More Awesome Than You!

I'm just curious as to what the preferences are when you are house shopping for your Sims on the internet.  If you have more preferences that aren't listed like hack free, medium sized lots, etc. please feel free to comment.

It depends on the house, whether I want it furnished or not.

If it's furnished, I want CC.  I don't want to download a house full of Maxis furniture - I could do that myself.

No custom terrains. I'm so tired of downloading stuff that has 20 custom terrain files tagging along.

I chose unfurnished, because I like to decorate them myself. A few custom created contents is fine for me, just as long as it isn't overdone. I don't like a lot too large to where there is a lot of "empty spots" in the yard...other than that, that's it. That's my input.  :)

Hack-free and custom object free. I hate when I get a bunch of stuff I didn't download myself. I preferr unfurnished and medium sized lots. I hate huge palaces that don't have a live-in-me feel.

I prefer the houses I download to be mostly unfurnished. I like when the builder adds a couple of objects in each room so I have an idea of the layout, but otherwise I like them empty. I remove any and all CC that comes with a house because I find that I either have it already or I wouldn't want it. If it's something that I would really like to have, I find out where it came from and download it directly from the creator. I rename and organize all of my downloads and with the way CC is named in TS2, I don't have the patience or time to sort through hundreds of files that are all start with 0923fkjhd09whjfsdfjhd0we0w9.

Oh yes, I remember some stuff now. I also hate custom terrains, and don't install them anyway.  They cause too many problems in my game.

And I like a nicely landscaped yard as well, even if it's on regular Maxis grass.

I like them furnished.  That way I know where stuff is supposed to go.  I also like to see other's people's take on interior decorating, because I'm pretty bad at it.  (I did not get that gay gene.)  But I don't care if it's furnished cheap.  That's actually preferable because my sims are never rich.

I also tend to look for starter homes and prefer 1 or 2 stories.  Too many floors and I get sick of going up and down levels.  That's probably because I usually play with a full household.

edit: I also don't like a lot of custom content like floors and walls.  I get easily confused by too many choices.  Simple Maxis items are fine with me.  I use the Sim2PackClean installer to get the lot without the custom content anyways, so if it's there, and I like the house, it's not a big deal.

Playable is my main criteria. A lot must be playable, whether it is beautiful or not, if it's not easy to play I don't bother. The exception of course are the lots I download for scenery only, like Stonehenge.

I don't download custom terrains because of the corrupt nature of terrains.

Mainly I make lots for upload as I don't find many I like for download.

I perfer my houses unfurnished. It isn't that I don't like to download custom content with houses (usually, I get some good stuff from it. Anything else, I delete), I just don't trust people when it comes to placing items, especially gardens. I've had major problems with tending to gardens in 90% of the houses that I downloaded. The gardener complains that they can't water them, or a bush can't be trimmed because someone put it in a place where it can't be reached. Usually, I just delete everything and redo the gardens. (A major pet peeve is when someone uses flooring for "dirt" and moves the flowers onto them using moveobjects. Um... you CAN'T SEE under the flowers anyway, so it is moot point, and what is wrong with using the dirt terrain paint?)

Speaking of moveobjects abuse... I also don't trust people's interior decorating either. They either put the object in a place where it cannot be used, or just fill space with decoration crap and make it seemed 'cramped.' I don't mind some decoration crap, but a ton of it is just too much.

I prefer a medium sized house that is at least partially furnished. I too, like to see how others decorate. I tend to change it, but it's fun to get an idea of some else's tastes.

I don't care for crazy terrain, flat is fine with me. Easier for the gardner.

I normally prefer to build my own but sometimes I get lazy and look for houses to download.  I look for something unusual, though not weird.  Usually, I remodel and redecorate them so I don't really care if they are furnished or not.

Thanks everyone.  I really appreciate your input.  I'm in building mode with all of the new tools and options in NL. I haven't been inspired in a while, so I'm actually having fun building. I never upload terrains because I know they cause problems. I usually upload unfurnished lots because that seems to be the preference but really have a hard time doing it because I love decorating and think that even if all of my decor is deleted they may use the same layout or get the general idea of what I was going for, but another benefit to unfurnished is that they are very small files.

Small and medium lots do not seem like the most popular downloads but I like building on them because as cool as the huge lots can be I hate having a huge beautiful lot that's not any fun to play because it lags my PC.  

Trey I tend to stick to ranch style homes for playing as well as I hate sending them up and down stairs and flipping between the levels when I am trying to see what my silly Sims are up too.  I love a good ranch style home with a great floor plan.  But I usually build two story homes for uploads.  (They just tend to be not so blah.)

I am a horrible landscaper.  My yards tend to be pretty average.  Every now and then I get a cool idea, but the gardeners get on my nerves and I always forget to water the flowers and end up with dead dirt.  So I stick to trees, potted plants, ponds and pools for outdoor decoration.

