EAxis House of Fail: July

[msalwaysright]

I like the island-only seating in the kitchen, and I love that the top floor is a fun kids' area. I'll probably just take out the bed up there and plonk down the activity table. Very nice!

That bedroom could probably be eliminated to enlarge the playroom, but then where will the sacrificial spawn tending Sim sleep? Oh yeah, they can just pass out in the floor like usual.

[Zazazu]

They can sleep in their own bed upstairs. Dumb babies can cry all they want to; as long as the social worker doesn't show, no harm done. I usually have my parents take turns tending the spawn, and I have a very hands-off approach.

[leaths]

Ok, I was almost intimidated out of the competition this month. Next month I'll stay out of the thread until I get mine done. Still, I like the way it turned out for the most part. I decided to turn it into a vacation cabin for my Three Lakes hood. There are 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, but no nursery, since I'm not going to use it as a regular home. Price is $103,664 (non-wanded).

Besides adding on a couple of rooms and building a gazebo, my main change was moving the entrance to the side of the house. It's not really awesome spec--the kitchen is lockable and there's a front fence, but the stairs aren't lockable unless you add walls or a gate.

Front view


Side of lot with new entrance


Rear view


Entry way with the stupid pool


First floor


Second floor


Link to more pics

Download here.


Edited to fix a bum link and to add that I'm running off of FreeTime. I've got a couple of SPs, but I think the only thing I used was a rug from TSS.

[witch]

I like the stairs either side of the entrance pool, very effective! Very natural theming for decorations too.

[leaths]

Thanks, witch. I actually decorated and furnished the entire downstairs and was moving upwards when I realized that I had neglected to put in either a downstairs bath or the stairs. That would've earned me a place in the building hall of shame, I'm sure.

[witch]

Ooops! 

[Yecats]

This has been a very annoying build process as my game insisted on crashing every 30 mins.

Has anyone else had issues with 'jumping' during the build?  It seems to happen whenever I try to move furniture or build a wall.

[msalwaysright]

The cabin theme makes that accursed pond really work & the gazebo's a nice touch.

[jolenedms]

I love lurking and watching y'all remodel the eaxis houses. All of the rebuilds are wonderfull and I've already picked up more than a few    However I do have a question for everyone. How do you go from a great idea to the real thing?? I always have this great house plan in my head and it turns into a box with windows when I'm done. LOL  Does anyone else ever suffer from the wonderful horrible disease of thinking inside the box??

[witch]

I don't know about anyone else, but I try to design real houses. I try to make it so bedrooms are private and so are bathrooms. I think about how far it is from kitchen to table. For instance, I usually have the kitchen sink under a window so sims can look out.  I try to balance an interesting outside with windows in useful spots inside. I generally have a colour theme and also a decorating theme. I look at routing for sims and try to give them lots of options.

My houses never look as good in reality as they look inside my head, we'd really need curves for that. However, I have a lot of fun making them. Practice helps, you get to know what doesn't work.

[Roux]

To fight the box madness, I often start off with a box, and then knock out walls to extend or bring them in a little. For example, instead of using the OFB bay window I'll make one with walls and windows, add a stage, and decorate. Or add room(s) extending behind or in front. Entryways vary: sometimes they're in the middle, sometimes they're off-center, sometimes they're on the end. I try to make hallways that are not just straight lines, though that works in a narrow home. If all the bedrooms start looking like they're the same shape and size, I fiddle around until there are differences.

Honestly, though, most of the stuff I've picked up has been from studying others' work. I download houses and see if what they did is playable. If so, then I might try it next time I'm building or remodeling. If not, I might try to incorporate the idea, but change it to fit my play style. I also study the color schemes. Last month I remarked on witch's use of a colorful roof, so this month I tried one. Do I think it looks great on my house? Meh... but I tried, and by the time I realized I wouldn't get it to work, I wasn't about to start over.

In short, my advice is simply to look at what others are doing, experiment, and take your time. A lot of players aren't into building, though. No shame in that. And honestly? Sims like boxes. The boxier, the better.

[vecki]

I download a lot of floor plans, because I have no imagination.  But I suck at using the building tools so I never get it 'right'.

