the front door.

Lately I've been putting more walls in, and being slightly more adventurous with my houses, because the pathfinding is much better in the Sims2 than it was in the Sims1. But I still don't often give them a back door.

So I wrote a reply but it got ridiculously long. So instead of forcing everyone to scroll through a really long post, I have put it on a separate page.

See:
Eaglezero's Codified Guide to Sims2 House Layouts (With Examples) (http://www.heretosaveyou.com/sims/housephotos.html)

(Also, I have too much time on my hands.)

Actually, a one tile wide hallway would be unrealistic. How often do you walk down hallways so wide you can barely pass anyone? Hallways in real houses tend to be two or three tiles wide, hallways in public spaces are a good deal wider.

Thank you very much for all of your help! I'm going to try and build a much easier to play house for my sims :)

Check out the floor plans of real houses, I get a lot of ideas from those.
Build your own home to simscale.

Try to make two exits from bathrooms if poss.
Make the house realistic - ie no plate glass windows on the groundfloor bathroom, etc.

Have a look at my crystal collection if you like, link in siggy.

Good luck!

Hmm. I have some slight additions to the EagleZeroian house building code, in which I always place kitchens, particularly with their fridges, in seperate rooms, preferrably locked. This prevents several issues, such as fires causing the entire house to be disrupted, and keeps out ninja-looters trying to rob your fridge and thus spew garbage all over the house.

Added.

Seconded. Somewhere on MTS2 someone even worked out a ratio of number of feet on the real house plan to number of floor squares in the game--works wonders for scaling a house plan down to Sims size.

What I generally do is look through house plan sites, find a floor plan I particularly like, and then modify it so it's more realistic for Sims...take out laundry rooms and walk-in closets, add in more bathrooms, etc. I just rebuilt my Legacy family's house that way, and I'm really pleased with the results. Especially since I'm incapable of coming up with house layouts on my own.

Don't put in a back door. Works every time!

I tend to download a lot of houses from MTS2, especially from plasticbox. I also tend to swipe the houses from all the other neighborhoods, delete said neighborhoods, gut the houses of all their belongings and make them better looking + more functional.

I usually have 2-3 entrances to homes, I can't stand it when a sim has to go the entire circumference of the house to get somewhere. I notice in some houses sims seem to always turn left or right for certain areas, I use that and make access or non-access as the situation requires.

I get house plans off the Internet when I'm at a loss for ideas.

Another thing I do differently from Eaglezero houses is that instead of jamming skilling crap on a different floor, I try to locate all things that a sim would tend to use while awake on one floor if feasible, so that I can see the entire mess. The position of important key objects like The One Desk and The One Fridge are also worth considering.

I may have forgotten to mention that specifically, but yeah. Generally, the only reason I have ANY skilling crap on the second floor is so that sims who wake up at odd times or have weird job hours can be kept upstairs so I don't have to move back and forth.

I also try to get my houses small enough so that I can see everything from a mid-level (a la Sims1) zoom with no scrolling so that I don't have to waste time zooming out and back in or scrolling around to see things. Large lots are really inefficient in that respect. Usually the largest lots I play (other than some maxis pre-mades) are 4x3, not because my computer can't handle the large lots but rather because I'm tempted to build large houses on the large lots but then I get very angry and upset when actually playing. Well, not very angry and upset, but certainly minorly irritated.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that I think practicing skills in a mirror will wake sleeping sims up, so I keep them out of the bedroom. Blah, I'm too sleepy to wait for the game to start up and go check this, but can anyone confirm?

I don't generally watch sleeping sims at all. It's boring and I hate sleep.

This is correct, yes. Mirrors should not be placed in bedrooms for that reason.

http://www.theplancollection.com/

Lots of choices.

I put the loo right next to the lounge which is right next to the kitchen, because I want the feeding and caffinating processes to be smooth.

In a straight line: fridge, empty counter, counter with blender, oven, empty counter, counter with coffee machine *this counter is right next to the lounge room* because I prefer sims to go with their coffee into the lounge in front of the TV. Of course, there is a loo right next to the loungeroom so when they caffeinate, they have handy access to the required amenities.

Dining table is about 3 tiles away from the oven.

Dining chairs (at dining table) are further away from the coffee machine than the nearest lounge chair (so the stupid sims will drink coffee in the lounge room, and not at the kitchen table).