Blue, question about custom terrains.  I didn't know about the terrains causing crashes when deleted like most simmers until after I had used a few.  If I manually go house to house and cover the custom terrains with Maxi's terrains, will that make it so that I can delete the custom stuff without making my lots unplayable?

Anywho, thanks again everyone.  Sorry to get so wordy, it's late, I have a huge headache and I think I'm getting delirious.  So without further ado. I'm going to ditch for the night before I end up nominated in RL.

Good night.  ;)

I generally like them furnished, particularly for starter houses. Most times I will change or move some things, but I at least like having a base to work off of and knowing the essentials are budgeted out already before I move someone in.

Playable, obviously, is important. I've been suprised how many people make houses they don't play. Just because something looks nice doesn't mean you sims won't go nuts and complain like hell about not being able to reach certain things. And in this respect, Maxis is often just as guilty as users (try hiring the gardener in the Smith house in Strangetown  >:( ).

I don't really see any reasons to ever intentionally include hacks, but some custom content is okay. I don't mind walls and floors and recolors if tasteful. I'm wary of custom objects though because a lot of them can have crazy high poly counts. As mentioned, the terrains are also a problem due to a Maxis bug, which hopefully will be fixed at some point *crosses fingers*

I also generally do not use money cheats and thus will very rarely download any houses over 100k no matter how nice they look because I just probably won't ever get to use them. For the families that have over that much, they tend to be well established and I'm more or less happy where they are would rather expand than move, so I usually only download low to mid range houses.

Since Nightlife, another important factor for me is that the house either have a driveway or enough space on the left side to put a driveway in.

I notice this too and I really don't understand this. Besides the slowness that you noted, I just don't see the point in them. If you don't money cheat, you'll probably never have a need for them. I prefer to upgrade as I go. However, most starter houses are too small for upgrading a whole heck of a lot (although you'd be suprised just how much I've managed to fit on some small lots) and I generally have to move those sims from a starter to a mid range with room for expansion. Starters are always welcome too, particularly furnished ones so I can move in new somes into unique houses and not have to worry.

I prefer a fully furnished and decorated house with no custom content.  And no families living in them.  And unless it's a special showcase house I'd prefer that the creator has actually played the house enough to test everything.  I don't mind the use of cheats while building as long as everything is playable and works.

Hook

I don't think I've ever left a house 'as is.'  I always change something.  I've downloaded some houses that had rooms with no doors and other strange things.  Maxis houses are the worst.  The first thing I do after starting over is remodel all the houses in all the neighborhoods.  (I know, kind of weird but I enjoy it.)  I'd like to meet whoever designs the housed for them, they are so bad.  I try to keep the same outside walls but move all the inside ones to make them livable.

I don't think so, mythchick.  Once it's on the lot (even when you manually remove the terrain) it seems to "stick there," for lack of a better word. After I removed the terrain from the Downloads folder, I was never able to fix it with the 2 lots I tried to upload, and I tried it three different ways, probably about 10 different times.

And I tried to package the lot to a file too, and that didn't work either.

I seem to end up with immense buildings often, partly because I experiment with different building techniques - like the internal spiral stairs with levels on either side at different heights etc. You'd be amazed at how much room a bit of innovation will take up. My PC doesn't seem to lag on large lots so I forget that others might not be able to play them. A new lot I haven't uploaded yet is a split level home in the retroville style inspired by the stuff released on MTS2. All black and white and grey, except for a touch of colour in each room. Probably end up huge even though I try to keep the filesize reasonable.

I usually play all my lots before uploading, I also include a lot of custom stuff in the way of wallpapers and floors, but like Motoki I'm wary of custom objects because of the possibbility of high polygon counts.

I like building, so I tend not to download lots unless someone I know asks for feedback or I'm playing a challenge.

If I'm playing rather than testing, I don't even put sims in my own lots. I prefer to start on an empty lot and build the house round the family while I'm playing. That way the sims get something that suits them, the house improves as I play, and it's an extra challenge to make incremental changes without going broke or having the sims live on a building site.

If someone disabled all my building tools, I'd pick lots with only maxis content, preferably unfurnished, with no view obstructions, no scrolling required (except up and down), flat terrain and no landscaping. The inside is more important than the outside, since the outside is going to be invisible when playing.

The sort of lot I'd be looking for would get culled. :)

I like to have a few furnishings - just enough to give you an idea what each room is supposed to be - other than that, you generally end up changing it to suit your own taste anyway...

I prefer houses that are compact - I like to pick on spot on the screen and just sit there, only going up and down levels, not zooming madly all over the place trying to figure out what's happening and going completely sea sick!

unfortunately, the type of house I like is nothing like the type of house I can build - they all end up being huge monstrosties that your average sim family would rattle around in!  But, I have at least progressed beyond the shoe box stage!