[leaths]

I look up floor plans online or sometimes get a book of them from a library and try and recreate the houses. I also do a lot of what witch said. (I almost always have a window in front of a kitchen sink, too.) Real life floor plans don't always translate into playability, though, so I have to do some tweaking to make sure that there are no routing issues. As far as decorating goes, if you're not using cc, the collection folders are your friends, at least for ideas of what can go together in a particular theme.

Also, as sucky as the exchange is, there are some good building tutorials on there. RealPollyMogs (I think that's right) has some good ones.

[Zazazu]

I kind of zone out when I build, and I'm not really quite sure what I'm doing until I "step back" at the end and then tweak things. It's the same as when I do my random artwork.

Every once in awhile, if I'm not feeling it but I need a new house, I'll glance at houseplans and get enough of an idea to start. And I do tend to do things after the zone-out period to try to create a general look for the neighborhood. There's still some differences...I don't have any pics handy at the moment of my last three builds, but throughout my current 'hood you can see trends in design...most of the community lots are boxy and modern yet plain (I want them that way for now because they'll all be improved after then next generation when all the land is used up). These last two homes I built for a set of twins both have distinctive diagonal sections. They were built the same weekend. And my new townhouse-type lots I built last weekend are extremely similar as they are both a modern-colonial mix, but each has features that are mirrored by earlier houses and features that are exclusive to them. The windowed sunroom-thingy is a common feature that's in the second house pictured, a house about a block away, and a house two blocks away.

And, of course, I do a lot of custom recolors of items. My community lot businesses have custom recolored signage based on this mesh (example). One on-lot has a sign that's done on this wall stencil mesh I use a lot. And all homes have the same doorbell and my custom house numbering system (nameplate with streetname and number above it).

[Yecats]

I finished!  yay!

Two houses for you all to p&l over.

House 1:

Kept the shape of the house, added decks around, added a lounge where the deck off the side was and added a sauna. 



The pool is fenced off - Guests can go through to the diving-board side of the pool, but can't get around to the stairs.  The fountain and foliage seem to make no real difference in the pools functionality.
Kitchen is lockable, and stairs are also.  I playtested it before I furnished it to make sure that it all worked, so the doors/gates in the download ARE locked for family only (kitchen and stair-side gate).
Sauna and outdoor area can be used by anyone.



Top floor. Spawn and Child share a bathroom.  Everyone else has their own.  The two childrens rooms open onto a deck, the master bedroom opens onto a deck and the two 'teen' rooms also share a deck.

Middle area has been decorated for 'art and craft'. 

More pictures!


My test family (the Ottomas) playing HORSE.


Front of the house at night.


Nana relaxes and watches some TV in the lounge.


Potty-training the Sprog.


Download: http://www.4shared.com/file/55754101/6760d188/Yecats_Harmonius_Family_Haven.html

Somewhere around $160,000.  Nothing custom, All EP's, no SP's.
I had major issues with this house because the game kept crashing.  Grr.


HOUSE 2!

This house was a lot more... co-operative.



Front of the house.  Fence extends right the way around the front till it hits the pond.  There is a gate at the path and a gate at the driveway.
Trees are the fruit trees from seasons.



Back of the house.  The little shed is the gym - contains a treadmill, an exercise machine and a ballet barre with mirrors and stereo.  I think I might have left the lights out of this one.
Rock pool from BV.



Ground floor.  Kitchen/dining extend around the pool.  Pool IS still usable.  Fence with gates prevents guests using stairs/kitchen.  Study/living room are seperated by a wall, but retain their flow.



Top Floor.  3 double bedrooms, and I think the kids room might fit a bed too.
Double cribs for multi-sprogging.  Shared bathroom with 2 toilet stalls, shower, bath and two sinks.  Internal area of the top floor can be used for skilling objects or craft stuff as per my last house. 

DOWNLOAD: http://www.4shared.com/file/55754096/29049555/Harmonious_Haven.html

House is $157K.  No CC.  All EP's but no SP's.

Not play-tested, so please tell me if there are any bugs.

Cheers.