Honestly, I find it easier to pick up some fee apartment giudes when I'm out shopping. Look through them and you'll find floor plans for real living spaces. Some 2 or 3 bedroom apartments make really nice starter houses.

Or I look for floor plans on the internet and print those. If A real person can use it, then as dense as our sims are they can (mostly) use it too.

I don't suppose you have a link to that thread, do you? Or, barring that, I don't suppose you have the information from that thread handy where you could re-post it here or send it in a PM...

Yep, I still have the link lying around here...here you go (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1137761#post1137761).

I too use house plans (sometimes).  Thanks for the link Ziggydoodle.  I use this:  http://www.coolhouseplans.com/

I tried using that and it never quite worked out right. The rooms always seemed to be too small or too large. I base the dimensions off of how many windows the room has. Obviously, every window counts for one tile and you can generally tell a 2 tiled window from a 1 tiled window. It's a lot easier that way, at least for me. And most of my houses don't turn out to be humongous messes that I find elsewhere. Unless I wanted them that way, of course.

Aside from always using six tiles for my bathrooms, I tend to plop down the furniture first and build the room around it.

Bluewater Village has the nicest waterfront building sites in the game so my next project is to build a nice mansion with a horizon pool.

Gali, I'm sorry, but that is totally ludicrous. :) :) :) :) :)

Basing Sim houses on real house plans works nicely, though Sims often need larger hallways. I use the same method as MistyBlue, basing the size of the rooms on windows. Also, all my Sim houses have at least 1.5 baths, and I give them a second full bath as soon as I can afford it. Basically, one full bathroom per 2 Sims works well. Rounding up, so 3 Sims get 2.5 bathrooms. I give the half bathroom the most convenient location for guests and the best environment score, so they'll prefer to use that one.

Stairs are fine, especially if you place two staircases when you expect many Sims to go up and down them a lot, but Targa's elevator tile mod is awesome. I've never, ever had Sims who had any problem whatsoever using stairs. Basements, porches, second floors, third and fourth floors if you use Targa's mod -- they all work fine, though paging through floors to see what all your Sims are doing can get annoying if you have a whole lot of Sims on the lot.

I always put the master bedroom on the first floor, and don't bother with a nursery for toddlers and babies. The crib can go in the parents' bedroom, and the changing table can go either in their bedroom or in the parents' bathroom. No one should have to go up and down stairs to deal with babies, it really throws things out of whack -- I learned this the hard way the first time I played the game and had twins with the first pregnancy :P.

To get Sims to prefer the front door, always make it the first door you place when building a lot. Ditto with the front staircase and porch. J.M. has a hack that helps with this too, the FrontDoor hack.

Huge lots are a serious pain in the butt. They're slow, and Sims take forever to traverse them. The biggest lot I use when not playing some kind of challenge that demands a bigger one is the largest medium lot. Gali's setup would give me conniptions.

I agree with that, I never use anything above medium. and then if the house is too big, it becomes unplayable.  I never have problems with sims using the front door, although I too use foundations a lot of the time.  But - I always make a really impressive front doorstep, and the stairs go nearly to the road, and usually I place the front door near to the mailbox and dustbin.

If sims don't like stairs, then how come they'll go up three flights in order to use a toilet or sit at someone's computer desk-chair, rather than a far more comfortable sofa in the lounge?

What I do do when I build houses, is build them initially in a play situation, if I'm satisfied I send a copy to a file for later, and check the house out while my sims are living in it.  If I spot problems,  I try to remember how I rearranged things in order to get the best possible arrangement when I finish the house off in a vanilla hood.  I'd upload more than I do, but I just can't be bothered, I'd rather just play, but there is one of mine at Simfreaks forum in a thread called Sara Bella Starr, which anyone can download.

You must play with aging off Gali. Otherwise I'm certain that sims born on one side of the lot would die of old age once they get to the other side.  ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

I'm assuming you're also not a fan of nighttime, gali.  Afraid of the dark much??   ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) :-*

Wow! Just...WOW  :o 

Gali is just, well, extravagant!!

Gali, did you get those shower curtains on sale? Nice. :) :) :) :) :)

He he, Blue-Sim is going to be eaten by the cow plant, by making my "home-sweet-home" retarded  :D :D .

First, I look if the sims are happy - not the "gods" (players). And of all the houses, this one was the most prefferred. I took out, on purpose, the "what is this" hack, to see how much they love this house, and got a plenty of hand-claps.