Ness

I enjoy building houses around sims as they gain money, some of the houses I've uploaded are just that. :)
I might try my hand at a few starters for a challenge next, many people have mentioned they prefer them, not just here.

I like a full house - nothing worse than a home scarcely decorated.  It's great to get decorating ideas from others.  If they've done a good job decorating, I won't touch a thing, but I've downloaded a couple of homes where they actually put the T.V.'s in the bedrooms, which I thought was the worst place in the world to put a T.V. - no livingroom, just plopped a T.V. up against a wall in the bedroom and added some furniture.  Things like that I change.  I also go through and add the good toilets too. :D

Oh, and yes, I hate custrom terrains also.

Starter houses, please!  I like to download rather than build, at the moment, because I'm more interested in playing my Sims than digging basements.

I have 6 starters that I downloaded from Sandy at AroundtheSims that are a lifesaver.  They are gorgeous, very playable,  furnished with no EP Maxis items, and still under 20K.  I'm always looking for nice starters.

With rare exception, I don't download anything over $40K.  My Sims just don't have that much money.

My favorite type of house to download is a well-designed one story.   I like to add a whole second story myself, when my families expand and have $$.  Adding and expanding rooms, rather than adding a whole story, is really a pain and I find the end result (in my hands) is less playable and kinda sorta ugly.

I played a 3 story house for a couple of Sim days and had the family move out.  I have enough trouble managing Sims on 2 floors!   :P

No custom content like floors and walls or hacks and furnished only with stuff that comes with the game and it's expansion packs! Unoccupied and under 20k  ;D But other than that-I'm not fussy! :P

I don't download lots or houses whatsoever. Everything in my game is custom-made by me. Uh. Everything but the University grounds. I was new to the game when I made the new 'hood so I just played along with the existing SSU.

I like to download lots with basements, split-levels, spiral staircases and all the other stuff that I am too incompetent (and lazy) to do myself. And I vote unfurnished. I have never downloaded a furnished/decorated lot that I haven't immeadiately altered.

I've never downloaded any houses because I don't know where to find decent ones.  The Sims Exchange is like the BBS, it's so full of noise that browsing through endless chaff to find anything worthwhile just doesn't seem worth the effort.

I selected "unfurnished," but on the other hand I think things like kitchen countertops, stoves, and the like make sense to include.  And lights, let's not forget lights.  I think a reasonable rule is to include anything you'd expect to find in a house that you just purchased in real life.  So you don't include beds, but you do include toilets.

 - Gus

I have a couple of unfurnished & semi-furnished homes along with the monster ones. Variousimmers.net has been down for hours but you could search under 'bolshywitch' on the sims2.ea.com if you like.

My PC is at the lower end of the specs, so I'm looking for something I can play comfortably.  I mainly download things on small lots as the PC copes better, my sims don't have to spend hours getting from A to B and I don't lose track of what the others are doing while I deal with 1 sim.

I don't want any hacks included when I download, but custom content is fine.  However, the house has got to be affordable by my sims.  I don't use money cheats and my established sims don't move because of the portraits career objects etc etc, so the only houses I'm actually going to play are starter homes and maybe a few second homes.  I downloaded a nice looking house from somewhere the other day - the price turned out to be 431,000$ - none of my sims are that rich or likely to be that rich!

I think there's a niche for small playable shops.  The maxis community lots are not very playable -everything is a long way to walk and my PC couldn't cope with them at all before I bought a graphics card. 

I also like a set of themed lots to give the neighbourhood some coherent style.  more tudor lots for veronaville - some of the maxis starter lots have badly place stairs for example. I made some small lots on a theme with water and willows along the back of each lot so you could put them next to each other and get a fake river on the neighbourhood map.  I'm sure one of you clever people could do a lot more with that idea and I'd love to know how it works in NL when you can see next door from your house.  This pic was taken a while back, the neigbourhood has grown since then!(http://)  I put them on TSR as I have downloaded so much free stuff from there, it seemed like a fair payback.  they also check lots for hacks which I like.  I'm cwykes there if you want to see individual  lots - PMs and comments welcome!

[attachment deleted by admin]

I perfer smaller to medium houses with out those freaking terrain paints!
I seriously ended up with over 100 of those freaking things at one point.... Took forever to be rid of them.
Custom content is cool I don't mind objects wall papers floors and what not though I end up moving the stuff in to the right floders with the clean installer so I have just skins ect in my downloads folder.
As for hacks I prefer to choose my own thank you. With my luck I'd end up with hacks that conflict with the ones I allready have.

I Hate that most people seem to focus on creation mansions of extreeme splender.
My computer can handle it but my sims end up wondering all over the place and my game ends up being played with an added mini game of pause and hunt the sims as I realize someones wondered  off.