[witch]

I like the first one the best. I particularly like the orderly, logical way you've laid out the upstairs. Your kitchen and dining areas are light and bright and have lots of windows.

I reckon you'd have to be good at basketball though, I think I'd end up chucking it in the drink all the time. 

[hippi]

Edited to add new version

Added another floor, moved master bedroom upstairs, 2nd floor now has a guest/child's room with en suite and an exercise room, some skilling objects on 2nd floor outdoor area.  Kitchen can now be locked down, island has been removed and replaced with table and chairs, bar is still accessable to guests even if kitchen is locked.

Stairs on 2nd floor can also be locked but guests will still be able to access 3rd floor via outdoor stairs.(realised this afterwards) However access to indoors can be stopped by locking outside doors so they can still use the hot tub etc without wandering through private areas.

V2


Download HERE

More piccies HERE


V1
Thought I'd give this a go, I think I've only ever entered one other house challenge so it's not amazing but I quite like it.  The house is very modern and simple, I was going to try to do an awesomespec house but failed at the first hurdle because I like open plan    All Ex packs and Stuff packs installed, furniture is just to give ideas, there probably aren't enough windows in some areas but it didn't look right with EAxis crap so I omitted them.

Lower floor has open plan pool, bar, dining and kitchen area, loo and shower room and small study.

Upper floor has tv area, kidlets room with en suite, master bedroom with en suite, balconies and access to roof.  The tv area could be moved downstairs with a bit of shuffling and extra rooms added upstairs, stairs could be blocked off to stop invasions, same goes for kitchen area.

Front of house
 

More pics HERE

Can be downloaded HERE

Also I just saw Hecs house, mine is definitely non-awesome

[Emma]

Hippi, I love the style!

[leaths]

I like it too. It's too bad that it looks like it has a lot of Pets stuff in it, because it will only be a shadow of its former self in my game. Hopefully I can get it to look similar.

[Tingeling]

@hippi:
I love the design, especially the kitchen island. How did you do that?

[Annan]

@hippi:
I love the design, especially the kitchen island. How did you do that?

The island counters do that automagically.

[witch]

My sims won't clear island counters unless they can reach both sides of it, which is a pain. Do they clear the counters when they're in a square like that?

[hippi]

@ Witch, probably not, it's not been play tested because I'm having issues with lighting at the minute, I think Scriptorium screwed up my lighting even though I 'know' I told it not to install whatshisfaces lighting system because I hate the transitions between day and night.  Now I'm getting sucky transitions at dusk which make everything look ridiculously red or so dark that  I can't see what's going on.  I've already reinstalled FT but that hasn't fixed it so I'm playing EAxis only and just building some houses until the new ex pack comes out and then I shall reinstall everything and start afresh.

If I was playing with CC I'd probably block off the kitchen and maybe the stairs with Cyclonesues glass block walls and fences, also I'd add more windows from Windkeepers matching set.

I'm also thinking of adding a third story and moving the bedrooms, that way the second floor can be used as a hobby/skills area. 

Edit: Added a new version to my original post.

[Zazazu]

My sims won't clear island counters unless they can reach both sides of it, which is a pain. Do they clear the counters when they're in a square like that?

Negatory. I had a square island setup back in Monopoly (actually, it was a C with wall on the fourth side, but same thing) and no one could clear.

[eevilcat]

I finally managed to finish and playtest mine to the point where I'm happy to share. I extended the house at the front and round the back/left. It's got load of leisure goodies so works well as a home ticket machine business. Upstairs there is an en-suite master bedroom, children's bedroom and nursery. There's also space to place career rewards, or at least those worth having. Links to other pics in the description - I didn't want to embed too many as there are still few dial-up users on MATY. I have all EPs, GLS, FFS and H&M.

Front


Back


Left side view, Right side view 

Ground Floor:


Leisure facilities including basketball, kitchen, lounge with TV area and one desk.

Upper Floor:


Stairs lead up to open plan landing with recreation area opening onto sun lounger balcony. En-suite master bedroom, children's bedroom & nursery.


On Rapidshare this time due to problems for FurryFox users last time: http://rapidshare.com/files/131394317/Re-Harmonised_Haven.Sims2Pack.html