Second, I don't know if you have noticed, but the showers and the bedrooms, and the kitchen,  are very close to the road   - so it takes seconds  for the returning from work sims to be orderred to perform task there. The living room is far from the road, but it's used only on parties, and on hosting - very rare, because the sim have all living room's stuff close to the road too.

I have a lot of bathrooms, because I like to send the sims in the morning together to use the bathroom, and for each sim there is a bathroom.

And last, it happens that I see a lot a show named "Move to the Country" (BBC Prime), and there was wonderful ancient church, designed for modern living, with 3 stories. I can't forget the words of the buyer's wife: "you can't live on stairs". 

You can build thousands of house-layouts in the game, pretending to copy the real-life ones, on which you exclaim "Wow!" - but thet are not comfortable to the sims. Period.

MsMaria, I downloaded a lot of tubs with different colors, where from I don't remember...:).



 

Darn. Well thanks anyway. :) :) :) :)

There are thousands of real house layouts that don't work for Sims, quite true. But there are thousands that, with a little tweaking, work perfectly for them. I don't think the layout in your screenshot would work for my Sims for one second, and I wouldn't want to look at it.

 :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

 ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

 ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

 :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\

 >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

Gali! Sudden flashback. Way back when my son played TS1 (before he discovered Doom and Mortal Kombat LOL) he used to build his houses exactly the way you do. His teachers have told me that he has a highly developed abstract thinking process, likes to think outside of the box. Dare to be different, it's a good thing! ;D

My real life house floor plan isn't entirely convenient or comfortable for me either, I'd still hate to live in a house like that though.

What I don't understand though is this:  Gali likes her house like that, fine and dandy, I don't, also fine and dandy.  Why is there always this spate of "you must play like I do, it is the best and only way"

Twain, translation? And smile, life is short to be angry...:).

Translation:

 ??? ??? ??? ???

 :-X :-X :-X :-X

 :-\ :-\ :-\ :-\

 :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

 :'( :'( :'( :'(

(http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/FatedCircle36/Emotes/dead.gif) (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/FatedCircle36/Emotes/dead.gif) (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/FatedCircle36/Emotes/dead.gif) (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c265/FatedCircle36/Emotes/dead.gif)

 ;D ;D ;D

Well, I always like to think "outside the box"...:), even if I am a subject of mocking - doesn't affect me at all, I always do what I want.

LK and Twain - come on, it's not MY thread, I didn't open it. BlueSoup moved my reply at the Podium here, and put my name on it!  And if you don't like my layout - don't build this way.

Geeez...:)

"Outside the box" seems to be an accurate description of your abode. :)

One question...how long does it take for that house to load????  'that puppy is HUGE. ;)

It kinda looks like an institution...

About 30 seconds. But the save takes about 2 minutes.

I packaged it, and all my houses are the same - I just like it that way; you are not forced to build like this - each one has his own taste. For instance, I hate the empty large houses, with only bed in the bedroom, I feel depressed seeing bare walls and floors.

...And it's a kitty, not puppy...:).

 ??? I'm just confused as to why there seems to be furniture outside the house. I thought it was supposed to go inside.  ???

I don't care how she plays, but I very much disagree with the idea that it's the only way, which I thought was implied in her saying, "You can build thousands of house-layouts in the game, pretending to copy the real-life ones, on which you exclaim "Wow!" - but they are not comfortable to the sims. Period."

They are if you know how to tweak them, period. And I wouldn't be able to wrap my mind around a lot like hers -- doesn't mean her lot is "wrong", but it also doesn't mean that it's the one right way. Maybe I come off as grouchier about it than intended because I don't use smilies much.

That design is utterly devoid of any semblance of artistic merit or even practical value. Is it REALLY necessary to make the bathrooms so ginormous? And what's with the ceiling lights suspended in space on the outside of the building? Why so MANY?

I also notice the apparent lack of Bathroom Uses You TP in your bathrooms.

ALL GALIS SUCK!

Ok, I know its rude, but I have to say it... That house is insanely ugly!

I didn't look for artistic value - if I would, I should download many many  much more beautiful houses from the various sites, especially the Reggikkos' ones!  ;) ;) ;)

My house is functional, for the sims and for me; sims hate stairs, and I hate to use the "page up" and "page down" button.

The bedrooms and the baths are close to the road, because I hate to use the "ctrl-right mouse" buttons, to achieve the objects on which I want to click on. And I hate to send the sims to the baths one after another - we have at home one bath for 2 people, and somtimes I almost pee in my pants, because it's occupied...:).