I'd agree from a realistic point of view, however, my new sims DEPEND on those "buy toilet," "buy shower," and "buy refridgerator," wants at the beginning for a nice start on a money tree :)

I tend to only download houses that have significant terrain changes.  I can make houses that are simple but the more spectacular ones like 'mike inside' with mountain paths and underground houses are things that are harder to do and I will get them to see how they are done.  I have never had a problem with terrain paints and have a high end machine so the lag is rarely there.  Some furniture like toilets and counters is ok but generally I will delete the furniture and redecorate the interior. Most of what I build I don't upload due to the size of the lots-I make recreations of historical places and they tend to be quite large.  Right now I am working on a New York Asylum called "house on the hill" and even without wallpaper and decorations it is well over the 100,000 mark, and so huge that most would not be able to play it.  I will get the ones from others along these same lines, like that beautiful mosque on mts2 which has custom content such as roofing peices so custom content really depends on what it is.  My rule is if its simple enough for me to build in a hour or so than I dont download it.

I mainly build my own homes.  I'm a history buff, and so I love building period homes (and then converting a bedroom to a bathroom, LOL, I don't make them use outhouses, though I did with TS1).  But I like downloading community lots.  My favorites are the ones that look like little old towns, rows of brick two and three story buildings with little shops and resturaunts. 

I don't like downloading houses with custom terrains and with any hacks and stuff because I like to see what I'm getting.  It's okay if it has custom wallpapers, floors, and building objects, if I can see them and I like them.  :)  I just downloaded a store from the BBS that had a wallpaper section.  I couldn't see that in the pictures and it wasn't mentioned in the description (just housewares).  So, all these blocks of Wallpaper were not noticable.  And they are hideous, and they are priced at $999, so they really aren't even usable!!  I had to take them out of my game. 

Definately the same sentiments here. I like small to medium houses, with little to no custom content, and furnished.
I haven't got a creative bone in me, and furnishing/building houses is always a chore.

Call me Polly Paranoia; no downloads allowed; I build my own houses.

Probably the result of being warned as a child not to take candy from strangers.

First and most important thing:  Three bedrooms and two baths.  I like making all of my couple have two kids, a boy and a girl.  (although this has backfired quite a few times with the second pregnancy ending up as twins...   >:()

Second:  Small to medium.  Two floors or less.  Something that won't make my 384 megs of RAM cry.  (I will be upgrading this.  Most likely around Christmas)

Third:  Reasonably priced.  Some of these sims won't ever see $100k.  Though I am at the point where I've memorized most of the right answers to most of the chance cards...

Forth:  I like some furnishings as a way to tell me what the room is supposed to be used for.  I swear, some of these Maxis pre-mades says it has three bedrooms, but for the life of me I can't find the damn third bedroom.

Lately I've been going through the exchange looking for houses with driveways.  But they're few and far in between.  I'd love to find something with a two car garage, but it looks like I'll have to build one for myself.

Speaking of building myself.  My mom recently went to a Jim Walter Homes dealership and brought back a large stack of floor plans.  (They sell pre-manufactured homes that they build on site, so they kinda are real houses...I guess.  Kinda hard to explain)  Although converting some of these measurements on the diagrams to the squares in the game is proving difficult at times.  Some of the decks have angled stairs.  And you can't attach a garage to a house with a foundation, unless there's some boolprop cheat I'm missing.

The more bathrooms the better! At least three. Always.

Unfurnished, even of lights, because people are always putting in light fixtures that clash with the wallpaper. NO.

And yes, big enough bedrooms for double beds. What are people thinking when they make these teeny-tiny bedrooms? I like big airy rooms in general anyway.

And for the love of god, no weirdly placed shrubs that the gardener can't get to. I swear every single house I download ends up having those. Before the no route fail hack, I used to go looney listening to the gardener scream all day.

speaking of cars with double garages...  here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=250928&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=lot&key=lily+island+grande&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=5&game_version=&custCont=&zoneType=-1&lotSize=&lotLevel=&lotValue=&familyFund=&familyWorth=&familySize=&locality=&country=&view=new) is one that a friend made for me.

sparsely furnished, enough to give you the idea of what each room is, what is there may not be to your taste, but I liked it pretty much as is...  all because I grumbled about not having space for a third car, so she built me a house with space for 4!

there's a couple that I've done, but I'm nowhere near the standard of this one!

Ness

Generally speaking I only download wild feats of building imagination, enormous castles, crazy building techniques, specialty buildings like a clipper ship or some really cool looking cathedral. I never play these lots and I usually just plunk them down some place safe, figure out how they were built and then bulldoze/delete them, then try to build something better from the technique I just discovered.

Building is ultimately really the only reason why sims continues to keep my interest. I procreate my sims simply so I can build a new house and see how it plays.

I'm assuming you're talking about a second home?  I've never been able to manage more than 2 bedrooms and generally only 1 bath with $20K.  Since I've taken to using the "No 20K Handouts" mod, early budgets are often even more restrictive.

 - Gus

What do you consider a "big bedroom?"  My standard bedroom is 4x5.  That's big enough for a double bed and a dresser.  Larger always seems like a waste of space, since you don't want to do anything like put a TV in a room where a Sim might be sleeping.

Not to mention the jealousy problems that arise if a Romance sim gets caught in bed with the wrong person because someone wandered in to do something with an object in the room.

 - Gus

I agree, but building has gotten so mechanical for me now that I'm considering downloading lots to play.  I have a lot of standard solutions to most rooms like bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and dining rooms.  I feel like the houses I build are all starting to look the same.

 - Gus

I use my (real) neighborhood for inspiration. I love architecture and I am always craning my neck while driving some place to take a quick collection of how some new or interesting house is built. When I run out of ideas I go searching for victorian houseplans, I have built some really neat (imo) 1800's victorian houses that I liked playing with.

However I have a habit (read addiction) of breaking things so I tend to delete my sim neighborhoods often and start over.


I also wanted to add that I often find some kickass inspiration from this site as well
http://www.webalice.it/mikebur50/index.html

Big enough for a double bed and sometimes a napping couch/lounge chair and a bookshelf. Sometimes some plants or a fountain. I'm big on bedroom fountains. I don't have dressers, ever. They're always blocking my view.

I've seen 2x4's that could hold a single bed. The End. It's workable for a kid, but it's so...claustrophobic. I'd rather have a big room that can hold 4 or more single beds and make everybody share it.

I usually have about a zillion sims to a house, so I like lots of empty walking-around space so they aren't crashing into each other and having actions dropping out of their queue.

Ditto re looking round my own n'hood for inspiration. :) I also read the real estate flyers, sometimes there are houseplans, or get real house plans off the net. Haven't found a decent castle one yet for the vamp family I will have.

Actually there is a boolprop you can use.  I found a tutorial attaching a garage to a house with a foundation that is very well written and photographed and easy to follow by SimSherry2.  She also includes how to build an arched carport as well.  And you can download the house she used for the tutorial (it has 3 or 4 wall recolors and the green glass tile she uses for the carport), if you wish.  I found I didn't need it though because the tutorial was so well designed.

http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=53552&asset_type=story&user_id=370

I found this a really interesting discussion; I didn't think I was a very good builder, until I downloaded houses. It's mainly because I have dowloaded houses that I thought looked good, and they are hardly ever playable. The rooms are too stupid, or there are missing doors, or other odd things.
I tend to put families I play a lot into houses I have built because I have a good idea of what design features work for playability. I like lots of bathrooms, too. I also spent some time learning how to make a basement because basements are fabulous for  those unsightly reward objects that you don't want all over the deck and the lawn.

I must say I am shocked by the poll results.  I've always assumed that most preferred unfurnished houses but in fact 35% want furnished and 40% do not care as long as the house is well designed.

I really appreciate everyone's input on this.  It confirmed some things I suspected and taught me things I didn't know.

I found this interesting too, this has also given me a new direction, I didn't realise so many people had trouble with the big lots. I'm going to create a sims2 folder with just the Maxis defaults and try my hand at starter homes. That fits more the way I play anyway.

Yeah.  This is usually the second home.  Three bedroom/2 bath is near impossible with only 20k unless you sacrifice things like paint, window, lights, flooring, and roof.  Which I've had to do in some extreme cases.  That family of 5 in the family bin in Veronaville who only have 20k was a pain in the arse to get started.  I finally broke down and used J.M.'s moneyorder to have Consort send them about 30k.

First, to answer the question....I rarely download lots because I like building. Furnished or unfurnished is ok. No huge lots. I love it when someone comes up with an innovative design that's low or moderately priced since I don't use money cheats. No terrain paint. My biggest pet peeve is when someone uploads something to the exchange with custom content from a pay site and/or haven't credited the creators of shared content.

I hadn't built anything for upload in a while, but this thread inspired me. This is just an FYI. If you like something, tell me in my guestbook so as not to clog the thread. And if you don't like something, keep your damn opinion to yourself!  :P I just uploaded a couple of starter homes, one with a driveway and one with an attached garage. Also, several small community lots, a Bistro, Boutique with coffee shop, Bowling alley, and gameroom with a small restaurant. Oh yeah, the bowling alley has a diner. I have a hard time playing anything designed by Maxis and I hate sprawling lots.

I limit myself to Maxis-only content when I build for upload, so if it ain't the prettiest decorating around, don't blame me! Heh. Also, I have a separate 'building' folder, so no hacks are coming along for the ride. All lots guaranteed to be nothing especially fancy, but nice enough, and very playable.

http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/mysimpage.php?user_id=1132625

I would like to add one thing that I look for before I download a house.  I always look at the creator uploaded photos. Better quality, larger photos and collages really float my boat.  It's the difference of having someone tell you about the new 2006 Mustang GT and test driving it.  I want to see footprints, close ups of main room anything eye catching that highlights the design.