And I hate darkness, that's why my yard is full of hanging and standing lamps.

...And I never used the "bathroom uses you" hack - I don't like it.  ;) ;)

You can mock me as much as you want - when I like something, I stick to it...:).

If my house model was not accepted so much, BlueSoup could tell me to move the reply at the podium, and not to separate it, and trashcanize it. It was not MY thread , I didn't suggest anyone to build like it, only told what I built - she can't use MY name on her MANIPULATIONS of the threads!   It's insulting!!!

If  I was a senator with the ability of BlueSoup - I would too move to the Retardo many of HER answers!

I have rights too! - there! I said what I feel.

  

It's nice to me. I can build any layout that I want, I don't "rape" anyone to follow me, nor I have given a link to download it. And yes, it's rude!!! >:( >:( >:(

I am curious about this "Sims don't like stairs" thing. I've never noticed that in any way, shape or form. In fact, if I don't want visitors going upstairs constantly, I have to make sure the environment score downstairs is better than that upstairs. Even then, they'll go upstairs very readily for anything they want, whether it's socializing, playing a game, going to the bathroom, playing with some toy, whatever. They don't seem to differentiate between house levels at all.

I was just about to comment on that as well, neriana. My sims are constantly going upstairs when I want the little idiots to stay downstairs. My sims never seem to have any issues with stairs.  :-\

As for the house, what did you expect, gali? Not everyone was going to like it. So the major consensus seems to prove that no one likes, who cares? If it works for you then fine. I think it was just a tad on the surprising side for those of us that like our houses smaller, more together, and with the furniture on the inside.

This topic hasn't moved house properly!

I would add that, if you have a home business and lock your upstairs bathroom doors and family room doors, you get a whole load of visiting sims marching up and down the stairs, and then they go and complain!  (Only thing to do is put a door at the bottom of the stairs and lock that....)

I put it back. I was WONDERING why it seemed kinda like a dangling nonsequitur there, and Gali seems to be upset by the move in any case.

BLUESOUP, YOU HAVE A FAT HEAD!
Stop messing with everything already.

Well, it didn't take as long as it takes for Gali to save her house!

i wanna see Gali's house - have you taken the pic away Gali?

Its up there witch!  Reply number 10 (if the damn thing doesn't get split again)

oh, maybe i need to refresh the page

edit: Yeah, had the page open before the re-merger  ::)

Edit again: I don't have any problems with that house as far as functionality goes, function over form, no problem.
It probably works very efficiently.

I once had a very functional house for 8 poor sim brothers, four slept on the porch, and four slept in what would become bathrooms, they shared two bathrooms and lived in one big room!  They got richer, so I moved them to a big house with a basement swimming pool and every mod con, including en-suite bathrooms - the house eventually died a slow and lingering death.  So, although I do like my houses to look good, functionality wins hands down every time, trouble is in consequence my houses often look vaguely similar, although I do try to vary them with different walls and garden styles.

Funnily enough, I had three houses on SimFreaks2, one was unusual in the extreme, but worked well in game, the other two were traditional (one was an enormous mansion) and although they were playable, they were sloooow) - but guess which ones got downloaded most!

Maybe my sims are just lazy or maybe It's because I play 8 to a house with lots of visitors and I don't have enough stairs, but my Sims would rather que up at the downstairs bathrooms and bitch because somebody is already in there, when there are several empty bathrooms just over their heads.  They also prefer to sleep on couches rather than make that loooong trip upstairs to the more comfy beds, stupid sims. :D

Sounds like you need Bathroom Uses You!  Not to mention the Sleep clock!  (Interestingly, though, if you have a cheap toilet in the downstairs loo, and expensive ones upstairs, visitors will always choose the upstairs ones, but your own sims pick the one closest to them - but if it's directly overhead, they will hike through three room, up a staircase, and back through three rooms again to reach it!

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 :P

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?)

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

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.

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.  ;)

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

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.

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!)

When it gets moved to RL what do you expect?  ???  ;D

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?

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 are responding to me, I did offer help.  Reply #7. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=4256.msg119083#msg119083)

Unsolicited comments are what makes the web go 'round.

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.


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.

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).

*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*

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

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. :D

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!

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.

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 :P

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 ;D ) 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.

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.....

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.

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.