Rarely will I download anything based on the Maxi's picture alone.  You have to admit they aren't that flattering.

I had a few more thoughts:
1. the starter house should be expandable as the family grows and earns money.  Plan where a staircase will go if you build a bungalow so you don't have to change the whole floorplan when you want to put another floor on top.
2. for a starter home 1 bedroom is enough with room for a double and 1 or 2 singles.  No point having 2 small rooms with low room scores instead of 1 with a reasonable score. 
3. a starter family can manage with 1 bathroom, but a 2nd bathroom is always the first thing you have to add.  If you only have 1 bathroom, don't put a sink in it, just shower and loo.  Neat sims can wash their hands in the kitchen sink and vacate the bathroom!
4.  I like a garden that can be used as a room -  You can put the dining set on an outside patio plus easels, gym equipment bookcase and chair.  I usually put the baby and toddler stuff outside too. Ponds with lilies work for me as they don't need gardeners.  I wouldn't download a lot with nothing in the garden.  sims go through the garden on the way to work, so it needs to have a good room score.
5. A big cheap kitchen is a waste of space and money in a starter home.  I always put the expensive fridge and one expensive counter in a starter home to improve the food and forget the cooker - they can't use it without any cooking points and it's asking for trouble when they don't have many.!

It's almost not worth me saying anything because I'm just echoing everyone else, but yes - I also prefer small houses.

Although I have a decent computer now, I remain paranoid about large lots. When I got TS1 my PC was four times over the recommended stats, but by the time I had all the EPs on it, it was barely making the minimum stats (and in practice, I couldn't run Superstar At All - Studio Town was unplayably slow). Laptops are difficult to upgrade, and I can't guarantee to have a spare £1000 for a new one when TS2's EPs require it. So, even though I could run huge sprawling lots right now, I keep my houses fairly compact.

Also, I hate the slow navigation time of large houses. Sim routing being what it is, they sometimes take the strangest paths to get from one place to another. I think it is unrealistic to have sims take a whole sim hour to get from their kitchen to the carpool. So my houses have lots of doors between rooms, and paths 2 squares wide for sims to find.

I don't like to use money cheats except in cases of extreme need (like if a sim would otherwise die of starvation). So I like houses that are affordable. Too often sites have amazing houses available for download that cost in excess of $100k. How many sim families can afford something like that? On top of that, sites add to the cheating by cloning e.g. the most expensive fridges and pricing them at $50. With TS1, I actually spent a lot of time with the Transmogrifier re-making downloaded objects with realistic prices for my game ::).

I won't download anything that costs more than $50k fully-furnished (which means, in practise, I pretty much never download houses). If the house is supposed to be a starter home, it should have at least the basic furnishings needed to live for a few days included within the $20k, or it should be unfurnished and priced at around $14-15k. I like small houses that are laid out in a fashion so they can easily be extended later, with an extra room on the side or a bit of internal rearrangement to make an extra bathroom. It surprises me how many sim builders insist on making two or three-storey houses, even as starter homes. I often start with bungalows with space to add a staircase and second floor later.

I know this was a big thing with TS1, but I find room size to not play any signifigant factor on environment score in TS2. In fact, the headmaster almost always scores little bathrooms highest and likes them best of all the rooms I show him, including large nice well lit ones with expensive furniture and artwork. Go figure.


I agree. For my poor sims just starting out, I don't mess with bathroom sinks. In fact, I'd say for a second bathroom if the budget is really tight, even just a toilet is fine. My parents' house and the house of friends of mine both have a toilet only bathroom downstairs with the main bathroom upstairs. Toilets are by far the more important of the 2 as they have to use them more often and guests will also need to use them.

I also personally prefer the shower or tub to be divided by a wall or off in a separate room altogether as from a functional point of view it makes more sense for sims so that they aren't prevented from using the toilet when someone is showering or vice versa. As long as the shower isn't more than 10 squares from the toilet, Bathroom Uses You should still be able to detect it if someone is using that hack. This isn't something that I would not download a lot for mind you, it's easy enough to rearrange, it's just sort of my functional sim philosophy on building. ;)

I don't mind more expensive homes.  Some of the best fun I had in Sims 1 was getting a family enough money to buy the expensive house on the hill.

Besides, money's ridiculously easy to make, especially with Uni.  And now that we can take career rewards with us (in the inventory) there's no reason not to start in a small starter home and trade up when funds are available.  And all this is without cheating if you prefer to play that way, which I do.

But all in all, I enjoy building sometimes and it's great fun to make a Sim house from house plans or based on a real house.  After playing for a while, you get to know, just looking at a house plan, what will work well and what won't.  I suspect the real houses will be the same way, as the houses I've built from real life have had the same problems the real house had.

Hook

I don't download many homes, but I do prefer the smaller ones.
The first thing I do is remove all floors and wallpaper and furniture, replacing it with my own choices. I suppose my ideal would be one story, no foundation, affordable without cheats and nothing in it, but a lot of pictures of the place decorated and lived in so I can see where things should go.
It needs to have at least one unobstructed view in, preferably 2 or more. I only use the Holy Smoke stairs inside and always place my fridge near the back or side so it's not in my way. I prefer my kitchen large enough for a table and also separate toilet/shower for improved efficiency.

I like inexpensive houses with cheap furniture because I play with Pescado's No20kHandout mod.  I need small to medium, relatively inexpensive houses for my financially challenged graduates, with 2 or 3 bedrooms - or room to expand later - and preferably a foundation and/or a second bathroom.  (If they're really broke, they get the smallest lot with a 3x2 bathroom and live on the lawn until they can afford a real house).

I like houses to be decorated, even if only cheap paint and floor coverings, as I suck at interior decoration.

I play TS2U (not getting NL until Pescado's fixed it) with Pecado's Director's Cut.  I want houses that work well with these hacks - so I'm not into pretty diagonal doors that make my game go ugly, or bathrooms too close to each other that won't work well with BathroomUsesYou.

I don't want to download a house with hacks.  I'm choosy about which hacks I allow into my game (after a bad experience where I downloaded the alienware computer with a house) I'd prefer it if builders made their houses hack-free and let me decide what hacks I want in my game.  Similar situation with custom walls & floors - I'm sick of files in my download directory with names that are alphanumeric garbage.

I hate building houses.  If anyone knows a free site where I can find houses that fit my criteria, please let me know.

BTW, Cwykes, I have your Willow Walk series already.  As my sim families expand, I find the houses are easy to expand by adding an upstairs ... they're the kind of houses I look for.

I used to prefer to build my own, but they always turned into a wreck once I started adding on rooms and such. Now I much prefer to download other people's lots because they have the talent that I'm lacking. I also like to see how creative people can get in the design of the house and with the furnishings.

-J

Edit: I forgot.. I also prefer small-medium houses because they are much easier to navigate and keep track of everyone in them.

Don't get me wrong, I love building houses, but I much rather have them built for me.

When downloading homes, I mostly look at some of the featured ones because featured lots, generally are the cream of the crop offered on the Exchange. If none of the recently featured lots interest me, I search the exchange for what I'm looking for.

A few things I avoid are:

• houses with the (http://thesims2.ea.com/images/exchange/icon_warning.gif) sign.
- not because I don't like custom objects and meshes, but because you can NEVER be sure what you're getting from the exchange. The lot could possibly have a hack that I do not want in my game.

• Enormous lots
my game simply can't render a 453 story mansion.

• Lots with a lot of terrain paints
not only does it make the lot look horrible, I hate sifting through the enormity that is my terrain paints catelouge.

I like the smaller houses for my sims.  I'm talking about a 2x2 lot or a 2x3 lot.  my computer handles those lots much better than the larger lots.  I like one story houses best, but will play a two story house or one with a basement if it suits my needs.  I don't use any money cheats, so my sims have to start out with starter homes for under $20K.  I will not download anything that uses any custom content at all.  I did originally when I got the game, but as it began to run slower and slower, I culled everything out.  while I admire the houses and the skill involved in building the houses that Maxis picks to feature, they are not for my game.  now I play my game with JM's hacks only. 

I don't really have a preference on if the house is furnished or not.  I do like to see how others decorate, but willl furnish it myself if it is inexpensive enough to allow for it.  I've downloaded many houses off the exchange, but more recently have built my own.  if I see something that I like and fits my plan, then I'll download.  I use the clean installer even then to make absolute sure that nothing gets through as many of the houses on the exchange still have stuff within the package even without the warning sign. 

re: Diagonal Doors

Supposedly this is fixed with NL and once you install NL it should no longer cause any problems. I actually had an old pre-uni house with one and never noticed any issues or even realized there was a problem until I saw others post about it. The maid always cleaned that room and it did have 2 other regular door entrances so I assume she just went through those. *shrug*

re: Featured Lots on the Exchange

Personally, I find them generally to be either huge and overly bloated or very nice to look at but horrendously unplayable. I feel like they choose the featured lots based on flashy looks over any sort of playability and I have yet to ever see anything remotely close to a starter house as a featured lot. Of course I don't check every day either.

re: The triangle symbol on the Exchange denoting custom content

I'm of two minds about that symbol. On one hand, I'm kind of glad they did it, but on the other I feel like it unfairly slaps a label on lots with any custom content, even benign Maxis custom content like the room divider or garden shrubs, to an already paranoid userbase and implies there is always something wrong or dangerous with custom content which isn't the case. Walls, foors and object recolors are pretty harmless, and anyway as long as you are installing your lots with Sims2pack Clean Installer, which everyone really should be doing, you can always browse through what is packed up in the lot and choose what you want and what you don't, even right down to unselecting all the custom content and just loading the lot itself.