My best games are around 2 adults and their offspring, but I have had a few wierd set-ups, like seven adult brothers and the teenage son of one, and they were fun to play until they got too wealthy and the house got too big, so I had to marry them off and move them out!

True about the stairs, Simlover, although the modular stairs aren't so bad, it's the solid ones that are the real pain!

I like to play mine like it's a soap opera, As the Sim Turns, One Life to Sim, All My Sims etc  :D

Oh and Zephyr I meant you not Ziggy, too many Zzzzz's for me to handle I guess LOL

I don't remember saying that you rape anyone.  I don't really care if its rude either... when you give "advice" like that about house design to someone seeking good information, you deserve to be reminded that its disgustingly ugly.  If you post something as seasick-inducing as that, especially as an example of good design, you have to expect some comments.  For christsake there's more efficient ways to light your house without making it look like the ceiling fan department at home depot.  Further more the "information" about stairs and floor tiles are just wrong.  Well placed floor tiles as pathways make great ways to direct traffic, you only need to blanket the lot with tiles like that if you want the sims to figure out for themselves where to walk, and who wants that?


And for your information it was this comment: You can build thousands of house-layouts in the game, pretending to copy the real-life ones, on which you exclaim "Wow!" - but thet are not comfortable to the sims. Period.


That ticked me off the most, so if you're now pissed off, you can just stuff it.

Inspecting the house before you move Sims in is a good bit of advice.  There's a house I use at one of the universities, that has  2 bedrooms upstairs, and a kitchen/common room and a lounge area downstairs.  I don't like that there is a door to the lounge, I prefer an archway, and I constantly forget to change it out, until I realize the door is stuck open, and it never closes. 

I never knew about the light in front of the door, thats good to keep in mind as well.

I took this design from an actual plan. I think it's on a 2x3 lot. It's not big, but I find it very spacious and easy to navigate. My sims don't seem to have any problem moving through it. I hardly ever build on any lot bigger than 3x3.
(http://www.vjdevelopment.com/images/FloorPlan1.jpg)
(http://www.vjdevelopment.com/images/Colonial.jpg)

What a lovely house!

MistyBlue, that's a great design. Where did you get all the plants?

"And for your information it was this comment: You can build thousands of house-layouts in the game, pretending to copy the real-life ones, on which you exclaim "Wow!" - but thet are not comfortable to the sims. Period.


That ticked me off the most, so if you're now pissed off, you can just stuff it." [Percephone]

If you are that stupid, not to understand that I offerred functionality, and not artistic design - I have no further comments.

Goodbye.

What a beautiful little house. I want to know where you found the lovely flowers too. So pretty.

Misty, do you have that house available for download somewhere? It is lovely.

Plants are from 4ESF in set 5, I think. That house will be available on my site VJ Development (http://www.vjdevelopment.com) as soon as I finish the design...I'm lacking creativity right now.  :)

Misty, I love your house!  I want, I want!

Gali, that wasn't necessary.  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

I was talking about your so called functionaly, which is quite bad advice, and about the side issue that it is a hideous eyesore.  You have no business telling people that its impossible to design a house that sims will "like" by "pretending to follow" a real design.  Your post was very snooty, narrow minded and why I think it belonged in retardoland in the first place.  Your completely wrong about many of the points you made about design, which is what needs to be pointed out here.  By the way, the "handclapping" you brag of has nothing to do with functionality anyway.  Sims evaluate any new purchase and they clap if its value is in keeping with things they already have.  I placed a cheap toilet and torn up couch in the middle of any empty lot... guess what ? My sim clapped because she was used to having nothing at all. 

It IS gorgeous.  I just love pretty houses built on small lots... I'd love to download it if you put it up somewhere!

MistyBlue, your house is lovely, particularly the decoration and landscaping.  My poor Sims have been known to live in boxes with no landscaping, and decor that looks like a yard sale  :D  I'm getting better, though, by looking at wonderful stuff like yours.  Some of my Sims actually have trees and curtains now, and area rugs  ;D

I suppose that would be my best advice for anyone wanting to improve their building and/or decorating -- look at things other people have done, and when/if you admire their work, try to pick out the aspects you admire and incorporate them into what you do.  And I see nothing wrong with looking at floorplans of real houses and recreating them for your Sims, as long as you take Simmie quirks into consideration (like 1-tile hallways are a no-no, unless you enjoy traffic jams.  Having an extra exit door from bathrooms can also be helpful -- learned that with TS1 community lots in Old Town.  Anyone remember getting trapped in the bathroom by the saxophone player?  :D  )

It's not bad, but the bathroom facilities are both oversized and woefully inadequate: You could get better efficiency partitioning the bathroom into two bathrooms, doubling your capacity. Furthermore, your kitchen is open to the front door, making it impossible to defend from raiders, meaning you will be mercilessly raided by any visitors that you happen to invite over.

Finally, it seems devoid of adequate skilling facilities, meaning your kids grow up mentally retarded.

I hadn't noticed that part.  Good point.  Gotta find room for at least an easel and a chess table  ;)  I think I see a bookcase in the bedroom -- kind of far from chairs, yes?  See, that's where I always get into trouble.  My decor always suffers because I'm always trying to make sure they have all the skilling stuff.  (Plus I have no sense of color or style -- definitely doesn't help).

My sweetie makes wonderful houses -- he seems to manage it all and still make it beautiful -- but he's a builder and a storyteller, not really a player, and uses motherlode without qualms.  Me, I make my Sims work for it, so I can't use his houses.

I have a limtied sense of style and color myself, but I can spot dysfunctionality and inefficiency like a hawk. While all of my houses differ, there's certain architectural elements that are practically constants, invariant under all circumstances, and among those include the rule that the KITCHEN MUST ALWAYS BE ENCLOSED FOR LOCKING. Otherwise, the raiders will litter your house in trash and damage themselves in the process, a bad thing if they are your playables! That's basically a golden rule right there. No one touches the kitchen.

Well, the chess table can be an outdoor one, or you could have the cheap telescope, and put that outside too.  There are tiny bookcases around that sit on desks and look like a pile of books - try bedroom 9 at 4ESF2 for a nice one - and it your sims can afford it, they gain creativity faster with the Karaoke machine than by painting.  You could stick that in the garage and put the car in the driveway!  As for body skills, unless your TV is fairly isolated from other furniture (even a newspaper on the floor) your sims won't use it, so maybe a cheap TV (try one of Numenor's) out in the garden on the lawn would help there?

That house has a huge yard and there are skilling objects, like a chess table and easle outside. I play to some reality and NEVER allow my sim children to skill on things they would not know in the real world. Logic, creativity, and body is pretty much all my sim children get from me...maybe a cooking point or two. But that is how I play, you can decorate it any way you'd like. In most of my houses I do include a cut off yard, but this was meant to be a beautiful no yard style. My point in showing this is that ultimately, it's just a box...but I made it look good.  :D

Oh, and having my sims grow up devoid of skills is not a bad thing, if everyone was able to go to college and live a perfect life, where would the challenge and fun be??

One more thing I forgot to mention...This is the model home. I decorate the model one to take good pictures.

Well, I like it, MistyBlue!  I love the clever use of limited space - which is what good design is all about!  I love taking those trailer homes and lofts in Pleasantville apart and making them work and look good, and it's a lot harder than improving a big house!  And funnily enough, sometimes you give sims a little more room in their lounge and they hate it!  sometimes even sims seem to like to be cosy!

(http://themot.org/gallery/d/2542-1/lmaoData.jpg)

I don't think it is a good idea to use real house plans for the sims. It can be useful for a kind of artistic inspiration, but the needs of sims and the needs of real people are very different, especially when you consider the difficulties that sims have in moving around. I have used some real house plans, but I think a lot of gali's principles are sound, even if I don't play with them as much anymore. In TS1 I used to, I think I just stopped because TS2 became a lot more realistic, and it was both more fun building and much easier to just move them into a pre-made house.

Depends on the pre-made house, though!  I've never had a Maxis house or a ownloaded one for that matter that I didn't feel the need to remodel.  Now, if I build a house, save a copy to a file, play the house and modify it until it works for me and my sims, then install the saved house with clean installer to a vanilla hood, I can make a clean update of the house with the changes I've made to make it more workable.  Then, if I want, I can use that house as often as I like to create a housing estate type of look to a neighbourhood, I can make subtle changes to that house to make a slightly more upmarket estate, and so on.  But what I use is a design that works in MY game, and that isn't to say it will always work well in someone else's.

For those of you that were interested in my house, you can download it from my site. Just click the link in my sig. The site isn't fully functional yet, but you can get that house by clicking the pic on the main page. You will need to register, but it's free...

I tried to register, but three times I got a "Couldn't execute query"

Sorry about that. It's fixed now.