For objects, if you don't have one the lot uses the game will default it to another existing object of the same type. So if I load a lot that had the alienware computer in it without loading the alienware computer package then the computer will default to become the Little Sister computer instead. Disabling the custom content and just uploading a lot itself may make some of the stuff look odd and not quite match, but it will still be furnished.

I don't like huge big houses because they are just impatritical, they take forever for the sims to get from A to B, and they lag my computer.

That's good to know. I wondered what would happen but I rarely download lots & haven't experimented.

For those who are interested, I've made three starter unfurnished homes (under 20K) on small lots and will make probably another 3-4 over the weekend. You will be able to download them from variousimmers under 'witch' in the next few days - I just have to take some photos and upload them. New experience for me these small lots, I keep thinking, 'oh, french doors and a patio would look nice there' and having to stop because it would cost too much.  :-\

The homes I made are just like real life, cooker, sink and benches in the kitchen, shower and toilet, lights, wallpaper and carpet but no curtains or furnishings.

There are half a dozen starter houses on this site that look reasonable and are under 20K.

http://www.laurel-designs.us/eng/index.html (http://www.laurel-designs.us/eng/index.html)

i love the homes people build, i've downloaded a few ones too, but haven't had the guts to install them..it's been like..almost a year they've cluttered in my computer..

what i look for in a house is bathrooms. haha! yes, lots of bathrooms! can't stand them shooing each other away when one needs to go potty and the other needs to have a bubble bath.

i like an unfurnished house. like gethane, i thrive on boosting their aspiration while going shopping!

ooh thanks cywkes! never really occurred to me to build a small community lot. i'll build one today! with shops and pools and hottubs all in one place! thanks!

I'm glad you like them...  :)  you made my day!  do you know what they look like in NL - does the river idea work?
I've been thinking about that no20k hack as well....

NB - I recommend you only put one checkout till in the lot, so the number of NPCs is down to 1 and more sims can visit the lot. I also recommend a chess table!

A few more things...

- I tend to download houses on small or medium lots, since I find that it is enough space for me. I dislike huge houses myself, since I find myself at a loss to figure out what to put in each of the extra bedrooms. Depending on how many people are living in the house, I'd perfer 2-4 bedrooms. Usually my families are around 2-5 members each, so room isn't much of a problem... but I'd like one of the bedrooms to be some place where I place things such as canvases, pianos, career objects, all that crap. 2 bathrooms are usually enough for me.
- I like houses with unusual and creative designs. That is why I don't tend to download starter homes, since they tend to plain. I can easily make myself a plain home. The only Maxis-made house I liked was that Modern Artistic home... I forgot the name, but it came standard with TS2. That college house with the pool is also wonderful: I placed it in my regular neighborhood.
- I don't like bumpy or rugged terrain. The flatter, the better. This is mostly because the more rugged the terrain, the more slower it is for me.

haha! thanks for the suggestion! i'll surely have a great fun later! cuz i love building, yes i do!

OK. I have uploaded seven starter homes to variousimmers this evening. No hacks, no custom content, room for a driveway on every one. I used the 4-5 smallest lots available with NL and I was amazed thet most of them packed up to less than 0.5Mb each. All are under 20k.

I missed my custom walls and floors dreadfully but tried to get a theme going with crystals and their corresponding colours. I also tried to make every house different but also expandable. I loved how quick they were to build. I could knock out about one an hour.

Anyway, here's the link, let me know what you think. :)
Starter homes - the crystal series (http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=2593)

Yesh!!!!

Starter homess!!!!!

*does a happy dance*  ;D

thanks - I've downloaded one and will try it out.  I don't have uni or NL, so the wallcoverings will probably be subsituted and the shower disappear.  It will actually fit in my willows neighbourhood I think  :).  How about a matching community shop (food and clothes)?  - small size for extra playability... :)  pretty please?

I'll have a think about a community lot, don't usually do them. It'll be at variousimmers if I do, so check back there. :)

Witch!

Thank you SO much!

I am desperate for some nice starter houses, and these are so nice. 

I might not play them for a few weeks as I'm not planning on adding new Sims or running more through Uni until after I install NL (and I'm being patient for patches before I do that)...but I'll get a lot of use out of these.

Thanks!!

Very nice, Witch. I also have numerous starters on my Sim Page. All Maxis-only content as well. That gets hard sometimes! Some are pre-NL, but the newest ones were all designed for NL. I managed to do one, fully furnished, on a foundation with attached garage. Go me! LOL. All the houses are under 20K and furnished. Unfurnished, they run about the same price ranges as Witch's do.

I have a handful of pre-Nightlife starter houses, in both furnished and unfurnished flavors. Not great, but I've played them, and they get the job done for a CAS nuclear family.

Wow! These houses are SO nice!
Pity that I don't have internet connected to my pc at the moment.
I may have to download them onto my mp3 player and transfer them.